COMPARE · UPDATED 3 NOVEMBER 2026
How to choose an encrypted photo vault for iPhone
1. Where do the files live?
Some vaults keep everything on your device. Others upload to the developer's cloud so you can sync and recover. Neither is wrong, but they protect against different things. See local vs cloud photo vaults.
2. Who holds the keys?
If the app can reset your password by email, someone other than you can help unlock the vault. That might be what you want. If you want nobody else to be able to open it, look for a vault where the keys never leave your device and a forgotten password genuinely cannot be reset.
3. Is the lock independent of your phone?
A vault that opens with your device passcode protects you no better than Apple's Hidden album. Look for a separate password, PIN, or pattern.
4. Is the encryption explained?
"Military-grade" is a marketing phrase, not an explanation. A trustworthy app tells you plainly what is encrypted (files, thumbnails, filenames, search data), with what, and where the key comes from. Ours is on the security page.
5. What does the App Store privacy label say?
Every App Store listing has an App Privacy section. "Data Not Collected" is the strongest label. Look out for analytics, identifiers, and "Data Linked to You", which are unusual things for a vault to need.
6. What happens to originals?
Importing usually copies a photo. Check whether the app deletes the original from Photos, asks you to, or leaves it. Either way, empty Recently Deleted afterwards.
7. How do backups and new phones work?
Ask how you move the vault to a new phone and what happens if the phone is lost. A vault that is excluded from iCloud backups needs its own backup method, and you need to use it.
8. Be careful with extra features
Decoy vaults, intruder photos, and break-in alerts can be useful, but each one adds camera access, storage, or network behaviour you should understand. More features are not the same as more privacy.
The checklist
- Files stay on the device, or you are comfortable with the cloud provider.
- The keys and password are not recoverable by the developer, if that matters to you.
- The lock is separate from your device passcode.
- Encryption covers filenames and thumbnails, not just the files.
- The privacy label says Data Not Collected, or you understand what is collected.
- There is a clear backup and migration path.
- There is a privacy policy and a real way to contact support.
Vaultage was designed around this list: local encryption, an independent vault lock, no account, no server, and an encrypted backup file that you control.