Hidlet vs Hide it Pro: Which Photo Vault Is More Private?

Hidlet is an iPhone app

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Hide it Pro has been on the App Store since 2012 and is one of the best-known ways to hide photos on an iPhone. If you’re choosing between it and Hidlet, the real question is simple: when someone gets hold of your phone, what actually stands between them and your photos?

This comparison puts the two side by side, using only what Hide it Pro’s own App Store listing, website and privacy policy say. Where we couldn’t confirm something, we say so.

Checked on 25 October 2026, against Hide it Pro 6.3.0 on the US App Store.

The short version

How each one protects your photos

Hide it Pro’s iPhone listing describes its protection as a lock screen. It doesn’t name an encryption method, and it doesn’t say whether files in the app are encrypted. Its website does say “your data is encrypted and safely stored on your device”, but that page covers the Android app too and gives no detail. The same page says your data “never leaves your device”; the iPhone listing also offers optional cloud backup.

That doesn’t prove the photos aren’t encrypted. It means you can’t check, and a PIN screen on its own only stops someone from using the app. It says nothing about what’s stored underneath.

Hidlet is built the other way round:

• Each vault has its own random key.
• Every photo and video is encrypted with AES-256 before it’s saved.
• Your pattern unlocks the vault’s key on the phone and is never stored anywhere.
• Guessing patterns is slowed down on purpose, and after three wrong guesses each one adds a growing wait.

More on that on the pattern lock page, and on what AES-256 really protects in Is the iPhone Hidden Album Encrypted?

When someone makes you unlock it

Both apps plan for the moment someone insists. They just answer it differently.

Hide it Pro has an Escape Unlock code: type it instead of your real PIN and the app opens looking empty. It can also show a fake “the app has crashed” screen to put people off. Both are clever. But an empty vault app can look suspicious in itself; people don’t usually install a vault to keep nothing in it.

In Hidlet, every pattern opens its own vault, and the app never shows a list of them. You can keep a vault of ordinary photos (screenshots, receipts, a few holiday pictures) and open that one when pressed. Nothing on screen hints that another vault exists. That’s the decoy vault, and it’s in the free plan. Pro adds a duress pattern that also removes this phone’s access to your other vaults, while the encrypted backup stays safe in your iCloud.

Backup, new phones and forgotten codes

Hide it Pro offers cloud backup and sells unlimited cloud space for $9.99 a month. The listing doesn’t name the cloud provider or say whether backups are encrypted. You can also export files over USB or to a Mac.

If you forget your Hide it Pro PIN, there’s a Password Reset in-app purchase for $4.99. The listing doesn’t explain how the reset works or what it needs from you.

Hidlet keeps the key with you:

• Backup: each vault is encrypted on the phone, then saved to your own iCloud. Neither Apple nor we can open it.
• New phone: install Hidlet and draw your pattern. This works when iCloud Keychain is on; if it’s off, your recovery phrase restores the vault instead.
• Forgot your pattern: enter the 9-word recovery phrase and set a new pattern, free.

The trade-off is real: lose both the pattern and the phrase, and the vault can’t be opened by anyone. More on that in encrypted backup.

Accounts, ads and your data

Hide it Pro’s App Store privacy label lists only crash and performance data, not linked to you. Its privacy policy, last dated 2018, says “we do use third party ad sdk”. We couldn’t confirm whether the current iPhone app shows ads, or whether cloud backup needs a sign-in.

Hidlet has no accounts, no email and no ads, and it includes no analytics or tracking code. There’s nothing to sign up for and nothing tying your vaults to your name.

Where Hide it Pro is better

Hide it Pro does more things:

• More than photos: notes, documents, music and a Safari extension for saving images straight from the web.
• A long track record: more than 24,000 ratings and over a decade of updates.
• Familiar unlock: a PIN (its release notes mention Face ID), if you don’t want to learn a pattern.

Hidlet’s limits are worth knowing too. It runs on iPhone and iPad (sync between them needs Pro), and the free plan holds 3 vaults with up to 100 photos and 10 videos in each.

The bottom line

Hide it Pro is a capable all-in-one hiding app, and its escape code is a smart idea. But its iPhone listing doesn’t tell you how your photos are protected, so you can’t check what’s under the PIN. If you want photos that are encrypted with a key only you hold, with no account and no ads, Hidlet is built for exactly that.

Hidlet is available on the App Store.