U2 Secured vs 1Password
1Password has no free tier — a 14-day trial, then a subscription, full stop. U2 Secured gives you a genuinely free plan with no card required, ever, and when you do need a team plan, Basic is $60/yr for up to 5 users against 1Password Families at $71.88/yr for 5.
That's the shape of this whole comparison: a free entry point versus none, and a cheaper 5-person team plan. What follows is sourced directly from 1Password's own pricing page and dated.
Who U2 Secured suits
Built for a reader who wants to use a password manager before paying for one, and a team that wants the lower of the two five-person prices.
- Anyone who wants to actually use a password manager before paying for one — free, indefinitely, no trial clock and no card.
- A team of up to 5 people who wants the lower price: $60/yr against 1Password Families' $71.88/yr.
- Anyone who'd rather get TOTP free in a separate app than pay for it bundled in from day one.
What each plan actually includes
1Password figures below are read from 1password.com/pricing/personal, not the bare /pricing page, which renders no numbers at all.
Two products, not one
Competitors sell both factors in one vault. U2 Secured sells them as two products, deliberately kept apart, because a password and its second factor in one store are not two factors.
1Password includes TOTP on every paid tier — every 1Password user is already paying, so TOTP being 'included' costs nothing extra to sell, because there is no free tier for it to be excluded from.
U2 Secured keeps TOTP out of the vault entirely, in the free U2 Secured Authenticator app, on every tier including free — no subscription required at all to get codes. Its own Premium ($14.99/yr) gates encrypted backup, device moves and web portal access, never the codes themselves.
If you were always going to pay for a password manager anyway, 1Password's one-subscription convenience is a real advantage. If you would rather not pay anything just to get TOTP, U2 Secured's split gets you there for free.
Where 1Password is ahead
Stated once, factually.
- Polish and ecosystem. 1Password's apps, browser support and third-party integrations are the product of many more years of development than U2 Secured has had.
- A single account, 1 person, is cheaper on 1Password ($47.88/yr) than a full U2 Secured Basic block ($60/yr for up to 5 users) — U2 Secured's per-block pricing is built around covering several people, not one.
- 1Password has a long operating history and an established audit trail that a new product has not accumulated yet.
Choose U2 Secured if
- You want a genuinely free tier, not a time-boxed trial, before ever entering a card.
- You're covering up to 5 people and want $60/yr rather than $71.88/yr for that.
- You'd rather get TOTP for free in a separate app than pay for it bundled from day one.
What 1Password optimises for
- A single account at $47.88/yr, cheaper than a full 5-user U2 Secured block that isn't needed.
- The most polished, most integrated option, for buyers already committed to paying for a password manager.
- A long track record and broad ecosystem, for those who weight that above free-tier access or TOTP separation.
Said out loud, not left for you to discover
- Passwords and TOTP with U2 Secured are two products, not one subscription — the vault and the free U2 Secured Authenticator app.
- A single person on Basic still pays for a full 5-user block: $60/yr for up to 5 users, whether one seat is used or five — so a solo user is genuinely cheaper on 1Password Individual.
- No group folders on free (max_groups = 0) — group-based folder access needs Basic or Premium.
- U2 Secured is a new product with no published third-party security audit yet. 1Password has a long operating history and an established one.
Questions people actually ask
- Does U2 Secured store two-factor (TOTP) codes?
- Yes — free and unlimited, in the separate U2 Secured Authenticator app, never in the password vault. 1Password includes TOTP too, but only ever as part of a paid subscription — it has no free tier for TOTP or anything else to be excluded from.
- Does 1Password have a free plan?
- No. 1Password offers a 14-day trial and then requires a paid subscription. U2 Secured has a genuinely free tier — 500 items, 1 user — that does not expire.
- Is U2 Secured cheaper than 1Password?
- For 5 people, yes: U2 Secured Basic is $60/yr for up to 5 users versus 1Password Families at $71.88/yr. For a single person, no: 1Password Individual is $47.88/yr, cheaper than a full U2 Secured block, because U2 Secured's pricing is built around 5-user blocks rather than a per-single-seat price.
- Is 1Password more polished than U2 Secured?
- In terms of ecosystem and years of development, yes — 1Password has been building apps and integrations far longer than U2 Secured has existed. This page does not claim otherwise.
Sources for the 1Password side
Every 1Password figure above was read from 1password.com/pricing/personal on the date shown — not the bare /pricing page, which renders no figures at all. If 1Password's prices have changed since, its own page is the authority and this comparison is out of date.
- 1Password — Personal Pricing · read 2026-09-23
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