1Password and LastPass are two of the most popular password managers available on the current market in 2024. With a password manager, you can safely store your passwords safely and create strong passwords for all of your online accounts.
We’ve compared these two password storage solutions below so that you can purchase the best one for your needs. Read on to learn more about LastPass and 1Password and choose the best service for your needs.
If you’re trusting a password manager to store all of your passwords in one place, then you need to ensure that it employs the highest security standards to protect your sensitive data.
1Password doesn’t cut any corners when it comes to security features. The service secures your passwords in its app using AES-256 bit encryption and uses a host of other excellent security features to ensure that no third parties are privy to your passwords.
Firstly, to access your vault and your encrypted logins, you need to know your master password, which is not stored with your other passwords. Only you know your master password, and 1Password won’t share this with third parties.
1Password uses Secure Remote Password (SRP) to authenticate user login credentials without sending them via the internet. Instead, SRP sends your passwords to the secure 1Password server, meaning that your data is more secure and not as likely to be intercepted by bad clients online.
To stop hackers from trying to guess your secure passwords, there is also brute force protection with PBKDF2. This stops hackers from entering many different password combinations to try and correctly guess the right one.
Another great feature is the Secret Key. This is a unique code that only you have access to and which isn’t stored anywhere on the company’s server. You can only access the 1Password apps with your Secret Key and Master Password, and so anyone attempting a brute force attack on your account would need your Secret Key – which is unlikely as it is not stored by 1Password. However, the Secret Key is stored on the 1Password apps you use, meaning you don’t need to re-enter it at every log-in.
Like 1Password, LastPass employs a lot of excellent security features to ensure that your passwords remain safe and secure in the LastPass vault. The vault employs 256-bit AES encryption and is decrypted and encrypted each time you log in on a particular device.
When using LastPass to enter credentials into online accounts automatically, your passwords will remain secure from on-path attacks. This is because Transport Layer Security is shrouding your login details, making it harder for hackers to find out your passwords.
To secure your account and ensure that no third parties can get into your vault, you can enable multi-factor authentication (also known as two-factor authentication). You can use the LastPass authenticator app to do this and enter a special code, use fingerprint authentication, or via your email address. Two-factor authentication is something we recommend on every account, and it’s great to see a password management system offering it.
If you lose access to your account, you can rely on LastPass’s account recovery options, including fingerprint authentication or using a one-time password to reset your account and gain access to create a new password.
It’s worth mentioning that LastPass has a zero-knowledge security policy, meaning it doesn’t access or misuse your personal data, credentials, or files. Simply put, anything you store in your LastPass password vault will only be accessible to you.
The winner: Overall, it is an extremely hard one to call. Both password managers offer excellent security features, so we’d say that it is a draw in this area.
Since LastPass and 1Password are password managers, they offer many additional features to enhance your online security when it comes to logging in to accounts and keeping credentials safe. Let’s explore these below:
The 1Password app is full of great features, and you can access your personal or business vault all in the same app. When it comes to ease of use, 1Password excels.
In the vault itself, you can store many different items under several categories. From passwords to logins, notes, credit card details, bank account information, passport and driver’s license credentials, and more. There isn’t much that you can’t store in the 1Password vault.
You can install 1Password to your browsers so that you can easily save autofill passwords every time you try to log in to an account. This saves you time from accessing the 1Password vault every time you want to find a password.
Speaking of passwords, 1Password offers a password generator to create extremely strong passwords. You can even customize these passwords so that they don’t contain numbers or symbols depending on whether the platform you’re using accepts these characters.
In the 1Password app, there is also the Watchtower. This excellent feature keeps you safe by alerting you if any of your passwords are vulnerable or weak or whether any of the websites you’ve saved are compromised or unsecured. It also lets you know if any of your items (such as passports or credit cards) are about to expire, which is great news for forgetful people who may need a reminder.
A final feature, which isn’t accessible via the app and requires you to sign in to your 1Password account on the website, is Travel Mode. Enabling Travel Mode removes vaults from your devices when you travel to ensure that no one gets their hands on your sensitive data.
LastPass has many similar features to 1Password. First of all, it offers a password generator, and this feature allows you to create ‘easy to say’ and ‘easy to read’ passwords without numbers and other special characters. However, this doesn’t mean that these passwords are weak; all of the passwords that LastPass generates are strong, offering extra security to your account.
With LastPass, you can store your various online account credentials in its password vault, which you can access using the master password you’ll create. Here you can store your banking, email, social media, and even streaming service logins. You can also store wi-fi passwords, passports, and driving license details. LastPass allows users to import all of their existing passwords or manually add them.
Thanks to its autofill feature, once you have all of your existing passwords added into the vault, LastPass can help you quickly access your accounts. If you download one of its many browser extensions, you can quickly log in to your many accounts by using this feature without needing to remember all your individual credentials.
One of the best things about LastPass is the digital wallet which makes online shopping easier than ever before. By storing your various credit card details in the digital wallet, you can enter all your card details with one tap and finalize payments quickly.
Finally, on the password manager vault, users can access the security dashboard. The security dashboard gives users an overall security score of their passwords’ strength. As well as this, it lets users know if their accounts or email address has been involved in a security breach. There is also the option to enable dark web monitoring, to ensure you are immediately alerted if your credentials are found floating around the dark web.
The winner: It’s another tie in terms of features. 1Password and LastPass both offer excellent yet similar additional features to users.
An integral aspect of any password manager that deserves its own dedicated section is emergency access options. What happens if you get locked out of your account or need someone else to access your encrypted password vault? Here’s what both Lastpass and 1Password offer in case that scenario occurs.
When you sign up for a 1Password account, you’ll create a master password and be given a secret key. This important information, along with other details, will be stored in your emergency kit. You can download the kit in a PDF file and store it digitally on your cloud storage whilst also printing out a hard copy.
If you, for some reason, forget your master password, you’ll be able to refer to the emergency kit. Moreover, if something happens to you, then your loved ones will be able to use the information in the emergency kit to access your 1Password vault and get access to all your accounts.
LastPass offers an emergency access feature that differs slightly from 1Password’s. You can set up emergency access in the password manager. You can add an emergency contact to your password manager client’s ‘People I Trust’ area. The person you add must have a LastPass account.
When setting up emergency access, you’ll need to set a waiting period, in which whoever requests access to your account has to wait to get access. If, during this time, you reject their request, they will be unable to access your account. This ensures that no one can misuse the feature.
The winner: In this case, we think LastPass offers a more secure option. Although it is useful that 1Password enables users to download a PDF file, this could end up in the hands of anybody if not stored in a safe place. By being able to handpick a trusted contact to take care of your account, you can rest assured that not just anybody will have access to your passwords with LastPass.
Cost is usually a deciding factor for many people. So how do LastPass and 1Password compare in this area?
1Password has several subscription plans:
There is also the option to create a customizable enterprise account and scale this up based on the size of your company.
LastPass also offers some great-priced subscription plans.
The winner: Overall, we’d argue that LastPass has a slight edge over 1Password and is the winner. Its premium plan is only a cent more expensive than 1Password’s per month, and its family plan is cheaper. Moreover, it offers a free version which 1Password does not. The free version is great news for users who can’t afford to buy the premium plan but want some form of protection for their passwords.
A free trial period is a great way to test whether or not a product is right for you. Fortunately, both 1Password and LastPass offer new users a free trial.
With 1Password, you can enjoy a 14-day free trial. This gives users time to test out how the service works on various operating systems and get to grips with the various dedicated apps on offer. 1Password will also send you reminder emails that your trial period is ending so that you can choose to cancel it if you so wish.
LastPass offers a 30-day free trial which provides users with an entire month to test out the browser extensions and desktop apps and try out features such as password sharing. However, the free trial period is cut in half to 14 days for the business plans.
It’s worth mentioning that if you decide to use the free version of LastPass, then you’ll automatically enjoy a 30-day free trial of LastPass premium.
The winner: In terms of giving users a free trial period, LastPass is the obvious winner. Not only does it offer a long free trial, but users of the free version can try out LastPass premium for free for 30 days.
Nowadays, almost all of us own multiple devices. Therefore, it makes sense that the cybersecurity software we purchase is compatible with all of the devices that we use. Let’s see which password manager is the best regarding device compatibility.
With 1Password, you can download Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and Chrome OS apps. There is also the option to install 1Password to your device using the command-line tool.
As well as offering mobile and desktop apps for multiple devices, there is a dedicated browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Brave.
LastPass also dedicated desktop and mobile apps for several operating systems. You can use LastPass on Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome, iOS, and Android. There are also browser extensions for almost all browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and even Internet Explorer.
The winner: While both providers offer great desktop and mobile apps, LastPass offers greater variety regarding its browser extension options for many operating systems. With more browser extensions available, it is better for users who use a less popular browser like Edge.
Something users should always examine when choosing password managers is customer service on offer. Since password managers handle your most sensitive data, it makes sense that there is good customer support on offer.
With 1Password, there is 24/7 email support but no live chat on the website. While the email support is good, it is disappointing that if a user has an issue, it can’t quickly connect to a support representative on 1Password’s website.
In the business plan, you can get VIP support. However, without testing the business plan, all we can gather is that this is dedicated 24/7 business support without knowing exactly what this entails.
With LastPass, you get basic customer support when using its free version. On the LastPass premium and family plans, this gets boosted to personal support. There is self-guided support with the Teams plan, but business plan users can utilize a customer success manager to assist them with any issues that arise.
We deduce that all customers must get in touch with LastPass via email, but the level of response time and assistance varies depending on your plan. While there isn’t a live chat option on the LastPass website, an AI LastPass assistance can answer basic questions; we find this extremely helpful.
The winner: LastPass or 1Password – which is the best in terms of customer support? In our view, LastPass outperforms 1Password since it offers tiers of support based on your subscription plan and even offers a helpful chatbot feature on its website.
So, which password manager is the overall winner – LastPass or 1Password? Although both password managers are great and offer similar features such as multi-factor authentication, apps, and browser extensions for many devices and browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Windows, Android, and iOS, there is a clear winner: LastPass.
LastPass only just wins since 1Password provides an excellent service. However, LastPass offers a free version of its service. Moreover, it comes with a 30-day free trial for its personal and family plans and is cheaper on its family plan. We also like some of its security services more than 1Password’s.
However, that isn’t to say 1Password isn’t a great service; it offers a good user-friendly app and secures your data with advanced encryption. Moreover, its prices are extremely competitive, especially regarding password managers.
Hi, I'm Madeleine. I'm a British writer with a global background, currently based in the UK.
I have always been interested in the online world and how it connects people worldwide. My keen interest in the internet led me to ...
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