Disclosure: we make Photo Vault, one of the apps below. We have tried to describe the others the way their own App Store pages describe them, and to say plainly where they beat us.
First: you may not need an app
The Photos app already has a Hidden album. Since iOS 16 it is locked by default and opens with Face ID or Touch ID, and you can turn off Show Hidden Album so it does not appear at all. It is free and it is built in.
Its limits: it lives inside your main photo library, so with iCloud Photos switched on the hidden photos sync to your other devices and to iCloud, as Apple's own page says. There is one lock for everything and the Photos app itself stays in plain sight. If that is fine, stop here.
The four vault apps most often recommended
| Cloud backup | Account | Decoy PIN | Disguised icon | Rating (US) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private Photo Vault – Pic Safe | Yes | — | Yes | — | 4.8 · 1,016,176 |
| Keepsafe | Yes, up to 10,000 items | — | — | — | 4.7 · 383,645 |
| Arca | No | No | Yes | Yes | 4.8 · 29 |
| Photo Vault (ours) | No | No | No | Yes | 4.0 · 5 |
A dash means the app's App Store description does not mention it, not that it is certainly missing. Ratings checked on 2 October 2026.
Pic Safe and Keepsafe: if you want a backup
These are the two big ones, with hundreds of thousands of ratings between them. Both offer a private cloud, so if you lose the phone the vault survives. Pic Safe also lists a decoy password and break-in alerts. The price of the backup is that your private photos are stored on someone's servers.
Arca and Photo Vault: if you want nothing to leave the phone
Both have no account, no server and no cloud. Arca's page states that everything is encrypted on the device with AES-256, and it has a decoy vault that opens with a second PIN. Photo Vault does not have a decoy vault today.
What Photo Vault adds: a separate password for each album on top of the app lock, a face-down lock that jumps to Safari, Messages or Calendar when you turn the phone over, a built-in camera so new photos never touch the camera roll, and a vault excluded from iCloud backups. The icon can pass as Calculator, Notes or Weather.
The trade-off for both: no cloud means that if the phone is lost or the app deleted, the photos are gone.
How to choose
- A few photos, and you trust iCloud: the built-in Hidden album.
- You need a backup: Pic Safe or Keepsafe.
- Nothing on any server, and a decoy PIN matters: Arca.
- Nothing on any server, separate album passwords, a face-down lock: Photo Vault.