The best photo vault apps for iPhone in 2026, compared

What matters in a photo vault

A photo vault is only as good as three things: how it encrypts your files, whether your photos survive a lost or new phone, and what happens if you forget your code or stop paying. Most low ratings for vault apps are about those three things, not about missing features.

1. Real encryption, on your device. A PIN screen in front of normal files is a lock on the front door with the back door open. Look for a named cipher such as AES-256, and for encryption that happens on the iPhone before anything is uploaded.
2. A backup that restores. Ask where the backup lives (your iCloud or the developer's servers), who holds the keys, and how you restore on a new iPhone. Backup and new-phone failures are among the most common complaints in vault app reviews.
3. A way back in. If nobody can reset your code, you need a recovery phrase or key you keep yourself. If the developer can reset it by email, they can also, in principle, get in.
4. Getting photos out. Check that export keeps full quality and original dates, and that it isn't behind a paywall.
5. Honest pricing and privacy. Check whether ads or a lapsed subscription can lock your photos, and read the App Store privacy label.

All 17 apps at a glance

Sorted by number of US App Store ratings. "Not in listing" means the developer's App Store description doesn't mention it, not that the app can't do it. Scroll the table sideways on a phone.

Which photo vault should you use?

It depends on what you're protecting against. Here is what the listings support, by need.

Free and built in: Apple's Hidden album

If you mainly want photos out of your main library and away from someone scrolling your phone, the Hidden album is free and locked with Face ID by default. It isn't a separate vault: anyone who knows your iPhone passcode can open it, and it syncs to your other devices. Turn on Advanced Data Protection if you want your iCloud Photos end-to-end encrypted. Read more: Is the iPhone Hidden album actually private?

An encrypted vault with a decoy and an iCloud backup: Noxium or Vaultaire

Both open with a drawn pattern, both say they encrypt files with AES-256-GCM, both include an encrypted iCloud backup on the free plan, and both have a decoy vault and no account. Vaultaire's free plan holds 100 photos and 10 videos. Noxium's holds 150 photos and 10 videos, adds a recovery phrase you write down at setup, and its privacy label is Data Not Collected. Comparing Vaultaire with Keepsafe instead? See Vaultaire vs Keepsafe.

Open-source encryption code: Obscura, Encamera or Ente

Obscura says its encryption code is open source and uses AES-256-GCM, with no accounts and no cloud. Encamera says its code is open source and can store in your own iCloud. Ente Photos is open source and third-party audited, but it's an end-to-end encrypted cloud photo library with an account, not a hidden vault.

The most-reviewed: Private Photo Vault and Keepsafe

With over a million and 385,000 US ratings, these are the most familiar names. Neither listing names a cipher, both use their own cloud for backup, and both report usage data used to track you.

How we compared them

• Which apps: the vault apps that appear most across US App Store searches for "private photo vault", "hide photos", "secret photo album" and similar terms, plus privacy-focused apps that compete for the same people.
• Ratings and last update: Apple's public iTunes lookup data, US store, 22 October 2026.
• Encryption, decoy and backup: what each developer says in its App Store description. We report claims, not test results.
• Data used to track you: the App Store privacy label, which each developer reports to Apple.
• In-app prices: the lowest and highest in-app purchase listed on the US product page. Some apps list several price points for the same plan.
• Noxium's row describes our own app as submitted to the App Store.

Apple sources: Hide photos with the Hidden album, iCloud data security overview.

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