aWallet Password Manager Review: Quick Expert Summary
aWallet is a password manager for your smartphone – that’s all it is.
For what it is, it’s actually pretty good – aWallet categorizes your passwords, into computer logins, credit cards, e-banking, e-shops, email accounts and web accounts. It even has a category editor, so you can and or change these categories.
While your data is stored offline, and on your smartphone, the paid ‘aWallet Cloud’ allows you to backup to Google or Dropbox.
aWallet is not Dashlane, LastPass or even my favorite, Zoho Vault. It doesn’t have any other features – it really is a one-trick pony – and definitely no browser extensions or exciting web apps. This is just how it is – and you can take it or leave it.
I think it’s really just a locked, digital vault for your smartphone, and actually, if you’re looking for a really basic but great password manager that’s a bit more than just a password manager, then I really suggest you take a look at Bitwarden instead.
I’ve reviewed over 70 password managers, I’ve put together this review for aWallet. This review will help you see if the product is right for you.
aWallet Features
aWallet doesn’t have a lot of features compared to other password manager software. The app lets you store login info for computers, websites and email. There are settings in the app to lock the program after a set time, back-up data to the cloud or let it auto sync and export your password info. This is about as bare-bones as you can get.
The paid version has a few extra features. The biggest paid feature is the ability to import passwords in a Microsoft Excel file – so at least that’s something. Without the paid version, you can only export this file type. There’s also a password generator that’s unlocked with the purchase, but it isn’t as complete as some of the free password generators included in other products – I’m thinking about Dashlane and LastPass specifically here, but also Myki, whose password generator was one of the most exciting I’ve ever seen, and it’s also a very smartphone-heavy option.
Password Generator
aWallet has a password generator that can generate strings of up to 20 characters. This is also probably the most exciting thing that aWallet does, and there are even some (very, very minor) customization options too You can include upper and lower case letters, symbols and numbers as well as exclude specific or repeating characters. There’s no option to have pronounceable strings, and compared to other password managers, 20 characters isn’t a long password generation limit. Again, I find myself thinking about Myki’s amazing password generator.
The password generator is also tricky to actually find, and you can only access it when you add a new login to use it. Once you create a password, you can add it right to the login with the ‘Use’ button. What’s odd is that you can’t copy the generated password from the password generator’s main page, so I’m not sure how you’d use it exactly. You could try to use the password for a created login and then copy it from there, but why should you have to do this, just to copy your new password? The bottom line is that the generator feature is far better in many free programs (yes, even Myki!, and aWallet really should improve some basic things like string length and customization.
For a current password generation tool, there really isn’t enough here. And the worst part is, that the generator is only available in the paid version.
Password Import
aWallet will let you import passwords from an Excel file in the paid version. The import file must be loaded to the mobile phone’s files first. Then, you can import it through the app. This process works, but it’ll be complicated for a lot of users. The program seems to be made for people who aren’t tech-savvy, and the import process may be too complicated. Even in the cloud version of the program, you can’t pull an import file from your Google Drive or Dropbox, only from the phone’s files. Many other programs have much easier ways to import your data.
Custom Categories
The aWallet app only comes with a few categories for data, but you can add your own custom options – just click the ‘Custom’ option will let you add a new category. From the ‘Add Category’ menu, you can label the fields and give the custom category an icon. There are many icons to choose from, and all of those icons have several color options, and in any custom category, you can also choose what fields are shown and which are masked. This allows you to create almost any category you can think of.
One thing I should mention here – you can only have up to 30 categories with 300 entries each, but this is a personal use password storage tool. I don’t think many people will need to store more data than that. I know that even on Dashlane’s free version, you can store up to 50 logins, and on their paid version – you can store an unlimited amount of logins. Sop even aWallet’s paid version is a bit stingy and unfair.
The category creator works, but like most of the program, it feels like something is unfinished.
I’ll say it again – if you’re looking for something easy to use, simple but powerful – Bitwarden is what you need.
aWallet Plans and Pricing
There is only one purchase option for aWallet, and (on the plus side) it’s less expensive than most competitors. Upgrading to the paid version opens up a few extra options with the cloud backup and password generator, but better versions of these features are available for free in many other password storage tools like (Myki and Bitwarden. aWallet’s feature page says that the premium version lets you use touch and face ID to unlock the program, but actually when I upgraded, I realized that this was sneaky working, and not even true: the app just uses the existing two-factor authentication on your smartphone. It isn’t actually a separate feature of the program.
You know which password manager doesn’t use tricky wording or lies, and has a really nice two-factor authentication, even on the free plan? Myki.
The only other unlocked feature on aWallet’s premium plan is the import for CSV (Excel) files. This means that if you have a password list you want to import from your computer, you’ll need to buy the paid version of the app.
Also, another huge thing I really disliked is, if you switch from an iPhone to an Android device you’ll have to purchase the product again. You can’t just download the app again, as you would for, say, Bitwarden. All aWallet purchases are final, so unfortunately, there’s no way to try the locked features before buying.
aWallet Ease of Use and Setup
aWallet isn’t complicated, but there are some tricky parts of setting up the app.
Adding new data is easy – you just click the ‘Add’ button and fill out the needed fields. There are only a few fields for each category, and for some reason, you can’t add more.
Since there’s a custom category feature, I don’t know why the app won’t let you add more fields to the default categories. It seems like an easy change that would let users fill out as much data as they want. Once the data is entered, there’s a basic search function. Other than that, there’s no filter or advanced search. It’s definitely a far cry from my beloved Myki password manager.
Importing passwords from another file requires you to move that file to the phone first. The app should let you import the files from the Google Drive or Dropbox that it connects to for backup. There’s also no auto-import feature. Most of aWallet’s competitors allow for importing from other password programs with only a few clicks – like Dashlane, like LastPass, like RoboForm. There’s no feature for this in aWallet, and the only way to get your stored passwords is by exporting them from the other program first.
There are other ease of use features missing from aWallet. There’s no autofill, no automatic saving from web inputs and no password sharing. These are common features that other programs have, and sometimes for free. You can copy login info from the app and then paste it, but this is a slow process.
Opening the program every time you want to look at a password is a waste of time, and if you log into a lot of different systems in a day, it’s going to be frustrating. In fact, the autofill and password storage feature that comes as standard across smartphones is easier to use and more effective than aWallet.
aWallet Security
All of the information in aWallet is stored offline. The only time the program connects to the internet is to send and receive backup info from the cloud. This means that your aWallet account can’t be hacked remotely. The data and backup files are stored with AES-256 encryption, but there are parts of aWallet security that aren’t as up to date as the competitors. Most modern password storage systems use PBKDF to protect against hacking, but aWallet uses a less secure encryption method of SHA-256. This is several levels below the current standard. It’s actually shocking.
And actually, it gets even worse – there are no two-factor authentication options available for aWallet. To be fair, as an offline phone app, your phone’s password and login work sort of like a second guard on your info. Yes, aWallet is very far away from TrueKey, with its millions of two-factor authentication options.
Also, the aWallet app doesn’t monitor your accounts in any way. It doesn’t notify you if unauthorized logins are attempted with your info. You also can’t search for data breaches, and it won’t tell you if any of your passwords are too commonly used. Many other programs will do some, or all, of these things to help enhance security.
aWallet Customer Support
There’s an FAQ section on the aWallet site for the software. It includes answers to some questions about installing the software and moving data from another password manager software. There’s no forum, phone number or social media for aWallet, and I didn’t expect there to be. There’s a general info email, but nothing specifically for customer service questions. The email address is on the About page of the app, and unless you’re looking at every tab you could easily miss it. The FAQs on the website are pretty good, but it would be nice to have a customer service contact for other questions.
I did send a message to the general info email. I will say that I was impressed with the response time. I sent the original message close to midnight, and I had a response by 8 AM the next day. The response wasn’t a form letter, it was a specific answer to my question. The email was written by Petyr, who’s the creator of the app itself!
aWallet may lack the extensive support teams of larger enterprises, but their swift response from the app’s developer provides excellent customer service, surpassing even Bitwarden’s!
