LastPass vs 1Password when the password manager renewal reopens the 2022 breach conversation

LastPass disclosed in December 2022 that an attacker copied a backup of customer vault data, and every renewal since has had to answer that sentence. Both vendors sell business password managers with shared vaults, admin policies, SSO, and provisioning. They now split on what else rides in the subscription: SaaS and AI monitoring on one side, developer secrets on the other.

LastPass Business Max adds SaaS Monitoring and Protect, AI Monitoring, unlimited SSO apps, and Advanced MFA on top of the vault. 1Password Business pairs the vault with Unlock with SSO, Travel Mode, Watchtower, and developer tools such as SSH key signing, the CLI, and SDKs.

Buy LastPass when vault, SaaS app discovery, and AI tool monitoring should land on one lower per-user bill. Buy 1Password when SSO unlock, Travel Mode, and developer secrets must ride in the same vault.

Overview

	LastPass	1Password
Primary use case	Business password manager with shared folders, 100-plus security policies, LastPass Families for employees, and Business Max monitoring of SaaS, AI, and web usage	Business password manager with role-based vault sharing, Unlock with SSO, Watchtower, Travel Mode, and developer secrets tooling in the same account
Day-to-day workflow	Provision users and groups, share folders with permissions, enforce policies, and on Business Max review discovered SaaS and AI apps and govern their credentials	Provision from the identity provider, unlock with SSO, share vaults by role, review Watchtower alerts, and pull secrets into CLI, SSH, and CI/CD workflows
Main buying consideration	Teams USD 4.25, Business USD 7.00, Business Max USD 11.00 per user per month billed annually on lastpass.com/pricing, checked 10 Oct 2026. 14-day trial on each	Teams Starter Pack USD 2.49 per user per month billed yearly for up to 20 users. Business USD 8.99 per user per month billed yearly, USD 10.99 billed monthly, on 1password.com/pricing/business

We reviewed the LastPass pricing page, the LastPass December 2022 security incident notice, and Business Max feature descriptions, plus the 1Password business pricing page, Unlock with SSO and Travel Mode support documentation, developer documentation, and the JetBrains customer story, on 10 Oct 2026. We did not run either product in a paid tenant.

LastPass

1Password

Editions and pricing

Both vendors publish per-user business prices billed annually. The top LastPass tier costs more than 1Password Business because it bundles SaaS and AI monitoring.

	LastPass	1Password
How it is sold	Teams, Business, and Business Max on self-service with a 14-day trial, plus MSP and reseller paths	Teams Starter Pack, Business, and Enterprise, with a free trial and a monthly billing option on Business
Figure on the public page	USD 4.25, 7.00, and 11.00 per user per month billed annually	USD 2.49 per user per month for Teams Starter Pack (10 users minimum, up to 20). USD 8.99 per user per month billed yearly for Business
What the top tier adds	Business Max: AI, SaaS, and Web Monitoring and Protect, unlimited SSO apps beyond the three included in Business, and Advanced MFA	Enterprise adds a dedicated account team and onboarding on top of Business features. Developer tools are already in Business

Vault access and security model

Both run zero-knowledge vaults with SSO and policies. The split is how unlock works and what protects vaults at borders and on devices.

	LastPass	1Password
Unlock method	Master password with MFA, with SSO for three apps on Business and unlimited on Business Max, plus passwordless options under Advanced MFA	Account password plus Secret Key by default, or Unlock with SSO through OpenID Connect on Business
Device and travel controls	100-plus security policies on Business for password strength, device, and access restrictions	Travel Mode removes vaults not marked Safe for Travel from every device. Business admins can turn it on or off for members
Incident history	LastPass disclosed in December 2022 that encrypted customer vault backups and unencrypted metadata were copied in a breach	1Password’s security model pairs the account password with a locally generated Secret Key that is never sent to 1Password

Beyond the vault

Both products now extend past credential storage. The documented split is SaaS and AI governance versus developer secrets.

	LastPass	1Password
Extension object	SaaS Monitoring and Protect discovers apps used across the company and flags spend and credential risk. AI Monitoring governs AI tool usage with safe-prompt policies	Developer tools: SSH agent and SSH key signing, Git commit signing, the 1Password CLI, SDKs, and Environments for secrets out of code
Pipeline integration	Not a developer secrets product on the pricing page	IDE, CI/CD, and infrastructure-as-code integrations listed on Business
Family benefit	LastPass Families for employees on Business: a personal account plus 5 licenses to share	Free 1Password Families membership for Business users

Favor LastPass when the documented requirement is USD 4.25 to 11 per-user tiers, 100-plus policies, and Business Max SaaS, AI, and web monitoring with unlimited SSO apps. Favor 1Password when the documented requirement is Unlock with SSO, the Secret Key model, Travel Mode, and developer tools such as SSH key signing and the CLI at USD 8.99 per user.