SMS Filter+ vs Message Vault
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
SMS Filter+
This app provides professional SMS filtering to block spam and unwanted MMS messages. Customize filters based on phone numbers, keywords, or regular expressions to automatically sort messages. Enjoy uninterrupted focus by silencing junk messages without notifications.
- Automatic message classification
- Customizable spam filters
- Filter by phone number, text, keywords, regex
- Block unwanted MMS messages
- Silent junk message notifications
- Privacy-focused processing
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This is a safe, efficient and professional SMS filter. You can customize your own filters to help you filter spam and MMS messages from unknown phone numbers. What it does: Automatically classify your messages, filter junk messages, let you avoid being disturbed by spam during work, rest or when you are on your phone(such as gaming or reading). Privacy matters: All verification activities occur in a closed and secured process provided by iOS, without the need to connect to the network throughout, and SMS Filter+ will not read, collect or tag your messages. Customize your filters: Filter your messages like a pro, support check phone numbers, text, containing multiple keywords, start/end with keywords, match with Regular Expression and other advanced features. How it works: When a message comes, SMS Filter+ will always go through your Allow, Transaction and Promotion filters. Once there is any filter made a match, messages automatically classified into the corresponding folder. If those filters can not make a match, then SMS Filter+ will go through your Junk filters, message will be filtered if it matched as spam. Notifications & Badge If a message classified as Allow, Transaction and Promotion, you will still get notifications and unread badge on the Message app icon, if a message filtered as spam, you won’t get any notifications and there is no unread badge.
Message Vault
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Message Vault turns your text conversations — years of them, going back further than your phone can currently show — into a private, permanent, searchable archive that only you can open. THE COMPLETE BACKUP, DONE HONESTLY A real backup of a text thread means two things: the words, and the pictures. Message Vault keeps the words — every message, searchable, forever. Apple doesn't allow any outside app to reach the photos and videos inside Messages, so Message Vault can't copy those, and it never pretends to. Instead, it walks you through saving your photos and videos into your own Photos library — a few taps, right inside the app — and marks in every conversation where a photo or video belongs, so your searchable text becomes the index back to the picture. Your words live in Message Vault. Your pictures live in Photos. Together, that's the whole conversation, kept. YEARS OF CONVERSATIONS, ACTUALLY SEARCHABLE Messages makes it hard to search anything old and painful to get anything out. Message Vault holds everything you've archived — search by name, date, or a half-remembered phrase, and export what you find. IMPORT WITH A TAP, APPROVE EVERY BATCH Message Vault never reads your messages on its own. You run the Vault Sync shortcut yourself, and iOS shows you exactly what's being shared every time. Anything already archived is recognized and never duplicated. ENCRYPTED BEFORE IT TOUCHES ANYTHING Everything you archive is encrypted on your device with a key that lives in your iPhone's Keychain — decrypted only in memory, only for you. YOUR iCLOUD, NOT OURS Optionally keep an encrypted copy in your own Apple Account's private iCloud database. It leaves your phone only as ciphertext — there's no Message Vault server, so there's nowhere for us to read your messages. A RECOVERY PHRASE ONLY YOU HOLD Turn on recovery and you get a one-time phrase that unlocks your vault on a new iPhone. We never see it and can't recover it — that's what makes it yours. NO ACCOUNTS. NO ANALYTICS. NO SERVERS. Message Vault is a paid app on purpose, so you're the customer, not the product. GOOD TO KNOW Message Vault archives what iOS makes available to Shortcuts, typically conversations through the previous day. Sync is manual. Requires the free Shortcuts app from Apple. Message Vault is not affiliated with or endorsed by Apple Inc. iMessage and iCloud are trademarks of Apple Inc.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: SMS Filter+ at $0.99 against Message Vault's $4.99. SMS Filter+ also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (14.0 vs 26.0). On update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
SMS Filter+ costs $0.99 and Message Vault $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
SMS Filter+ ships an update every 4 weeks, Message Vault every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SMS Filter+ | Message Vault |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 — better | $4.99 |
| Rating | 4.2 (216 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 57.8% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 216 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 4 weeks — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 奕才 杨 | BS Boys LLC |
In-app purchases
SMS Filter+
No in-app purchases
Message Vault
No in-app purchases









