Hidlet vs SPV: Which Photo Vault Keeps Your Photos Safer?

Hidlet is an iPhone app

Point your iPhone camera at the code to install. No account needed.

or text me the link

SPV has been on the App Store since 2019 and has nearly 70,000 ratings in the US. It locks photos, passwords, contacts and a private browser behind one PIN. If you’re choosing between it and Hidlet, the useful questions are simple: how are the photos protected, and what happens to them if something goes wrong with your phone?

This comparison puts the two side by side, using only what SPV’s own App Store listing says. Where the listing is silent, we say so.

Checked on 25 October 2026, against SPV 7.6.1 on the US App Store.

The short version

How each one protects your photos

SPV’s listing says you can “lockdown your photos, contacts, passwords, and browser with the PIN protection”. That’s the whole of what it says about security, apart from where files are kept. It doesn’t use the word “encrypt” anywhere, and it doesn’t name a method.

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 so the answer is written down:

• 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?

One copy, on one phone

SPV is clear about where your photos go: nowhere. The developer says it “does not keep your photos or data on any kind of server” and “uses the internal storage of your device only”. For some people that’s exactly the point. Nothing leaves the phone.

The other side of it is spelled out too. If you delete the app, your photos and data are deleted with it. The listing doesn’t describe moving to a new phone. It only suggests exporting your photos to the device gallery before you delete the app. And it doesn’t say what happens if you forget your PIN.

Hidlet keeps a second copy without giving anyone else the key:

• 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. See how to move a photo vault to a new iPhone.
• 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, including us. More on that in encrypted backup.

When someone makes you unlock it

SPV’s description doesn’t mention a decoy PIN, a fake vault or a panic action. If someone asks you to open it, the description offers nothing else to show.

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 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 deletes your other vaults from this phone, while the encrypted backup stays in your iCloud.

Ads and your data

SPV’s listing is marked “Contains Advertising”. Its App Store privacy label lists identifiers, usage data and diagnostics as “Data Used to Track You”, for purposes that include third-party advertising and analytics. It lists no data as linked to you.

One thing to check on price. The description says subscriptions “start from USD 2.99”, with weekly, monthly and yearly plans and a 7-day free trial on the yearly one. The US in-app purchase list shows ten “Premium” items from $4.99 to $39.99, with none at $2.99. The listing doesn’t say what Premium unlocks beyond “current and future premium categories”.

Hidlet has no accounts, no email and no ads, and it includes no analytics or tracking code.

Where SPV is better

SPV does more than hold photos:

• A private browser that, the developer says, leaves no traces.
• Password and contact storage in the same app.
• A long track record: since 2019, with nearly 70,000 ratings.
• More devices: it runs on iPad, on Macs with Apple silicon and on Apple Vision.

Hidlet’s limits are worth knowing too. It has no private browser or password manager, and no Face ID unlock. 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

SPV is a popular all-in-one vault, and it’s honest that your photos stay on the phone and nowhere else. But its listing doesn’t mention encryption, it keeps no copy off the phone, and it shows ads. If you want photos encrypted with a key only you hold, an encrypted backup in your own iCloud and no ads or tracking, Hidlet is built for exactly that.

Hidlet is available on the App Store.