Hidlet vs Obscura: Two Encrypted Vaults, Where They Differ

Hidlet is an iPhone app

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Obscura is one of the closest apps to Hidlet. Both encrypt each vault with its own random key, both slow down guessing on purpose, and neither asks for an account or shows ads. If you’ve narrowed your choice to these two, you’re already picking between apps built on the same idea.

So this page is about the smaller differences that still shape your days with the app: how you unlock, what happens when someone presses you, how you get back in, and what you pay. It uses only what Obscura’s own App Store listing, website, security paper and privacy policy say. Where we couldn’t confirm something, we say so.

Checked on 25 October 2026, against Obscura 1.17.1 on the US App Store.

The short version

Built the same way, unlocked differently

On encryption, the two are close. Obscura’s listing names AES-256-GCM, and its website adds PBKDF2 with 600,000 rounds. Its security paper explains the layers: your password unlocks a key, which unlocks a random 256-bit master key for each vault. Its database uses SQLCipher, which the paper says runs AES-256 in CBC mode with an HMAC. Obscura also publishes its encryption core as open source, called ObscuraCrypto, and a public security paper that sets out its limits. That kind of openness is welcome.

Hidlet works in a similar way:

• Each vault has its own random key.
• Every photo and video is encrypted with AES-256-GCM before it’s saved.
• Your pattern unlocks the vault’s key on the phone and is never stored anywhere.
• Guessing is slowed on purpose with PBKDF2, and after three wrong guesses each one adds a growing wait.

The real difference is how you get in. Obscura uses a password for each vault. You can add Face ID or Touch ID, and then the app keeps your password in the iOS Keychain behind that biometric check. Its paper says delays start after 100 wrong passwords in a row, and that the count resets if the app is killed.

Hidlet uses a pattern drawn on a 5×5 grid, every time. There’s no Face ID and no PIN, and the pattern itself is never stored. Hidlet also locks the moment you leave the app, where Obscura’s auto-lock has a timer you set (five minutes by default). More on how the pattern works on the pattern lock page.

When someone makes you unlock it

Both apps answer this with separate vaults that the app never lists.

Obscura always keeps 10 encrypted vault slots, shows no list or count, and says “a second vault can serve as a decoy”. Each vault has its own password. Because the free version holds one vault, you need Pro for this.

Obscura is also unusually frank about the limits. Its security paper says the hidden slots don’t hold against someone who can read your iCloud Keychain, and that creating more than 10 vaults breaks the scheme. It also says the total number of files can show that other vaults exist to someone with access to the phone’s file system and the password to one vault. It sums up that the feature “should not be treated as coercion-resistant”. Credit to the developer for writing that down.

In Hidlet, different patterns open different vaults, and the app never shows a list of them. Any vault can be the decoy vault: fill one with ordinary photos and open that one when pressed. This is on the free plan. Pro adds a duress pattern that removes this phone’s access to your other vaults. The encrypted iCloud backup stays, so you can restore them later.

Backup, new phones and forgotten passwords

Obscura has no server of its own. By default your vault goes into your iPhone’s normal iCloud device backup, already encrypted, and you can leave it out in iOS settings. You can also export a whole vault as an encrypted .obscura file, free, keep it wherever you like, and restore it on any iPhone through Files or AirDrop. On a new phone, you restore from an iCloud or local backup, or import the file and enter your password. The paper adds that the empty vault slots rely on a device secret synced through iCloud Keychain.

If you forget an Obscura password, there’s no way back. The listing says “There is no password reset, by design”, and the website says your photos can’t be recovered. That’s an honest trade-off, and it’s the same one Hidlet makes once both the pattern and the recovery phrase are gone.

Hidlet adds one more way back in:

• Backup: each vault is encrypted on the phone, then saved to your own iCloud. Neither Apple nor we can open it. It’s free.
• 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.

Lose both the pattern and the phrase, and nobody can open the vault, including us. See encrypted backup and moving a photo vault to a new iPhone.

Plans, price and extras

Obscura’s free version holds one vault with up to 50 photos. Pro unlocks unlimited photos, videos and vaults for $6.99 a month or $29.99 a year (with a 7-day trial), or $39.99 once with no renewals. If a subscription ends, your items stay viewable and exportable.

Hidlet’s free plan holds 3 vaults with up to 100 photos and 10 videos in each, and the decoy vault, encrypted backup and recovery phrase are all free. Pro is an optional upgrade with unlimited storage, the duress pattern, iPad sync, shared vaults, a slideshow and alternate app icons. Its price hasn’t been announced.

Obscura offered a Calculator Mode, but its version notes say it was removed “to meet App Store requirements” in October 2026. Hidlet Pro offers disguise icons instead: the Home Screen icon can look like a calculator, notes or another everyday tool, while the app itself still opens to its lock screen, and its vaults never appear in a list.

Both apps have an in-app camera that saves straight into the vault. Hidlet’s removes location, and screenshots and screen recordings of the app show a blank screen.

Where Obscura is better

Obscura does several things Hidlet doesn’t:

• Recently updated: the last update was on 24 October 2026.
• Password and Face ID: if you’d rather type a password or glance at your phone than draw a pattern.
• iPad today: it runs on iPhone and iPad now.
• A one-time price: $39.99 once, if you don’t want a subscription.
• A portable backup file: the encrypted .obscura export can be kept anywhere. The developer says it also opens in a separate Android app; we couldn’t confirm where to get that app.
• More photo tools: an editor, redaction, collages, duplicate detection, tags, and a quick camera from Control Center without unlocking.
• Published details: an open-source encryption core and a security paper that states its own limits.

Hidlet’s limits are worth knowing too. It runs on iPhone and iPad (sync between them needs Pro), there’s no Face ID, and the free plan holds 3 vaults with up to 100 photos and 10 videos in each.

The bottom line

Obscura and Hidlet share the same core: per-vault keys, AES-256-GCM, no account and no ads. Obscura is ready now, works with Face ID and on iPad, and lets you pay once. Hidlet suits you if you’d rather draw a pattern, want a decoy vault without paying, and want a recovery phrase so a forgotten pattern isn’t the end.

Hidlet is available on the App Store.