The popular password management app for Mac, 1Password, has recently received a huge update redesigning the application from the ground up.

Called 1Password 4, the revamped application offers Mac users a brand new design and user interface, multiple and shared password vaults, shared items, 256-bit encryption and a whole lot more. As such, the future indeed looks bright for 1Password, which received something of a “second bite of the apple” when the Cupertino, Calif., company removed its rival iCloud keychain service from iOS 7, in the Gold Master version of the software.

Developer AgileBits notes that the updated app has been “rewritten from bit to pixel” and explains in an email sent to AppAdvice that new features added in 1Password 4 include:
Completely redesigned interface — crafted by Dan V Peterson with Mavericks and simplicity in mind
Multiple and Shared Vaults — create separate vaults to share with business or family members which each get their own sync preferences and locations
Shared Items — if sharing an entire vault is overkill, you can share individual items (Logins, Secure Notes, memberships) with another person via email or obfuscated iMessage. Just like in our iOS version, if your recipient makes changes and shares the item back to you, 1Password will update your existing item
256-bit Authenticated Encryption, PBKDF2 with HMAC-SHA512 and other major security enhancement — 1Password not only keeps your data private, but also tamper-proof. This forestalls many attacks that haven’t even been dreamt of yet
Wi-Fi Sync is back — many of our customers asked for a way to sync with 1Password 4 for iPhone and iPad but keep their data out of The Cloud, and we delivered
iCloud sync — naturally
Favorites — just like iOS, quick access to your most important and frequently used items
1Password mini — a full-featured menu-bar utility with full vault search, item details, vault switching, window anchor options and more
All-new extension with Opera support — the front-end for our JavaScript extension and 1Password mini is now built on Cocoa, giving you a unified experience across every browser
Third-party App Integration — You can choose to enable support for Alfred, LaunchBar and Quicksilver, allowing you to quickly search and open logins from the Mac’s great productivity utilities
In total, more than 90 new features have made their way into the application.

But there’s more good news. According to AgileBits, 1Password 4 is available to download as a free update for all 1Password Mac App Store users, and new customers can also download the app at a reduced price as part of a launch day sale.
Rather than its usual price tag of $49.99, then, 1Password 4 for Mac can presently be downloaded at 20% off for $39.99.
Image: Flickr, Ruben Bos
This article originally published at AppAdvice here
AppAdvice is a Mashable publishing partner that offers news and reviews of iOS apps. This article is reprinted with the publisher's permission.