AlbumVault vs SPV Photo Vault (2026 Review & Comparison)

SPV - Secret Photo Vault (published by Maple Labs Co., Ltd on the US App Store) often appears near the top of App Store search results when iPhone users search for “secret photo vault”.

If you are considering SPV or looking for an alternative, here is our honest review of what SPV offers on its store listing today and how its security and privacy posture compares with AlbumVault.

SPV Photo Vault review: what is inside the app

According to its US App Store listing (checked 26 October 2026), SPV positions itself as an all-⁠in-⁠one PIN locker rather than a single-⁠purpose cryptographic vault:

• Photos, contacts, passwords and a browser: alongside photo and video albums, SPV includes tabs for storing private contacts, password notes and a built-⁠in web browser.
• PIN and biometric gate: the app opens with a numeric PIN or Face ID / Touch ID.
• Multiple overlapping Premium price tiers: the In-⁠App Purchases list on the US App Store shows ten separate entries all named “Premium” ranging from $4.99 and $6.99 to $12.99, $29.99, $35.99 and $39.99.

Three security and privacy questions to check on SPV

1. “PIN protection” vs named file encryption

SPV’s store description states that it helps you “lockdown your photos, contacts, passwords, and browser with the PIN protection”. It does not state whether imported photos are encrypted on flash storage or merely moved into the app’s sandbox folder behind a PIN screen, and it names no cipher or key derivation function.

AlbumVault Every photo and video is encrypted on your phone before it is saved. 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.

2. Cross-⁠app tracking on the App Store privacy label

On the US App Store listing for SPV, the developer discloses Data Used to Track You (“The following data may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies”).

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

3. Backup and switching phones

SPV’s App Store description does not document an encrypted offline backup format or recovery phrase for moving between phones.

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. 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. AlbumVault is built for iPhone and Android. Move a vault between them with an encrypted transfer file and its recovery phrase.

Which to choose

Pick SPV - Secret Photo Vault if:

1. You specifically want a single app that combines a photo folder, a separate contacts list and an in-⁠app web browser behind a PIN screen.

Pick AlbumVault if:

1. You want every photo, video and thumbnail encrypted on your device with a named authenticated cipher rather than just hidden behind a PIN screen.
2. You do not want a photo vault app that reports Data Used to Track You to third-⁠party companies.
3. You want separate vaults per pattern (including a guest vault and an emergency pattern), an offline 12-⁠word recovery phrase, and transparent pricing (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.).

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).