How to share passwords with people outside your team

Need to share passwords and other private information with people who work outside your company? 1Password lets you share account credentials, credit cards, software license keys, and more with guests in a simple and secure way.

Try 1Password free

Why you should use guest accounts

Guest accounts are perfect if you work with contractors, consultants, or other external partners who need access to some of your team’s passwords. With 1Password, account owners and administrators can invite guests to a shared vault that contains a selection of passwords and other items required to do their job.

You no longer need to rely on sticky notes or spreadsheets to give external workers the access they need. 1Password helps in other ways, too. Fed up of guests forgetting the passwords you’ve shared with them? Or tired of letting them know whenever you’ve changed a password? A shared vault solves both of these problems. Guest accounts give contractors access to the data they need to do their jobs efficiently, keeping your team secure, organized, and productive.

How to create a guest account in 1Password

To invite a guest outside of 1Password to share a vault:

  • Sign in to your 1Password account.
  • Select “Invitations” in the sidebar.
  • Select “Invite by Email” and enter the email addresses of the guest(s) you want to invite.
  • Select “Guest” from the menu, then choose “Invite”.

You can give the guest access to a shared vault once they’ve accepted their invitation and you’ve confirmed their account.

How to share a vault with a guest

To choose a vault you want to share with a guest:

  • Sign in to your 1Password account.
  • Select “Vaults” in your 1Password sidebar, then choose the vault you want to share.
  • Select “Share vault”, then enter the name of the confirmed guest you wish to invite.
  • Select the guest from the dropdown menu
  • Repeat this process for any other people you want to share the vault with, then select “Save”.

Your guest can now view and edit items in the vault from all their devices. You can only invite a guest to a single vault at a time, but you can remove them from one and add them to a different one as needed.

How many guest accounts can I have?

1Password Teams and 1Password Business offer a different number of guest accounts. 1Password Teams includes five guest accounts that you can share with contractors and other outside personnel that require limited access. Not enough? 1Password Business comes with 10 guest accounts, and you can invite more guests for an additional cost.

Another way to offer password access: 1Password’s item sharing

A guest account might be more than what you need sometimes. Maybe you’ve hired a contractor for a single day, or you just need to share a password once with a single person. If that’s the case, no problem! 1Password makes it easy to share individual items with anyone – even if they don’t use 1Password.

When you share an item this way, you’ll get a unique link that you can include in an email, text, or other private chat message. You can keep the information secure by specifying whether anyone can open the link and view the item, or only people with certain email addresses. You can also decide if the link should expire after 30 days, 14 days, one day, one hour, or after a single person views it.

Secure, flexible, and convenient – that’s item sharing.

How to use 1Password’s item sharing

Here’s how to use item sharing on 1Password.com:

  • Sign in to your 1Password account.
  • Find the item you want to share and select it.
  • Select the “share icon” and choose “Share”.
  • Choose when the link expires and with whom you want to share it. If you choose to share the item with only certain people, enter each email address.
  • Select “Get Link” to share the item.
  • Select “Copy”, then send the link to the person or people with whom you want to share the item.

Secure password sharing

1Password guest accounts and item sharing make it easy for you to safely share passwords and other digital secrets with people outside your company. You can choose exactly who has access to what and for how long, giving you total control over your private data. This ensures it remains available to those who need it, and safe from those who don’t.

Try 1Password for free and discover a quick and secure way to share passwords with people outside your team.

Try 1Password free