I have recently been evaluating the new version of a product called 1Password, a password saver and form filler for the Mac that automates filling web forms, entering credit card information, and logging into web sites. The built-in Apple Keychain does this fairly well, once you figure it out, but 1Password provides a lot more flexibility and additional features.

My biggest concern about 1Password’s new version is that it no longer uses the Apple Keychain as its secure backend storage system. There are inherit dangers with creating your own approach to secure encrypted storage, and using well-understood, widely-deployed solutions is generally the best approach. That said, I’m happy to discover that Agile has written up documents explaining why they abandoned the Apple Keychain and how the Agile Keychain was developed. Now I just have to decide if their arguments are persuasive enough to justify the switch.