Comparison

The Vault vs Secret Message

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

The Vault

Securely store passwords, documents, photos, and more with robust encryption. Keep all your confidential information safe and easily accessible on your device, without subscriptions or ads.

Highlights
  • Password management
  • Secure document storage
  • Photo and GIF storage
  • 256-bit AES encryption
  • No subscriptions
  • Local device storage
  • Automatic backups
Read full description

◆ NO ads, NO tracking, NO subscriptions - Free with optional one-time charges ◆ Do you... ... have trouble remembering tens or hundreds of online passwords? ... write passwords down somewhere, even though you know this is not the safest thing to do? ... use the same ("cleverly" modified) password in multiple places, instead of using properly randomized passwords that offer the best security? ... sometimes wish you had a photo of a creditcard, passport or other document handy? ... want to securely store lots of other confidential information, photos, animated GIFs, office documents, you name it? ... want all this to be secure, but still very simple to use? Then ◆The Vault◆ is for you! The Vault provides straightforward, easy to use, secure storage for all your documents and other data, such as passwords, login credentials and any other confidential information. It can securely store any number of documents, images, screenshots or photos along with your confidential information. * 256-bit AES encryption * While storage and access is simple, The Vault uses rock-solid, industry standard encryption. [technical details below] ◆ ◆ ◆ WHY IS IT BETTER ? ◆ ◆ ◆ ▸ See all features: bit.ly/TheVault-Features ▸ The Vault is very simple to use, yet it employs industry-standard encryption to keep your data safe. (Some other - payed - apps do too, but some apps advertised as "secure" really do not, and for example save your data using a simple base-64 encoding: your information looks scrambled, but is as readable as plain text when you know how). ▸ The Vault will - never - show ad banners! We hate them too. ▸ The Vault stores information on * your * device. Not on some server somewhere on the net. ▸ Securely storing information is as simple as entering free text! ▸ The Vault can securely store photos and pictures from your camera or photo library; for example a copy of your passport, credit card, or just the serial numbers of some equipment you own. Anything. ▸ The Vault can securely store - and play - animated GIFs. ▸ The Vault can securely store *any* office or other document. ▸ Many secured documents can be viewed directly from The Vault, including PDFs, Keynote, Numbers, Pages, Powerpoint, Excel and Word files. ▸ You can optionally import data exported from your previous password app (or any other source that can provide the data). ▸ Automatically and securely backups your data! ◆ ◆ ◆ TECHNICAL DETAILS ◆ ◆ ◆ This is the part that matters. This is the part that is hard to get right. This is the part that makes the difference between actual security and insecurity. Claiming “military-grade” (or “industry standard” ;-) encryption is meaningless. Even claiming “256-bit AES encryption”, in itself is not very meaningful. Example: Claiming “military-grade” encryption and subsequently simply hashing a master passcode - e.g. using SHA, or MD5 is NOT good. What ís good is to use a proper key derivation algorithm such as PBKDF2, scrypt or bcrypt. Another example: AES is better than older algorithms such as Blowfish, Twofish or 3DES. But even for AES: an app that does not combine encryption with authentication... is doing it wrong. Currently there is some consensus that the best construct is to first encrypt a message and then calculate a message-authentication code, instead of the other way around. These things matter. ◆ ◆ ◆ The Vault uses PBKDF2 key derivation with an HMAC-SHA512 PRF, and HMAC-SHA256 Encrypt-then-MAC authenticated 256-bit AES encryption, using CommonCrypto functionality only. All cipher and MAC worker keys, as well as all salts and IVs, are purely random data. Keys and IVs are never reused. Each singular piece of data is encrypted with a unique random encryption key, and authenticated with a unique random HMAC key. Your Master Passcode is never stored; and neither are the derived cipher keys. ◆ ◆ ◆ THE ONLY THING ●YOU● HAVE TO DO? Choose a long master passcode. Make it long, and make it random!

About

Secret Message

Features
Read full description

You can make Secret Messages or Convert your private photo & Videos into secure files and read n view your friend's messages n files with Secret Messages. With the help app user can convert private files, photos n videos into encrypted files And store them in a secure place, so no one can see or read that without your permission. Very useful for social media apps like dating, WhatsApp, Facebook, Messanger etc. If you don't want other unwanted users to read the text. Simply Changing keys can help you and your friend to read only the message. This is called Cryptography. Secret Message uses Encryption to make text unreadable and Decrypt them to see the Original Message. Features in App Private Message: Make a Secret Message and share it with your friends. Tell them to use Secret Message to read the message. It is recommended to change keys if you are sharing an important message. Keep your message private and unreadable by anyone. Private Photo & Video: Convert Photo or Video and share it with your friends. Your friend has to download same app to see your private photo or video or file. Keep your files private and unreadable by anyone. App Locking: Secret Message makes your key inaccessible with this. No one can get your key without your PIN. If you forgot your PIN. You will lose access to all of your Key and your previously Encrypted messages. Secure: Secret Message encrypts and decrypts messages using a very strong default key and it uses 128-bit AES method. No one can hack it and see your messages. Key Changing: This option in Secret Message makes the message only readable to the users who put the same key in their app in the settings. You can even generate a random/new/powerful key and share it with your friends.

Screenshots

The Vault4 screens
Secret Message4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Secret Message at none against The Vault's 11. Secret Message also leads on iOS requirement (12.0 vs 18.2). The Vault's advantage is update cadence (every 9 days vs every 8 months). On price, ads and device support 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. The Vault sells 11 one-off in-app purchases. Secret Message asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

The Vault ships an update every 9 days, Secret Message every 8 months. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
The Vault versus Secret Message: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThe VaultSecret Message
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.7 (162 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews64.9% of reviews—
Number of ratings162 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 9 days — betterEvery 8 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS18.212.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size66 MB42 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBestApps BVPramod Tapaniya

In-app purchases

11 purchases

The Vault

One-time11
  • theVault Import$1.99
  • theVault Export$1.99
  • theVault Secure Backup & Restore$1.99
Show 8 more
  • Rich Text Formatting$1.99
  • Light & Dark Mode Appearance$3.99
  • theVault securePDF$4.99
  • Hidden Folders$4.99
  • SecureShare$4.99
  • Automatic Bulleted List$4.99
  • The Vault Secure Synchronization$9.99
  • The Vault - Password AutoFill$9.99
None

Secret Message

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is The Vault free?
The Vault is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Secret Message free?
Secret Message is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do The Vault or Secret Message have ads?
Neither The Vault nor Secret Message shows ads.
Which is updated more often, The Vault or Secret Message?
The Vault ships an update every 9 days, and Secret Message every 8 months. Most recently, The Vault was updated on October 20, 2026 and Secret Message on October 10, 2026.

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