Comparison

Vaultly vs Private Docs Vault

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

Head to head
About

Vaultly

Features
Read full description

Encrypted. On your device. No account. A secure folder for photos, videos, IDs and seed phrases. Vaultly is an air-gapped, zero-server safe for confidential documents, contracts, receipts, crypto seed phrases, and personal files or photos you need to keep completely private. It runs entirely on your device — there is no sign-up, no cloud account and no network request of any kind. Vaultly works exactly the same in airplane mode. REAL ENCRYPTION, NOT A LOCK SCREEN Every file is individually encrypted with AES-256-GCM before it touches disk. The key is created on this device and never leaves it. Nothing inside is a plain file sitting behind a PIN. DOCUMENTS, RECEIPTS, CONTRACTS & MEDIA • PDFs, contracts, scans, receipts, and Office documents • Sensitive records and private notes • Photos and personal videos, moved completely out of your library • Add from Files, Photos, the clipboard, or the share sheet in any app • View, play and export anything, whenever you want SEED PHRASE COMPARTMENT — NEW A separate compartment for your crypto wallets' recovery words (seed phrases), with its own password and its own encryption key — it stays locked even while the vault is open. 12–24 words, a label, an optional passphrase and a note, with BIP39 checksum validation as you type. No server, no sync, no wallet connection: Vaultly never touches your funds; it only keeps the words safe. HOW YOU GET IN A 6-digit PIN, a pattern, or Face ID / Touch ID. The PIN is the fallback that always works. Vaultly locks itself when you leave, covers its own screen in the app switcher, and blanks out if the screen is being recorded. BACKUPS YOU CONTROL Save an encrypted backup to any folder you like — iCloud Drive, another cloud, or an external disk. It carries its own password, so even sitting in cloud storage only you can open it. On a new phone, pick the package and your vault comes back exactly as it was. A 12-word recovery phrase is created together with your vault. It belongs to the vault itself — separate from the wallet seed phrases you keep in the compartment — and is the second way in if the PIN is ever lost. It also opens the compartment if you forget its password. WHAT IS FREE — AND STAYS FREE Up to 50 files and unlimited seed phrase records. Everything that protects them is included and never sold separately: encryption, Face ID, the recovery phrase, backup, restore and export. If you stop paying, nothing is locked, blurred or held hostage — your files stay viewable and exportable. What Premium sells is capacity and concealment, not access to your own data. PREMIUM • Unlimited files • Decoy vault — a second PIN opens a second, cryptographically separate vault: the one you show when you are made to unlock. A panic PIN hides the real one entirely. • Disguise — a real, playable 2048 instead of a lock screen, with a matching home-screen icon • Alternate app icon • Automatic backup — your vault backs itself up, encrypted, to the folder you choose at the interval you set, adding only what changed Available monthly, yearly with a free trial, or as a one-time lifetime purchase. APPLE FRAMEWORKS ONLY AES-256-GCM through CryptoKit, the Secure Enclave for the biometric key, no third-party SDKs, no analytics, no crash reporting. iPhone and iPad. SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS Vaultly Premium is available as a monthly or yearly auto-renewing subscription, or as a one-time lifetime purchase that never renews. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period; manage or cancel them in Settings → Apple Account → Subscriptions. Any unused portion of a free trial is forfeited when a subscription is purchased. Privacy Policy: https://vaultly.aregesoft.com/app/apple/privacy.html Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Private Docs Vault

Securely store and encrypt your private photos, videos, and files locally on your device. Access them with Face ID/Touch ID and a PIN, with no cloud uploads or analytics. Offers advanced encryption and a range of organizational tools.

Highlights
  • Local encrypted vault
  • Face ID/Touch ID and PIN access
  • AES-256-GCM encryption
  • No cloud uploads or analytics
  • Built-in camera for direct encryption
  • Encrypted backups
  • Multiple vaults
Features
Read full description

Private Docs Vault is a local encrypted vault with no backdoor. Add photos, videos, PDFs or any file and it is encrypted immediately with AES-256-GCM. It opens only after Face ID / Touch ID plus the 6-digit vault PIN you choose. Fully offline No server, no uploads, no analytics, no ads or trackers. The only network use is App Store purchase verification, handled by iOS. Real encryption, not just hiding Every file is encrypted in chunks; file names and the index are encrypted too. The file key is protected by your recovery key plus your vault PIN together; the recovery key lives in the iOS Keychain and is released only by Face ID / Touch ID, never by the device passcode. Five wrong PINs in a row destroy everything. What you get • Add from Files or Photos; originals are never modified • Live Photos stay Live Photos: touch and hold to play, and save back to Photos with the motion • Built-in camera: photos and videos encrypted directly, never touching the photo library • Video streams while decrypting, PDF text search, Markdown reader • Folders, search, sorting, favorites and recents • Multiple vaults: different PINs open different vaults, and the app never reveals how many exist • Auto-lock delay, automatic blackout during screen recording and mirroring • Password-protected AES zips that open in 7-Zip and friends • Encrypted backups to Files or iCloud Drive • Share area (for your Mac): a clearly labelled UNENCRYPTED folder you drag files in and out of with Finder over a cable • Password list: encrypted, one-tap copy • Notes, PDF merge and split, duplicates • iPad split-view layout The free plan stores up to 50 files or 1 GB, whichever comes first. “No Storage Limit” is the only paid item: a one-time purchase that is yours forever. It removes the cap (files stay on your device, so free space is the real limit) and includes password zips, batch export, encrypted backups, the password list, PDF merge and split, and the Share area. No subscription, no auto-renewal; restore it for free on other devices with the same Apple Account. Optional “Support the developer” tips can be bought any number of times. They are just a thank-you and unlock nothing. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Important Setup gives you a recovery key. After switching phones, restoring a backup, changing Face ID or turning off the device passcode, that key plus your vault PIN brings the vault back. Forgetting your PIN, or losing both the recovery key and the phone, makes the content unrecoverable. That is by design: there is no backdoor. Make encrypted backups regularly. Privacy policy: https://musicloveai.github.io/filevault-site/privacy.html

Screenshots

Vaultly4 screens
Private Docs Vault4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Private Docs Vault at every 2 days against Vaultly's every 4 days. On price, ads, in-app purchases 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. Vaultly sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Private Docs Vault sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Vaultly ships an update every 4 days, Private Docs Vault every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 8 level
Vaultly versus Private Docs Vault: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterVaultlyPrivate Docs Vault
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 daysEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
Monetization—Free with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size15 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAbdullah AYAZJHIH YUN CHEN

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Vaultly

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Yearly14 Days trial$24.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime$49.99
5 purchases

Private Docs Vault

One-time5
  • A coffee$1.99
  • A lunch$4.99
  • No Storage Limit$4.99
Show 2 more
  • A dinner$9.99
  • Generous$99.99

Questions

Is Vaultly free?
Vaultly is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Private Docs Vault free?
Private Docs Vault is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Vaultly or Private Docs Vault have ads?
Neither Vaultly nor Private Docs Vault shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Vaultly or Private Docs Vault?
Vaultly ships an update every 4 days, and Private Docs Vault every 2 days. Most recently, Vaultly was updated on October 25, 2026 and Private Docs Vault on October 31, 2026.

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