Hidlet vs Private Photo Vault: Both Encrypt, So What's Different?

Hidlet is an iPhone app

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Private Photo Vault has been on the App Store since 2011 and has more than a million ratings. If you’ve searched for a photo vault, you’ve probably seen it. It says plainly how it protects your files: AES-256 encryption.

So if both apps encrypt, what’s left to choose between? Quite a lot, it turns out: where the backup goes and what it costs, whether you need an account, how you get back in, and what the app does with your data. This page compares the two using only what Private Photo Vault’s own App Store listing, website and privacy policy say.

Checked on 25 October 2026, against Private Photo Vault 25.8 on the US App Store.

The short version

How each one encrypts

Credit where it’s due: Private Photo Vault is open about encryption. Its security page says “Files stored in the app use AES encryption”, and its FAQ says AES-256. Its Cloud Vault adds a second layer of AES-256 on the phone before anything is uploaded, with a key created from your Cloud Vault password, and it uses Argon2id for password hashing. The developer calls that “zero-knowledge encryption” for Cloud Vault content.

Two things it doesn’t say. It doesn’t explain how the key for the vault on your phone is made or where it’s kept. And it notes that its security page “is product documentation, not an independent security audit.” That’s an honest line.

Hidlet’s design, in plain terms:

• 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.

Backup: whose cloud, and at what price

This is where the two apps differ most.

Private Photo Vault’s Cloud Vault runs on the developer’s own servers (its privacy policy lists Amazon Web Services and Linode). It needs Premium, an account and an internet connection, and the developer says using the app doesn’t turn it on: you set up Cloud Vault and let files finish uploading. The free version doesn’t back up to Cloud Vault at all. Its FAQ also says that if Premium ends and you switch to Basic, your cloud backup is deleted. Cloud Vault does sync between iPhone and Android, which is useful if you switch.

The developer doesn’t mention any iCloud sync inside the app. The FAQ says encrypted vault files may end up in your iCloud device backup, and warns that some people have had trouble restoring from one.

Hidlet’s encrypted backup is free and goes to your own iCloud:

• Each vault is encrypted on the phone, then saved to your 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.

The full steps are in Move Your Photo Vault to a New iPhone.

Accounts and forgotten codes

The vault on your phone needs no account; the developer says “No account required” and “Offline by default”. Cloud Vault does need one; the privacy policy lists email sign-in (through Firebase Authentication) and Sign in with Apple.

If you forget your app or album password, Private Photo Vault can recover it through a recovery email you set up beforehand, after 8 wrong tries for the app or 5 for an album. Without that email, the FAQ says, those passwords can’t be recovered this way. Your Cloud Vault password can’t be recovered: “Your Cloud Vault password is never recoverable.”

Hidlet has no account at any point. If you forget your pattern, the 9-word recovery phrase opens the vault and lets you set a new pattern, free. The trade-off is the same one Cloud Vault makes: lose both the pattern and the phrase, and nobody can open the vault, including us.

Ads and your data

Private Photo Vault shows ads. The listing says Contains: Advertising, and the privacy policy says “Private Photo Vault displays advertisements.” The policy names AdMob, Unity Ads, AppLovin, Ad4Game, the Meta pixel, Google Analytics, Mixpanel and Appsflyer, among others. It also says it may share a device ID or IP address with marketing partners to show targeted ads. The App Store privacy label lists usage data as used to track you, and lists your photos or videos as data linked to you.

Hidlet has no ads, and it includes no analytics or tracking code. There’s no account, so nothing ties your vaults to your name.

Where Private Photo Vault is better

Private Photo Vault has real strengths:

• Clear about encryption: it names AES-256 and explains how Cloud Vault works.
• More ways to unlock: PIN, password or pattern, with Face ID or Touch ID, plus a separate password per album.
• Break-in reports with a photo and GPS location.
• More than a vault: a private browser, photo and video editors, duplicate detection and Wi-Fi transfer.
• More devices: iPad, Mac with Apple silicon (as an iPad app), and Android.
• A long track record: more than a million ratings and updates since 2011.

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

The bottom line

Private Photo Vault is a mature, encrypted vault with more features than Hidlet and a careful paid cloud backup. The trade is ads in the free app, a privacy label that lists data used to track you, backup only with Premium, and recovery that depends on an email you set up in advance. If you want encryption plus a free encrypted backup to your own iCloud, a recovery phrase, and no account, ads or tracking, Hidlet is built for that.

Hidlet is available on the App Store.