1Password as control plane for secrets
1Password: the $6.8B Dropbox of secrets
The real risk is not that logins disappear, it is that the place where credentials live moves down into the operating system and browser. If Face ID, passkeys, and device PINs handle everyday sign in, a password vault stops being the front door. That pushes 1Password to win on the layer above login, where admins still need to control which employee, on which device, gets into which app, and what secrets apps and agents can use behind the scenes.
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Consumer passwordless is already real. Google made passkeys a default sign in option for personal accounts in 2023, said in 2024 that passkeys were used more often than SMS and authenticator OTPs combined for Google Accounts, and expanded storage across desktop platforms. That means the habit of typing a password is fading fastest in mainstream consumer apps.
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Enterprise replacement is slower than the consumer story suggests. Stytch found many customers keep both passwords and passwordless, with about half using hybrid setups even while most end users choose the passwordless path. The hard part is not the biometric prompt, it is migrating old account systems, support flows, and recovery rules without breaking access.
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That is why 1Password has shifted toward infrastructure wrapped around authentication. Its newer products tie access to device health, inventory, and remediation, and its more recent research frames growth around Extended Access Management, device security, and secrets used by employees and systems. In practice, that makes 1Password less dependent on whether the user signs in with a password, passkey, or SSO.
The market is heading toward a split. Basic user login will be absorbed by Apple, Google, Microsoft, and app developers through passkeys, while the higher value control plane will sit with vendors that manage access policy, device trust, and machine credentials across messy enterprise environments. 1Password’s path is to become that control plane.