AlbumVault vs Keepsafe

Keepsafe and AlbumVault start from different ideas about accounts. Keepsafe ties your vault to one, which gives you an email PIN reset and a backup that just works. Which app fits you depends mostly on how you feel about that trade, set out below.

What Keepsafe does well

A lot of people use Keepsafe. As seen on 24 October 2026, it was rated 4.7 from about 385,000 ratings in the US App Store and 4.7 from 2.08 million reviews on Google Play, with more than 50 million downloads there.

• Many devices. iPhone (iOS 17 or later), iPad (iPadOS 17 or later) and Apple Vision on Apple’s side, plus Android.
• Built-⁠in cloud backup. Keepsafe creates encrypted backups in its own cloud in case you lose your phone. Free users get their first 200 items backed up, Premium raises that to 10,000, and the Lifetime plan to 100,000.
• Forgiving recovery. If you forget your PIN, you reset it with an access code sent to your account email.
• Biometrics. You set a PIN or pattern, and can open the vault with fingerprint or Face ID.
• Premium extras. A Decoy Vault with its own PIN, for when someone forces you to open the app. Intruder Alerts, which take a photo of anyone who enters a wrong PIN and log the time and date. On Android, Secret Door disguises the app as a calculator or virus scanner.
• Staff access. Keepsafe says it has no system IT admins or employees who can access or view your content.

The core trade-⁠off: account or no account

Keepsafe’s first-⁠time setup asks for your name and email address and then verifies the email. If you forget your PIN, the reset runs through that account’s email. Keepsafe’s help center does not say who holds the keys for the cloud backup.

AlbumVault There is no AlbumVault server, so there is no AlbumVault account to sign up for. We never have your photos or your keys, so we have nothing to hand over. Each vault has its own 12-⁠word recovery phrase (BIP-⁠39), shown once. We never see it and cannot reset it. If you forget your pattern, the phrase gets you back in.

Neither approach is free of cost. An email reset means you can always get back in, so keep that email account well protected. A recovery phrase means nobody else can let you in, so you have to keep the phrase somewhere safe.

Where they differ

Encryption and what is published

Keepsafe’s help center says photos and videos are protected with 256-⁠bit AES as soon as you add them, and all files are encrypted at rest. That article was last edited in December 2019. AlbumVault publishes these details: Files are encrypted in 1 MB pieces with AES-⁠256-⁠GCM; each file gets its own key, and every piece is checked so a changed or reordered piece is refused. Your pattern or PIN is stretched with PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA512 (600,000 rounds) and combined with a key held in your phone’s Secure Enclave (iPhone) or StrongBox/TEE (Android), so it can only be tried on your phone.

The only named independent test in our research is from IOActive, published 19 November 2015. It looked at the free iOS version of that time on a jailbroken iPhone 4S running iOS 7.1.2, bypassed the lock screen and saw album passwords returned in plaintext from the server. That test is almost 11 years old and the app has changed since. Treat it as history, not as a verdict on today’s Keepsafe.

Backup

Keepsafe backs up to its own cloud, with item limits by plan.

AlbumVault Save an encrypted backup file of a vault to Files, a computer or a drive you trust. Only its 12-⁠word recovery phrase opens it. Vault files are left out of your phone’s own iCloud or Google device backup. Backing up a vault is a separate, encrypted step you control.

Decoys, duress and intruder photos

Keepsafe Premium offers a Decoy Vault with a separate PIN, for when you are forced to open the app.

AlbumVault Every pattern or PIN leads to exactly one vault, and a vault can have more than one way in. A pattern that belongs to no vault opens nothing. Draw your emergency pattern and AlbumVault opens your chosen vault and permanently removes access to every other vault on this phone, with no prompt. It needs a second vault, which is part of Pro.

Keepsafe Premium also offers Intruder Alerts, which photograph anyone who enters a wrong PIN.

AlbumVault Break-⁠in photos (Pro): after 3 wrong tries AlbumVault can take a front-⁠camera photo, encrypted so only your vault can open it. The phone’s camera indicator still lights up when the photo is taken, so the person may notice.

Disguise

Keepsafe’s Secret Door is Android only; Keepsafe’s own help article says “Unfortunately Secret Door exists only on Android.”

AlbumVault Icon disguise (Pro): make the app look like a calculator. A code you choose on the calculator brings up the unlock screen; it is a gate, not your key, so a vault still needs its pattern.

Ads and data sharing

Keepsafe Basic, the free tier, is ad supported. Its US App Store privacy label lists advertising data as data used to track you. Its Google Play Data safety section says the app may share personal info, financial info and 3 other data types with third parties, that data is encrypted in transit, and that you can request deletion.

AlbumVault The apps contain no analytics, ad or tracking SDKs. Purchases use Apple’s or Google’s own in-⁠app purchase.

Prices and ratings

As seen on 24 October 2026 in the US stores:

• App Store: free with in-⁠app purchases. Listed options include Keepsafe Monthly Premium at $9.99, Keepsafe Yearly Premium at $23.99 and Keepsafe Premium: Cloud Hider at $35.99, with other Premium options from $4.99. Rating 4.7 from about 385,000 ratings.
• Google Play: contains ads and in-⁠app purchases. The listing showed “40% off Keepsafe Premium,” expiring on 10/31. The web listing does not show prices. Rating 4.7 from 2.08 million reviews.
• Plans: Keepsafe offers Monthly, Yearly and Lifetime plans.

AlbumVault Free: 1 vault, up to 100 photos and 10 videos, encrypted backup file included. Pro: as many vaults as you want, including the guest vault, with no limit on photos and videos.

Which to choose

Pick Keepsafe if:

1. You want to be able to reset a forgotten PIN through your email.
2. You want backup to the app’s own cloud, including 200 items on the free plan.
3. A very large user base matters to you.
4. You are on Android and want the Secret Door disguise.

Pick AlbumVault if:

1. You don’t want to give the app maker an account or an email address.
2. You want a backup file you keep yourself, in Files, on a computer or on a drive you trust, that only your recovery phrase opens.
3. You want a calculator disguise on iPhone (a Pro feature), where Keepsafe’s Secret Door is not offered.
4. You want a vault app with no analytics, ad or tracking SDKs.

Limits to know on the AlbumVault side

AlbumVault does not hide that some private data exists: your phone’s storage settings, and a forensic examiner, can still show that. Deleting is not shredding: a lab that images the phone may recover deleted bytes. Use AlbumVault to keep people out of your photos, not to beat a forensics lab.

The hardware key cannot move to a new phone, so on a new phone, or a phone restored from a backup, a vault opens only with its recovery phrase. Keep the phrase safe before you switch phones.

AlbumVault cannot protect against malware or a jailbroken or rooted phone running code while the vault is open, against what is on screen or shared out once decrypted, or against someone deleting files they can reach (they can destroy data, not read it).