Proton Pass vs. 1Password: An Honest, Hands-On Comparison in 2025

Proton Pass and 1Password are two great password managers. They both offer strong password protection and a range of supplementary features to improve your overall digital security. The similarities don’t end there. Their pricing is also almost identical.

Those similarities are positive, but if Proton Pass and 1Password are your two top choices, they make picking between the two difficult. That’s why we spent weeks hands-on testing both providers to find their differences. Overall, we prefer 1Password for its usability, but we know that it won’t be the best fit for everyone. Let’s dig in to find out which password manager is best for you.

Our Daily User Experience with Proton Pass and 1Password

We logged into about 50 websites daily using both managers across different devices. In our observations, Proton Pass offers a cleaner, more minimalist interface. We think new users will find that not very intimidating. During testing, the auto-fill accuracy reached 94 percent on desktop browsers and 91 percent on mobile devices.

1Password provides more organizational options with its tagging system and custom categories. It let us organize over 300 credentials using nested tags that helped us improve our workflows in the long run. However, that flexibility comes with a steeper learning curve. We asked non-expert testers to use both password managers; they needed an average of three days to get comfortable with 1Password versus one day and a half with Proton Pass.

Migrating Passwords

With both providers, we migrated our password database containing over 500 entries from various competitors. Proton Pass correctly imported 96 percent of entries from Bitwarden, LastPass, and 1Password exports. The remaining four percent required manual tweaks, mainly for custom fields and file attachments.

1Password’s import tool handled 98 percent of entries perfectly, including complex items such as software licenses and custom templates. The onboarding wizard also guided us through security setup. It took us about eight minutes to fully secure our vault.

The migration process for both password managers worked smoothly, but we prefer 1Password overall because of the extra security setup guide.

>> Read More: LastPass Review and Pricing in 2025

Pricing Analysis: Which Offers Better Value?

Proton Pass offers a free tier that lets you store unlimited passwords. The paid Plus plan costs $2.99 monthly when billed annually or $4.99 for families. There’s also the Proton Unlimited plan for $9.99 per month, billed annually, which offers a lot of value by bundling Pass Plus alongside Proton Mail, Calendar, Drive, and VPN for up to six users.

1Password doesn’t offer a free tier but provides a 14-day trial. If you sign up for a year, 1Password’s premium plans cost the same as Proton Pass — $2.99 per month for individuals or $4.99 per month for families. However, if you want to pay monthly, 1Password offers a slightly better rate for the individual plan at $3.99, versus $4.99 for Proton Pass. The monthly family plans cost almost the same at $6.95 for 1Password and $6.99 for Proton Pass.

Families of five or fewer will get better value with 1Password; for six users, Proton Pass can be a better fit. You can find providers for even bigger families in our roundup of the top password managers for families. For solo users, we recommend 1Password over Proton Pass.

Performance and Reliability: Proton Pass vs. 1Password

To measure their performance, we first tested their sync speeds across desktop and mobile devices. With Proton Pass, password changes we made synced quickly, averaging 1.3 seconds when our devices are on the same network. 1Password was even quicker, averaging less than 1 second. That performance helped place 1Password on our list of the best password managers for Chrome.

As for reliability, they both maintained consistent uptime during our testing period. We experienced a 15-minute downtime with Proton Pass due to app maintenance, while 1Password had two five-minute interruptions two weeks apart, also because of maintenance. We think they timed their maintenance windows well, as all those downtimes occurred outside normal office hours.

Battery impact on mobile devices was negligible for both apps. During our 24-hour tests, Proton Pass reduced the battery life of our Android and iPhone by an average of 1.2 percent with background sync enabled. 1Password caused a 1.4 percent decrease in battery life. Neither significantly impacted device performance on our two-year-old iPhone or our five-year-old Android.

>> More Options: The Best Password Managers for Android

Privacy Levels of Proton Pass and 1Password Compared

As a company, Proton built its reputation on privacy in Switzerland’s jurisdiction. That means it’s governed by some of the strictest data privacy laws in the world.1 In addition, Proton keeps their code open-source to allow security researchers to continuously verify their privacy claims independently.

1Password, based in Canada, is within the Five Eyes alliance’s jurisdiction.2 That means they can be compelled by any member country to hand over user data. However, its zero-knowledge architecture means it cannot provide decrypted vault data, even if legally compelled. What’s more, the company has never reported a data breach in its two-decade history.

Final Verdict: Which Should You Choose?

After extensive testing, we recommend Proton Pass for privacy-conscious users, people already using Proton services, and families seeking comprehensive digital security at reasonable prices. The integrated email aliases, in particular, provide unique value for personal use.

If you’re looking for one of the easiest to use password managers, choose 1Password. As soon as you install their apps, you’ll feel like a power user with their intuitive interfaces across platforms. They also offer advanced features that protect your passwords in edge cases, such as international travel.