Tim Bray shares his family's experience evaluating password managers after being forced off 1Password 7 due to broken sync. He compares 1Password and Bitwarden across security posture, usability, and business concerns. Bitwarden gets a slight security edge due to its open-source nature and self-hosting option, while 1Password wins on polish and user experience. Both use VC funding and subscription models with good data portability. The post also covers threat models including government compulsion and vendor incompetence, and advocates for writing down a master password on paper as an emergency recovery measure. The family is currently leaning toward 1Password despite its cloud-only storage requirement.
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