If you have that device backed up with Time Machine, Backblaze, etc, your data is backed up in triplicate at least (a copy on the 1P server, a copy on every device, copy in your Time Machine). If something happened to their servers you’d still have a backup of your data on every device where you use 1Password. The subscription gives you a backup with 1Password (the company) as well as a way of syncing your data. With a subscription you still have a local copy of all your data on your device itself. If you back up your computer with Time Machine or Backblaze, you’d automatically have a backup of your vaults. It’s important to note that local backups of vaults can still be made even if you’re using the subscription version. It is also much easier to make sure everyone in my family and business has an updated version of 1Password. I’ve since switched to the subscription version of 1Password as it is more convenient to make sure everything works well in sync and eliminates the need for Dropbox.

Update October 2019 – Switching to 1Password Subscription

1 password families