Heritkey vs. the 1Password Emergency Kit: a printed PDF or a planned handover?
If you use 1Password, you've probably been told to print your Emergency Kit and keep it somewhere safe. That's good advice for recovering your own account. As an inheritance plan, it has real weaknesses. Here's how it compares with Heritkey.
Lock in the $3.99/month early-access price →Or $74.99 once for life. Your heirs never pay. Waitlist members keep the launch price.
What 1Password offers
1Password has no built-in emergency access. It points to its Emergency Kit: a PDF with your sign-in address, email address and Secret Key, with space to write your account password. It suggests keeping a printed copy somewhere safe, for example with your will, and giving a copy to someone you trust. In a family account, an organizer can recover a member's account, but recovery is designed for living members: it starts with an email the member has to confirm.
Three tests the paper kit fails
- The drawer test. A completed kit is a full key to your vault. Anyone who finds it, a visitor, a cleaner, a burglar, can sign in today. There's no delay and no alert.
- The change test. Change your account password and every printed copy is out of date. Most people never reprint it.
- The will test. Keep it with your will and it can be read by more people than you think, and often only after the funeral. See why passwords don't belong in a will.
Side by side
| 1Password Emergency Kit | Heritkey | |
|---|---|---|
| Built-in emergency access | ✗ No, a printed PDF | ✓ Yes |
| Safe if someone finds it early | ✗ Full access straight away | ✓ Opens only after your waiting period |
| You're alerted and can refuse | ✗ No | ✓ One tap |
| Stays current when you change your password | ✗ Reprint every time | ✓ Always current |
| Different heirs, each with their own key | ✗ One kit, one key | ✓ A sealed copy per heir |
| Account list, documents, wishes and messages | ⚠ Whatever is in the vault | ✓ Built for it |
Lock in the $3.99/month early-access price →Or $74.99 once for life. Your heirs never pay. Waitlist members keep the launch price.
Which one should you choose?
Keep using 1Password, and keep your Emergency Kit for your own recovery. For your family, don't rely on a sheet of paper that's either too easy to find or too hard to find. Put the handover in Heritkey: the information your family needs, released only when your rule is met.
1Password's details come from its support pages as of October 2026. Heritkey is launching soon; its details describe how it's being built.