September 9, 2026
Key Takeaways
- 1Password is a strong password manager with developer secrets added on top, not the other way around.
- Akeyless governs workforce passwords, secrets, certificates, and privileged access under one policy model, with Password Manager 2.0 as the workforce-facing layer of that same platform.
- Machine identities already make up more than 90% of all identities in many enterprises, and a password manager with a bolted-on secrets API has no unified answer for governing them.
- Akeyless natively imports from 1Password, LastPass, Bitwarden, Dashlane, and Keeper for a phased, zero-downtime migration.
- The right choice depends on scope: a team whose only need is human logins may not need more than 1Password. A team governing machine and AI agent access needs a platform built for that from the start.
Quick Answer: Is There a Good 1Password Alternative for Teams That Need More Than a Password Manager?
Akeyless is the alternative built for that gap. 1Password secures human logins with a secrets API added on top; Akeyless governs workforce passwords, machine credentials, and AI agent access under one policy model, with a dedicated password manager (Password Manager 2.0, GA May 2026) as one layer of that platform rather than a separate product.
- Migrate from 1Password with native CSV import and a phased, zero-downtime cutover.
- Govern passwords, secrets, and certificates under the same RBAC and audit model.
- Extend that same governance to AI agents through Runtime Authority, something 1Password’s agentic autofill doesn’t do.
Quick Facts
| Category | Data Point |
| 1Password Business pricing | $8.99 per user per month, billed annually |
| Akeyless Password Manager 2.0 | GA May 4, 2026; FIPS 140-3 validated (NIST CMVP Certificate #5227) |
| Migration path | 1Password, LastPass, Bitwarden, Dashlane, Keeper, Google Password Manager, and Apple Passwords all export straight into the browser extension via CSV, and for larger rollouts, Automatic Migration keeps a live copy of the original vault updated while the cutover happens in stages |
| Machine identity scale | Machine identities already make up more than 90% of all identities in many enterprises |
Most teams already run 1Password for logins, and it works well for that job. The question is what happens next: once the same organization needs to govern machine credentials and AI agent access too, does a password manager with a secrets API bolted on cover that, or does it need a platform built for it from the start.
Akeyless answers that question directly, and it’s worth being precise about what makes it a genuine 1Password alternative rather than a like-for-like swap. Its Password Manager 2.0, generally available since May 2026, is the workforce-facing layer of the same platform that already governs secrets, certificates, and privileged access for machine and AI agent identities. The comparison isn’t which vault has the nicer interface. It’s whether one governance model can cover a password, a database credential, and an AI agent’s access under the same policy, or whether that takes three separate tools with three separate audit trails.
The rest of this piece compares both directly: what 1Password does well, where it stops, and what changes when workforce passwords sit on the same platform as everything else.
What Does 1Password Do Well?
1Password built a genuinely good password manager and layered developer secrets on top of it: service accounts, op run to inject secrets into a process, and CI/CD integrations for GitHub Actions and Terraform, without asking the team to learn a second tool. The CLI is polished, the Connect server gives self-hosted access when needed, and biometric unlock makes day-to-day use painless.
Where 1Password Reaches Its Limits
1Password’s secrets layer is still a retrofit. There’s no environment-level RBAC, no way to scope a credential to staging instead of production, because the data model is vault items, not environments. There’s no unified governance model spanning human and machine credentials either: passwords live in one policy framework, secrets automation in another.
Pricing is a separate problem. 1Password Business runs $8.99 per user per month, billed annually, and that cost scales against the org exactly when it’s growing fastest.
The AI agent story is limited in the same way. 1Password’s Security for AI covers agentic autofill, helping an agent authenticate safely. It doesn’t govern what the agent does once it’s authenticated, which is exactly where a 1Password alternative built for machine and AI identity earns its keep.
Akeyless vs. 1Password: Core Differences at a Glance
| Category | 1Password | Akeyless |
| Workforce password management | Mature, consumer-grade UX extended to business | Password Manager 2.0 (GA May 2026), governed by the same RBAC/ABAC as the rest of the platform |
| Machine and service credentials | Service accounts, Connect server | Dynamic, short-lived credentials via SecretlessAI, no standing secret |
| AI agent security | Agentic autofill (secures how an agent authenticates) | Runtime Authority (governs what an agent does, kill switch) |
| Audit model | Item and vault-level activity log, 365-day retention, Events API for SIEM | Item-level audit unified with secrets, certificate, and PAM activity, streamed to SIEM in real time |
| Pricing | $8.99/user/month (Business), scales per seat | Free tier: 3 users, 50 passwords; enterprise pricing quote-based |
Is a Password Manager the Same as an Identity Security Platform?
A password manager that added a secrets API is not the same as a platform built to govern human, machine, and AI agent identity under one policy model. Akeyless makes this distinction explicitly in its own Password Manager 2.0 announcement: the category as a whole grew up serving individual users first, with enterprise features layered on after the fact. The result is a familiar pattern: a polished browser extension on the front end. The governance gaps usually surface later, during a compliance review.
Akeyless started from the platform, not the vault. Passwords, secrets, certificates, and privileged access all run through the same RBAC and ABAC policy engine and the same audit stream. All of it sits on the same Distributed Fragments Cryptography that keeps even Akeyless from reading customer plaintext.
| Akeyless Password Manager 2.0 is FIPS 140-3 validated (NIST CMVP Certificate #5227), the same cryptographic module standard that governs the rest of the Akeyless platform. |
How Akeyless Approaches Human, Machine, and AI Agent Identity
The Challenge
Tool sprawl is the default state for most security programs. Secrets sit in one vendor, PAM in another, certificates somewhere else, and password management off to the side, each with its own audit stream, its own RBAC model, and its own renewal cycle.
The Approach
Password Manager 2.0 closes that gap by becoming the workforce-facing layer of the same platform that already runs SecretlessAI and Runtime Authority. Every password, secret, and privileged session authenticates through the same identity provider. Each one gets governed by the same RBAC and ABAC rules, and generates audit events that stream to the same SIEM in real time.
The Outcome
The result is one policy model, one audit trail, and one vendor relationship across passwords, secrets, certificates, and privileged access. It replaces four separate tools that each needed their own security review.
How Enterprises Put This to Work
Platform-wide consolidation and password-specific proof are two different claims. It’s worth keeping them separate rather than stretching one to cover the other.
Cimpress
Conor Mancone, Principal Application Security Engineer at Cimpress, proves the secrets side of this:
“We set Akeyless up 9 months ago and we haven’t had to worry about credential rotation… it just works.”
It’s platform consolidation discipline, not a password-manager migration story specifically.
Progress
Progress reports the same discipline at a different scale. Richard Barretto, Chief Information Security Officer & VP, Progress:
“Akeyless is true SaaS that allows you to scale. It’s purpose-built to live in the cloud. We saved 70% of our maintenance and provisioning time with Akeyless.”
How Long Does Migrating off 1Password Actually Take?
For most mid-market teams, connecting the identity provider takes one to three days, and rolling the browser extension out through MDM takes another one to five. Both tools stay live side by side while that happens, so nobody loses access mid-switch. CSV import handles the initial pull from 1Password, LastPass, Bitwarden, Dashlane, or Keeper.
Larger organizations tend to use Automatic Migration instead: it mirrors the source vault continuously so the cutover can happen gradually rather than all at once. Adding Zero-Knowledge protection through an optional Gateway deployment is a matter of hours, not days, and reversing course later is just a configuration change, not a second migration.
How Does Akeyless Secure AI Agents Alongside Workforce Passwords?
1Password’s agentic autofill secures how an AI agent authenticates. Akeyless’s Runtime Authority governs what the agent does once it’s authenticated. It’s not a small distinction. An agent can authenticate correctly and still attempt something outside its intended scope: a read that turns into a write, an action outside its assigned task.
Runtime Authority classifies what an agent is trying to do and can trigger its kill switch to block an action in real time if it falls outside that intent. SecretlessAI issues the agent’s credentials through workload identity in the first place, so there’s no standing secret for the agent to misuse or leak.
The stakes are rising fast. Machine identities already make up more than 90% of all identities in many enterprises, per Akeyless’s analysis of Gartner-informed machine identity research, and every one of them needs governance, not just a password.
Deciding if Akeyless Is the Right 1Password Alternative
1Password alone can still be the right call for a team whose only need is human logins, and no 1Password alternative is required for that job. Password Manager 2.0’s two-month track record is a legitimate reason to wait and watch rather than switch today. A new product doesn’t earn enterprise trust overnight, no matter how strong the architecture underneath it.
But once machine credentials or AI agent access enter the picture, that’s a platform decision, not a password-manager decision. A password manager with a secrets API bolted on can cover the basics. It can’t give one policy model, one audit trail, and one governance framework across every identity in the organization. The gap spans human, machine, and AI agent identities alike. It’s the question worth asking before renewing anyone’s contract: not which vault is nicer, but whether the team is still managing three separate governance problems as if they were one.
FAQs About Akeyless vs. 1Password
Does Akeyless Password Manager Support Passkeys the Way 1Password Does?
Yes. Password Manager 2.0 stores and manages passkeys the same way it does everything else in the vault: set one up once, and it’s ready to use for sign-in on any site that supports the standard, with autofill picking it automatically at login. The underlying governance is different; every passkey still runs through the same RBAC and ABAC policy engine as the rest of the platform, rather than sitting in a separate passkey-only system.
Does Akeyless Work Across the Same Browsers and Devices as 1Password?
Mostly. Password Manager 2.0 ships extensions for Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, and Safari, plus native iOS and Android apps. 1Password additionally supports Linux and Windows desktop apps directly; Akeyless’s desktop coverage runs through the browser extension rather than a separate native app on those platforms.
Is There an “SSO Tax” with Akeyless the Way There Is with Some Password Managers?
No. Every Akeyless subscription tier ships with SAML and OIDC support along with Google and GitHub sign-in, and SCIM 2.0 provisioning comes standard as well. 1Password’s own pricing page shows the opposite pattern: its Teams Starter Pack doesn’t include SSO; only the Business tier does, which pushes a team that wants single sign-on onto a higher-priced plan.
What Compliance Certifications Does Akeyless Password Manager Carry?
SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001:2013, PCI DSS, and FIPS 140-3 (NIST CMVP Certificate #5227), with GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, and DORA alignment. The platform publishes a 99.99% availability SLA and posts uptime status publicly.
Can a Team Adopt Akeyless’s Password Manager Without Migrating Secrets Management Too?
Yes. Nothing about turning on the password manager touches secrets, certificates, or privileged access, and the two setup steps run independently of any other migration work (identity provider: one to three days; extension via MDM: one to five). Existing Akeyless customers can add it as a configuration change instead of a new purchase, and the reverse order works too: start with the password manager and layer in secrets or certificates management whenever it’s needed.
What Happens to Existing 1Password Items During a Migration?
The Akeyless browser extension imports directly from a 1Password CSV export, so items don’t have to be re-entered by hand. Automatic Migration can also pull from the live 1Password vault and keep it synchronized during a phased cutover. Both tools run in parallel during the transition. Rollback, if the switch needs to be reversed, is a configuration change rather than a re-migration.
