5 Best Photo Vault Apps for iPhone in 2026 (Honest Review)
An honest comparison of the top photo vault apps for iPhone in 2026 — Keepsafe, Private Photo Vault, HiddenVault, Photo Vault by Legendary, and Inner Gallery. Privacy, pricing, encryption.
There are hundreds of photo vault apps on the App Store. Most follow the same playbook: padlock icon, "military-grade encryption" on the marketing page, subscription paywall once your photos are imported.
We reviewed the five most relevant ones in 2026, judged on what actually matters: do they encrypt your photos, where do they store them, and what do they cost?
The biggest name in the category. Also the most misleading. Keepsafe's own product page describes it as "cloud photo storage" — your photos go to their servers. Their privacy policy confirms data may be stored in the US or abroad.
On analytics: Amplitude published a case study about how Keepsafe uses behavioral tracking to optimize pricing. In a separate article, they mention "6 billion events and counting." That's the scale of data collection inside a "privacy" app.
Data loss reports are common on Reddit: May 2025, March 2025, January 2025.
One of the oldest vault apps (since 2011). JustUseApp gives it a safety score of 0/100 based on NLP analysis of 981,000+ user reviews. Not a formal audit, but a signal.
The UI feels dated. The security architecture predates modern authenticated encryption standards. Despite this, it still pulls $1M/month — largely because it's been around long enough to accumulate reviews and search ranking.
The most expensive option by far. Their own website lists "iCloud Backup + Restore" as a premium feature — meaning your photos are stored on Apple's servers, subject to Apple's transparency reports and any government data requests.
$155/year for iCloud storage behind a PIN screen. Apple's own Advanced Data Protection does more, and it's free.
A lighter option. Basic PIN lock, album organization, decoy password feature. The free tier is ad-supported — which means ad SDKs with tracking. The app hasn't been updated as frequently as competitors, and user reviews mention stability issues on newer iOS versions.
Full disclosure: this is our app. Here's what it does and doesn't do.
Every photo is encrypted individually on-device using ChaCha20-Poly1305 (IETF standard, RFC 8439). Key derived from your PIN via PBKDF2 with 100,000 iterations. Each space has its own PIN and its own encryption key.
No servers. No accounts. No analytics SDKs. No network permissions. The app runs on Apple's CryptoKit, Foundation, and SwiftUI — zero third-party dependencies.
- Per-file encryption (ChaCha20-Poly1305)
- 100% local — zero servers, zero cloud
- No analytics, no tracking SDKs, no ads
- One-time purchase (no subscription)
- Separate PIN per space
- Zero third-party dependencies
- No cloud backup — lose phone without backup = photos gone
- No PIN recovery — by design, no one holds your key
- No cross-device sync
The real comparison
| App | Per-file encryption | Local-only | No analytics | Price/year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keepsafe | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | $120 |
| Private Photo Vault | ❌ | ❓ | ❓ | ~$40 |
| HiddenVault | ❌ | ❌ | ❓ | $155 |
| Photo Vault (Legendary) | ❌ | Partial | ❌ | ~$60 |
| Inner Gallery | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | €0-24.99 once |
What to look for in a vault app
Before downloading any vault app, check these four things:
- Does it work in airplane mode? If not, your photos go to a server.
- Does it explain its encryption? "Military-grade" without specifics means nothing.
- Read the privacy policy. Search for "cloud", "servers", "third party."
- Check Exodus Privacy for the Android version — it lists every tracking SDK bundled in the app.
The App Store is full of vault apps that look secure. The privacy policy tells you if they actually are.
Related reading:
- Are Photo Vault Apps Actually Safe? — a deep dive into Keepsafe, Private Photo Vault, and HiddenVault's privacy practices
- Why Vault Apps Charge Subscriptions (And Why Inner Gallery Doesn't) — the economics behind vault app pricing
- How to Hide Photos on iPhone — every method compared, from the Hidden folder to encrypted vaults
- The iPhone Photo Privacy Checklist — 10 actionable steps to lock down photo privacy