The best private photo vault apps for iPhone, compared fairly

Search for a photo vault on the App Store and you’ll find dozens of apps with near-identical icons and promises. They differ a lot underneath: some encrypt your files, some only put a passcode screen in front of them; some upload to a cloud, some never leave the phone. Rather than rank apps by opinion, this guide gives you the criteria that matter and applies them as fairly as we can, including to our own app.

A quick disclosure: Velcrypt is our app. We’ve tried to describe it with the same neutrality as the others, limits included.

Seven criteria that actually matter

1. Real encryption, not just a lock screen. A photo vault is an app that keeps selected photos separate from your main library behind its own lock. The important question is whether the files are encrypted at rest with a key tied to your secret, or simply stored in the app’s folder behind a PIN screen. Look for specifics: an algorithm, how the key is derived, where the key lives. Our AES-256 explainer covers what good answers look like.

2. Account and cloud. Does the app require an email or sign-in? Does it upload files? Accounts enable backup and multi-device sync, but they also mean a copy of your photos, and data about you, lives on a company’s servers. See photo vaults without an account.

3. Recovery. What happens if you forget your PIN or lose your phone? Account-based apps can usually help you back in. Purely on-device apps often can’t. Neither is wrong, but you should know which one you’re choosing.

4. Unlock method. PIN, password, pattern, Face ID or Touch ID. Biometrics are quick, but a face or finger can be used while you’re asleep or under pressure. See pattern lock vs PIN vs Face ID.

5. Decoy and deniability features. Some apps offer a second, decoy PIN that opens a harmless space. Others go further and avoid revealing whether other spaces exist at all. See what is a decoy vault?

6. Business model. Subscriptions, one-off purchases, ads. Ad-supported apps usually include third-party SDKs that collect device data.

7. The App Store privacy label. Every app’s listing has an App Privacy section that summarises the data the developer says it collects, whether it’s linked to you and whether it’s used for tracking. It’s self-reported, but it’s a useful first filter.

The options at a glance

	Hidden album	Locked Notes	Keepsafe	Private Photo Vault	Calculator-style vaults	Velcrypt
Separate secret from device passcode	No	Optional	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Account required	Apple Account for iCloud	Apple Account for iCloud	Yes (email)	Not required for basic use	Varies	No
Cloud backup / sync	Via iCloud Photos	Via iCloud	Optional premium cloud	Varies	Varies	No (planned encrypted backup)
Face ID / Touch ID	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Varies	No, by design
Decoy feature	No	No	Fake PIN (premium)	Decoy password	Varies	Every pattern opens its own vault
Disguise as another app	No	No	No	No	Yes	No

Feature sets change often, so treat the competitor columns as a starting point and check each listing yourself.

Apple’s built-in options

The Hidden album

The Hidden album removes photos from your library view and, on iOS 16 and later, locks them behind Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. It’s free, built in and syncs through iCloud Photos. The catch is that the device passcode opens it, and it’s end-to-end encrypted in iCloud only if you enable Advanced Data Protection. Full details in is the Hidden album private?

Locked notes

Apple Notes lets you lock individual notes with your device passcode or a separate password, and locked notes are encrypted. You can add photos to a locked note. It’s clumsy for large collections and video, but a separate Notes password is a genuine extra secret. We compare it in Velcrypt vs Apple Notes locked notes.

Keepsafe

Keepsafe is one of the best-known photo vault apps. According to its App Store listing, it uses an account tied to your email address and offers a cloud backup feature (marketed as Private Cloud) as part of its premium subscription, along with features such as a fake PIN and break-in alerts. The account-based approach makes recovery and moving to a new phone easier, at the cost of storing data with the company.

Who it may suit: people who want their vault backed up and are comfortable with an account. More in Velcrypt vs Keepsafe.

Private Photo Vault

Private Photo Vault, from Legendary Software, is another long-standing option. At the time of writing it uses a PIN or passcode lock and offers a decoy password and break-in reports. Check its listing for current details on backup options and whether particular features require a purchase.

Who it may suit: people who want a traditional PIN vault with a decoy option. More in Velcrypt vs Private Photo Vault.

Calculator-style vault apps

A whole category of apps disguises itself as a working calculator; you type your passcode as a calculation to reveal the hidden photos. The disguise can stop a casual glance, but disguise isn’t encryption, and iOS reveals an app’s identity in several places. Quality varies a lot between developers, and many are ad-supported. We explain the trade-offs in calculator vault apps explained.

Open-source options

We’re not aware of a widely used, actively maintained open-source photo vault on the iOS App Store that we could recommend with confidence. If open source matters to you, look for one with a public repository, recent activity and documented encryption, and check that the App Store build actually corresponds to it.

Velcrypt

Velcrypt is a native iPhone app that stores photos, videos and documents in encrypted vaults on the device. You unlock a vault by drawing a pattern on a 5×5 grid (pattern lock). Every pattern opens its own vault, and an unfamiliar pattern simply opens an empty one, so the app never reveals how many vaults exist (hidden vaults). Files are encrypted with AES-256-GCM using keys derived from the pattern (encryption). There is no account, no server and no upload (offline, no account). It comes as a free version plus an optional Premium upgrade.

Its limits are deliberate but real:

• No backup in the first version. Vault content is excluded from iCloud and computer backups. Lose the phone or forget the pattern and the files can’t be recovered by you or by us. An encrypted backup option is planned.
• No Face ID, by design, so unlocking is slower than a glance.
• No disguise. The app looks like what it is on your Home Screen.
• No cloud sync, sharing links or iPad/Mac apps.

Who it may suit: people who want files to stay strictly on the phone, without an account, and who can live with being responsible for their own copies.

How to decide

• You mostly want photos out of the camera roll: start with the Hidden album.
• You need cloud backup and easy recovery: an account-based vault fits better.
• You want nothing on anyone’s server and no account: look at on-device vaults and accept the recovery trade-off.
• You’re worried about being pressured to open the app: prioritise deniability over disguise.

Whatever you pick, run it through our photo vault safety checklist before you move anything sensitive into it.