European alternatives to 1Password.

1Password is the most widely-adopted password manager for individuals, families, and small-to-mid-size teams — and it is operationally US-headquartered (AgileBits, Inc., Toronto and San Francisco) with US sub-processors. It is also operationally US-headquartered (AgileBits, Inc., headquartered in Toronto and San Francisco) with US sub-processors and US-based venture capital. The cryptographic design (Secret Key plus zero-knowledge encryption) means the vendor cannot decrypt vault contents even when served with a US legal order; this is genuinely strong protection. The reason European procurement teams still look for alternatives is corporate ownership and vendor location, not the cryptography. Where EU-vendor preference is procurement policy, the alternative search is driven by that policy rather than any technical compliance gap.

This page maps the four European password manager alternatives we have verified against 1Password on the criteria a buyer actually cares about: who legally owns the company, where the data physically sits, whether the vault is end-to-end encrypted, and whether the platform holds a recognised European compliance framework (ISO 27001, BSI C5, EUCS, SecNumCloud). The compliance score is editorial, never paid, and every row is sourced to the vendor's public DPA. We re-verify quarterly.

If you only have ten minutes: Passbolt is the strongest team-password-management pick with open-source code base and Luxembourg hosting (Luxembourg, Belvaux, 5/5), Proton Pass is the smoothest individual-and-family alternative with the strongest privacy-flavoured ecosystem (Switzerland, Geneva, 5/5), and Psono is the most self-hostable choice for organisations wanting maximum sovereignty (Germany, 5/5, open source + commercial cloud).

What you keep when you switch from 1Password to a European password manager:

• End-to-end encryption with zero-knowledge architecture; every alternative ships this as the default.
• Browser autofill across Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge. Proton Pass and Psono have polished extensions.
• Mobile apps with biometric unlock on iOS and Android.
• Password generation with customisable rules.
• Secure notes for non-credential secrets.
• 2FA / TOTP storage as part of the password entry.
• Vault sharing with role-based access.

What you give up:

• 1Password Watchtower (the breach-monitoring and password-health-scoring feature). Proton Pass and Passbolt have basic password-health checks; the breach-monitoring feature is not yet at 1Password's depth.
• 1Password's Travel Mode (selectively hide vaults when crossing borders). No European alternative ships this specific feature; the workaround is to use separate vaults for travel-sensitive data and configure auto-sync exclusion.
• 1Password Developer Tools (SSH key handling with platform-native integration, CLI for secrets in scripts). Passbolt has a CLI; the SSH-key UX is not yet at parity.
• 1Password's brand recognition and the polished marketing material. European alternatives have less consumer-facing polish but the security model is comparable or stronger.

A practical five-step migration plan most European password managers will accept.

1. Export your 1Password vault. In the 1Password desktop app, File → Export → All Items gives you the choice of 1pif (full fidelity) or CSV. Take both: 1pif preserves item types and metadata, while CSV is the import format most European alternatives accept. Encrypt the export file with a strong passphrase before storing it anywhere; export files contain plain-text credentials.
2. Audit which vault items are actually live. Most personal 1Password vaults have 200–500 items but the user actively uses 30–50. Use 1Password's "Last used" timestamp to identify the live set. For business vaults, the active set is typically larger but team-specific (engineering keys, third-party SaaS logins, customer-shared credentials).
3. Import into the new tool. Passbolt, Proton Pass, and Psono all accept CSV import. Passbolt's import preserves folder/category structure; Proton Pass imports into a single vault by default and requires manual re-organisation. For teams, plan to set up shared organisational vaults in the new tool before importing individual user vaults.
4. Migrate browser extensions and mobile apps. Install the new tool's browser extension across all team-member browsers and configure the mobile apps. Run both 1Password and the new tool in parallel for 2–3 weeks so users can adapt to the new autofill UX. The week-1 productivity dip is real; the second week is back to normal.
5. Keep 1Password active for 90 days minimum. Like every other migration on this site: pause first, do not cancel immediately. You will find a legacy item you forgot to migrate, a team-shared vault still accessed by a contractor, or a 2FA backup code stored only in 1Password. Pause the 1Password account at the lowest tier for 90 days, then export-and-delete completely after that period.