Multi-Account Containers

Multi-Account Containers is an extension developed by Mozilla that allows you to separate your browsing experience into different color-coded tabs, to help protect your privacy. By using these containers, you can categorize their browsing based on purpose and create tabs for Work, Banking, Shopping and Personal browsing. For an extra layer of privacy, you can also integrate Mozilla VPN.

Note: The integration with Mozilla VPN will only work if Firefox is installed via a non-sandbox installation method. Known sandbox installation methods are Snap and Flatpak.

containerTabs

What you can do with Multi-Account Containers

  • Sign in to multiple accounts on a single website (e.g. personal and work email accounts).
  • Protect browsing with VPN (e.g. shop abroad and check your bank account from a home country server).
  • Prevent tracking and security attacks (e.g. harmful clicks stay within a container).
  • Assign websites to containers (e.g. a specific website opens in a specific container).
  • Hide/Show and sort tabs (e.g. hide work tabs and sort work and personal tabs).
  • Sync containers across devices signed in with your Mozilla account (e.g. carry over container names and site assignments).
  • Avoid social network footprints (e.g. use a container for social networks).

To install Multi-Account Containers

  1. Visit Firefox Multi-Account Containers.
  2. Click the Add to Firefox button.
  3. Click Add if you agree with the permissions requested.

MACpermissionsPanel

Open a website inside a Container

Note: Containers are disabled in Private Browsing windows and when Never Remember History is selected in your privacy settings.
  1. Click the Containers ContainersIcon icon in the toolbar bar (if you don't see the containers icon, click the extensions extensionsButton button in the toolbar, then click the containers icon).
  2. Select the container you want to open.

multi-account_containers

Tip: Right-click the new tab button to bring up the Containers menu.

containersNewTab

Open bookmarks in a container

To quickly open a bookmark in a container, you need to allow the extension to access your bookmarks. To do so:

  1. Click the menu button Fx89menuButton, click Add-ons and themes and select Extensions.
  2. Click Multi-Account Containers in the installed extension list to see more details about that extension.
  3. Select Preferences and check Enable Bookmarks Menus.

After allowing access to your bookmarks, you can now right-click a bookmark and a new menu entry named Open Bookmark in Container Tab will be available.

Access more from the right-click menu

The right-click menu is a convenient way to manage your Containers and control how links are opened. When you right-click a link, the right-click menu appears and provides you with more options for managing your Containers. These options include:

  • Always Open in This Container: This check box allows you to specify that all links from the same website should open in the same Container.
  • Hide This Container: This option allows you to temporarily hide the current Container.
  • Move Tabs to a New Window: This option allows you to move all of the tabs in the current Container to a new window.

AlwaysopenInContainer

Manage your containers

Create a new container

You can also create new containers that better describe your browsing activity by following these steps:

  1. Click the Containers ContainersIcon icon in the toolbar bar (if you don't see the containers icon, click the extensions extensionsButton button in the toolbar, then click the containers icon).
  2. Click Manage Containers to open the containers settings panel.
  3. Click New container.

Customize your Container tabs

You can change the color or icon associated with a container, or change the container's name from the settings. To do this:

  1. Click the Containers ContainersIcon icon in the toolbar bar (if you don't see the containers icon, click the extensions extensionsButton button in the toolbar, then click the containers icon).
  2. Click Manage Containers to open the containers settings panel.

manage_containers

Remove a container

  1. Click the Containers ContainersIcon icon in the toolbar bar (if you don't see the containers icon, click the extensions extensionsButton button in the toolbar, then click the containers icon).
  2. Click Manage Containers to open the containers settings panel.
  3. Choose the container you want to remove.
  4. Click Delete this container button.

Manage site assignments

Always open a site in a container

Assign a site to a container, so it always opens in a container tab:

  1. Click the Containers ContainersIcon icon in the toolbar bar (if you don't see the containers icon, click the extensions extensionsButton button in the toolbar, then click the containers icon).
  2. Click Always open this site in… and select a container for which you want to assign the current site.

Remove an assigned site

  1. Click the Containers ContainersIcon icon in the toolbar bar (if you don't see the containers icon, click the extensions extensionsButton button in the toolbar, then click the containers icon).
  2. Click Manage Containers to open the containers settings panel.
  3. Select the container for which you assigned the site.
  4. Click Manage site list in the Container Edit panel.
  5. Hover over the site you want to remove and click the trash icon that appears next to it.

Limit to designated sites

You can restrict a container to only open sites assigned to it. Other sites will be opened in No Container. To enable this option:

  1. Click the Containers ContainersIcon icon in the toolbar bar (if you don't see the containers icon, click the extensions extensionsButton button in the toolbar, then click the containers icon).
  2. Click Manage Containers to open the containers settings panel.
  3. Select the desired container.
  4. Enable Limit to designated sites.

Protect your containers with Mozilla VPN

You can keep your browsing data separate and stay protected with Multi-Account Containers. Additionally, you can integrate Mozilla VPN into each container to add an extra layer of protection to your container tabs. This way, you can have all the data from the containers pass through an encrypted tunnel using one of our servers. To learn more, visit Protect your container tabs with Mozilla VPN.

MACLocations

Common questions

Are Firefox containers and Multi-account containers the same? Firefox Containers and Multi-Account Containers are complementary features that help you keep your online activities organized. While both options allow you to separate your browsing into different container tabs, the Firefox Containers feature allows you to always open new tabs in containers.

On the other hand, Multi-Account Containers is an extension developed by Mozilla that fully optimizes Firefox containers and unlocks its full potential offering additional features, such as site assignments and integration with Mozilla VPN.

Note: Please note that these two features work together and you'll need to use both of them to make the most of all the features available. To learn more, see the How to use Firefox containers article.

How does this compare to the Facebook Container extension?

Facebook Container isolates Facebook and Facebook-owned sites automatically. The Firefox Multi-Account Containers is a more general extension that allows you to create containers and determine which sites open in each container. This extension can be customized to suit your needs for multiple sites and multiple logins, but takes more time to set up than Facebook Container. You can use Multi-Account Containers to manually create a custom container for Facebook and assign facebook.com to it.

Multi-Account Containers will then make sure to only open facebook.com in the Facebook Container. However, unlike Facebook Container, Multi-Account Containers doesn’t prevent you from opening non-Facebook sites in this custom container. Facebook Container also deletes Facebook cookies from your other containers on install and when you restart the browser, to clean up any potential Facebook trackers. Multi-Account Containers does not do that for you.

Can I use both Multi-Account Containers and Facebook Container?

Yes, but you need to be a little careful. Don't use Multi-Account Container to assign facebook.com to a container, and then try installing Facebook Container. If you are a Multi-Account Containers user and want to use both add-ons, unassign facebook.com, messenger.com, and instagram.com first, then install Facebook Container.

For more background information about Containers, see the Containers project page. To learn more about how to use Multi-Account Containers with some quick tips and shortcuts, see this Mozilla blog post.

Was this article helpful?

Please wait...

These fine people helped write this article:

Illustration of hands

Volunteer

Grow and share your expertise with others. Answer questions and improve our knowledge base.

Learn More