Our online accounts today are more important than our wallet. All of our important and personal data is stored in our online accounts, and thankfully we can always password protect them. Now, the problem actually is that all of us have several online accounts and as per the security norms, we are not supposed to keep the same password for all our accounts. On top of that, our passwords have to be strong with some capital letters, some numbers, and some symbols. Too much to remember right? How can one remember all of the difficult and tricky passwords? This is where we need a password manager like Zoho Vault.
Zoho Vault Password Manager
There are numerous free password managers available on the internet, and all of them have some or the other good features. Today in this post, we will talk about the free version of Zoho Vault, which is one of such popular and useful password managers. This is an online password management software which is suitable both for businesses as well as the individuals.
Available as a Chrome extension and Firefox add-on, this password manager lets you manage all your accounts on your desktop PC. The application is also available for Android Smartphones and iOS devices. Zoho Vault is available both as a free and a paid version, and obviously, the paid version includes some extra features. However, the free version of Zoho Vault is also very good and meets the purpose of individual users. 
To use the Free Zoho Vault, you first need to select the FREE trial version and sign up for the program. Once you complete the trial period, it will automatically turn into an FREE plan.
Once you create an account with Zoho Vault, you need to create your main passphrase. Remember that if you forget this main passphrase, there is no way to recover it. The program never stores your passphrase anywhere and can’t help you recover it. So, if you lose your main passphrase, you won’t be able to access any of your saved passwords.
Features of Free Zoho Vault
The program stores unlimited passwords and notes. Click on the Secrets tab and get started. You can further organize your secrets by creating different Chambers. Creating Chambers gives you a better and quick access. The default categories for Secrets here are- Bank account, web account, Unix, Social security number, Windows, health care and file store. Select the suitable category and add your secret. You can also attach files, URL, notes, and images to your secret.
Offline Access– Yes, this is a web service, but the program also offers the offline access to all your secrets. Just download all your saved secrets in HTML format and save it on your PC for offline access. By the way, you will still need the main passphrase to open the offline saved HTML file of your secrets. 
Settings- Now this is something really extensive. The detailed Settings include the browser extensions, auto-logins, secrets-sharing, inactivity timeouts and much more. 
To make the password management seamless and quick, you can download the Chrome extension, Firefox addon or Safari extension as per your preference. The program comes with an auto-sync option wherein you can securely synchronize all your passwords across the browsers using the extensions. The auto-fill feature of the extensions lets you log into the websites automatically.
Adding Multiple Users and Sharing Secrets
This is a wonderful feature of the Zoho Vault Password Manager but is available only in the paid version. However, it is quite affordable as you need to pay just $1 per month for the same. You can share all your saved secrets with the trusted members of your organizations. To do that, you first need to initiate ‘Handshake’ with the other user. Click on the Sharing Secrets tab in the Settings panel, scroll down the page and click on Initiate Sharing. This might take some time and also may make the script unresponsive but, relax and click on Continue. Remember that you can share the secrets only when all users initiate the sharing process from their Zoho Vault Password Manager. The Sharing Secrets feature is mostly used by the organizations – and sharing won’t begin until the super admin approves the handshake. 
Emergency Access- You can designate one or more users as your emergency contacts, and these contacts can then view your enterprise vault and the stored secrets in an emergency situation. You can also specify the maximum duration of emergency access. When an emergency is declared, and the empowered users open the vault, an alert is sent to all the users of the particular vault. Other setting options include password policy, password access request, secret type and change of passphrase.
Why Zoho Vault Password Manager?
The software stores all your important data in a central repository and provides complete security. It also helps the users to store and manage their data easily where anywhere. What makes Zoho Vault Password Manager stand out is that this program encrypts only your data and not your encryption key. This is the reason that your main passphrase once lost is lost forever. Nobody knows your encryption key except you, not even the Zoho team.
Furthermore, Zoho also offers a two-factor authentication via Google Authenticator and mobile-based authentication for increased security, which means that no-one else can use your vault even if they have your master password.
Overall, Zoho Vault Password Manager is a one-stop solution for all your security concerns; both as an individual user and as an enterprise. It stores your data and also lets you share the data with your employees whenever needed which makes it a great software for the enterprises.
Download the free version of Zoho Vault Password Manager here and store all your passwords securely and organize them for easy access and management. Th free version is available for personal use only. The Chrome extension is available here where as the Firefox addon is available here.
How do I add Zoho Vault extension to Chrome?
The process of adding the Zoho Vault extension to the Google Chrome browser is exactly the same as adding any other extension. That said, you need to open the Chrome Web Store first and search for the Zoho Vault extension. Then, open the exact extension link and click on the Add to Chrome button. It will be installed on your browser within moments.
How do I import passwords from Chrome to Zoho Vault?
In order to import passwords from Chrome to Zoho Vault, you need to follow the aforementioned steps where it is mentioned to choose the secret type. Before that, you need to export your passwords from the Chrome browser. Next, you can create an account on Zoho Vault, choose the Import Secret option, and select the exported file.
That’s it! Hope this password manager is handy for you.
