Privately vs Weave Vault

Privately is an iPhone vault for photos and videos, with media encrypted on the device. It splits files into 1 MB blocks protected by AES-256-GCM, while the user’s PIN wraps a master key stored in the iPhone Secure Enclave. Albums can have separate passwords, and their locked photos disappear from the timeline, search, and favorites; Face ID unlocking is optional. On-device Smart Search can find text in photos in 18 languages without sending the photos off the iPhone. Users can export a.privately backup and restore it on a new device with their PIN; the maker says backups can be kept in iCloud Drive or elsewhere. The maker says it has no accounts or servers holding photos, file names, or thumbnails. The Free plan costs nothing, with no sign-up required. Pro Yearly costs $39.99 a year and includes locked albums and encrypted backups. The yearly subscription has a 7-day free trial; the weekly subscription has no free trial. The app is only for iPhone and requires iOS 18.0 or later. The maker says forgotten PIN access or losing a device without a backup can mean permanent content loss.

Weave Vault is a mobile encrypted vault for private photos, videos, PDFs, and documents, available on Android and iOS. A pattern drawn on a 5×5 grid derives the key; an unrecognized pattern opens a fresh, empty vault rather than showing an error. The app supports files up to 16 GB and includes sealed folders, duress mode, and a camera that captures directly into the vault. Its security page says AES-256-GCM seals files, thumbnails, metadata, vault manifests, and key-wrapping headers. A 12-word recovery phrase appears once when a vault is created. If both the pattern and phrase are lost, the vault cannot be recovered. Optional encrypted backup requires Pro and stores ciphertext in the user's iCloud or Google Drive; restoring does not require Pro. Sharing sends a point-in-time copy that expires within at most 30 days and can be revoked earlier. The free plan allows up to three vaults and 50 files per vault. Annual, monthly, and lifetime Pro prices are shown in the app at purchase time; the annual plan includes a seven-day free trial for new subscribers.