1Password costs $2.99+/mo — and unlike a tool you buy once, that bill never stops. Over three years that's roughly $108 for software doing a job your own hardware could just as easily do.
Where the subscription actually goes
$2.99+/mo is the sticker price. It compounds: cancel and you typically lose access to your own history, and most plans ratchet the price up as you add usage, seats or storage — the bill rarely stays flat for long.
Keyloop: the pay-once alternative
Keyloop does the same core job for $19, once. A desktop TOTP authenticator with an encrypted local vault and encrypted, QR and URI exports.
| Keyloop | 1Password | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $19 once | $2.99+/mo |
| 3 years | $19 | ~$108 |
| Export your secrets | Yes — encrypted file + QR sheet + URIs | Partial |
| Works fully offline | Yes | No |
| Encrypted local vault | Yes, AES-256-GCM | Yes |
| Your data leaves the machine | Never | Always |
| Desktop-first | Yes | Yes |
Seven months of 1Password 2FA costs more than Keyloop, which then never bills you again and, unlike Authy, always lets you walk away with your secrets.
Is the subscription ever still worth it?
If you need 1Password's specific ecosystem, integrations or managed infrastructure and that's genuinely load-bearing for you, the subscription earns its keep — that's a real trade-off, not a trick. Keyloop is for everyone else: people paying every month for a job that runs fine on hardware they already own.
Try Keyloop — $19, once
A desktop TOTP authenticator with an encrypted local vault and encrypted, QR and URI exports.