PV - Secret Photo AlbumCompare
sigil. vs PV Secret Photo Album
PV Secret Photo Album vs sigil.: encryption claims, recovery email, tracking label, cloud backup and price compared with verified facts and switch steps.
Short answer: choose PV Secret Photo Album if you want lots of free local space, optional cloud backup to services you already use, and a way to reset a forgotten passcode by email — and you can live with ads in the free version. Choose sigil. if you want a vault with no account, no ads and no server, where the key comes from a sign only you know and nobody can reset it for you.
Both apps keep photos out of the regular Photos library behind a lock. The difference is what sits around the vault: PV offers recovery, cloud options and a free tier funded by ads; sigil. keeps everything on the phone and nothing anywhere else.
- Price
- Free · Pro €39.99 once or €19.99/yrUS App Store: PV Pro $3.99/mo or $17.99/yr; Super Member 20 GB $29.99/yr
- Lifetime option
- €39.99 once, no subscriptionPermanent Membership $41.99
- Free tier
- 100 photos and documents + 10 videos per vault, 1 vault + decoy vaultFree unlimited local storage, with ads
- Account required
- No account at allOptional recovery email for a forgotten passcode
- Encryption
- 256-bit encryption; key unlocked by your pattern (Argon2id, bound to the secure chip)Mentions 'data encryption'; no cipher named
- Zero-knowledge
- Yes — no server, we never see anything—
- Multiple vaults
- Up to 7 vaults with Pro, one pattern each; the app never lists them—
- Decoy vault
- Free: a decoy pattern opens a decoy vault with harmless photos and erases nothingFake password
- Disguised icon
- Neutral utility icons that don't say vault.Customizable app icon
- Private camera
- Photos never touch the Camera Roll—
- EXIF / location removal
- Location/EXIF stripped on import and export—
- Cloud sync
- No — local-first, no cloud backup yetCloud sync for Super members; backup to Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, OneDrive
- Unlock
- Only the pattern you draw — no Face ID or Touch ID, by designPassword, Face ID, Touch ID
- Break-in alerts
- No intruder photos; optional self-destruct after too many wrong patterns—
- Platforms
- iPhone onlyiPhone, iPad
| Feature | sigil. | PV - Secret Photo Album |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free · Pro €39.99 once or €19.99/yr | US App Store: PV Pro $3.99/mo or $17.99/yr; Super Member 20 GB $29.99/yr |
| Lifetime option | €39.99 once, no subscription | Permanent Membership $41.99 |
| Free tier | 100 photos and documents + 10 videos per vault, 1 vault + decoy vault | Free unlimited local storage, with ads |
| Account required | No account at all | Optional recovery email for a forgotten passcode |
| Encryption | 256-bit encryption; key unlocked by your pattern (Argon2id, bound to the secure chip) | Mentions 'data encryption'; no cipher named |
| Zero-knowledge | Yes — no server, we never see anything | — |
| Multiple vaults | Up to 7 vaults with Pro, one pattern each; the app never lists them | — |
| Decoy vault | Free: a decoy pattern opens a decoy vault with harmless photos and erases nothing | Fake password |
| Disguised icon | Neutral utility icons that don't say vault. | Customizable app icon |
| Private camera | Photos never touch the Camera Roll | — |
| EXIF / location removal | Location/EXIF stripped on import and export | — |
| Cloud sync | No — local-first, no cloud backup yet | Cloud sync for Super members; backup to Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, OneDrive |
| Unlock | Only the pattern you draw — no Face ID or Touch ID, by design | Password, Face ID, Touch ID |
| Break-in alerts | No intruder photos; optional self-destruct after too many wrong patterns | — |
| Platforms | iPhone only | iPhone, iPad |
Security model
On encryption, PV's App Store listing says this: Mentions 'data encryption'; no cipher named. We could not find a description of how the passcode relates to the encryption key, so we can't say whether a wrong passcode is checked against a stored value or simply fails to decrypt. Unlock options, per the listing: Password, Face ID, Touch ID.
sigil. works by derivation, not by comparison. You draw a sign on a 5×5 dot grid; that sign goes through Argon2id and is bound to the phone's secure chip, and the result unlocks the 256-bit key that decrypts the vault. A wrong sign doesn't fail a check, it just unlocks nothing. The details are in pattern encryption, and pattern lock vs PIN vs password covers how the sign compares with a passcode.
There is no Face ID or Touch ID in sigil., by design. A face or a finger can be pressed onto the phone by someone else; a sign has to be drawn by you.
Privacy
Account: Optional recovery email for a forgotten passcode. The recovery email is optional, but if you set it up, your vault is linked to an address.
PV's App Store privacy label reads: App Store privacy label: Data Used to Track You (Identifiers, Usage Data); email linked to you. That is the developer's own declaration to Apple, and it is worth reading before you put documents or IDs in the app.
sigil. has no account, no email and no server. We don't know who you are, how many vaults you have or what is in them. The app sends no usage statistics. Nobody has the key, not even us.
Features
Decoy vault. PV offers a decoy: Fake password. sigil. has a decoy vault too, opened by its own decoy pattern, while your other vaults stay hidden. It is free.
Multiple vaults. In sigil. every sign opens its own vault and the app never lists them, so nothing in the app shows how many there are (multiple hidden vaults). The PV listing doesn't describe separate vaults behind separate passcodes.
Disguised icon. PV: Customizable app icon. sigil. can show a neutral icon that doesn't say vault (disguised icon).
Camera. sigil.'s private camera writes straight into the encrypted vault, so the photo never touches the Camera Roll. We could not verify an equivalent in the PV listing.
Break-in alerts. sigil. doesn't take intruder photos. Instead, the optional self-destruct (free, off by default) erases the vaults after too many wrong signs. The PV listing doesn't mention intruder photos.
Metadata. sigil. strips EXIF and location on import and export. Check any file with the photo metadata viewer.
Price
PV's paid plans on the US App Store: US App Store: PV Pro $3.99/mo or $17.99/yr; Super Member 20 GB $29.99/yr. One-time option: Permanent Membership $41.99. Free version: Free unlimited local storage, with ads.
sigil. is free with every feature included (decoy vault, self-destruct, disguised icon): 100 photos and documents plus 10 videos per vault, one vault plus the decoy vault. Pro lifts the photo and video limits and gives you up to 7 vaults, each opened by its own pattern: €39.99 once, lifetime, no subscription, or €19.99 per year. No free trial and no monthly plan. Over the free limit nothing is locked; you just can't add more. See pricing.
Where PV Secret Photo Album is better
- Free storage. PV's free version has no item cap; sigil.'s free plan stops at 100 photos and documents plus 10 videos per vault.
- Cloud backup. Cloud sync for Super members; backup to Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, OneDrive. sigil. has no cloud backup yet. Read how to securely back up private photos before relying on any local-only vault.
- iPad. PV runs on iPhone, iPad. sigil. is iPhone-only today.
- Passcode recovery. A forgotten passcode can be reset through the recovery email. In sigil., a lost sign without the recovery phrase means the vault is gone.
- Track record. PV has been on the App Store for years, with 30K ratings on the US App Store. sigil. is new.
How to switch from PV Secret Photo Album to sigil.
- In PV, open the album you want to move, select the items and export them to the Photos library.
- Install sigil., draw your sign and write the recovery phrase on paper.
- Import the exported items into your vault. Location and EXIF data are stripped on import.
- Open a few items in sigil. to confirm they are there.
- Delete the exported copies from Photos, then empty Recently Deleted (how to delete Recently Deleted photos).
- When everything has moved, delete the items in PV and, if you used one, any cloud backup you made from it.
Verdict
PV Secret Photo Album is a generous, long-running vault: lots of free space, backup to the cloud services you already use, and an email safety net for a forgotten passcode. The cost is ads in the free version, an optional link to your email, and a privacy label that declares tracking data. sigil. gives up the cloud and the reset button in exchange for no account, no server and a key that only your sign unlocks. If you want the vault to answer to nobody but you, sigil. fits better. If you need backup today, PV does that and sigil. does not yet.
For more options, see the best private photo vault apps for iPhone.
Frequently asked questions
Is sigil. a good alternative to PV Secret Photo Album?
If you want a vault with no account, no ads and no server, yes. If you depend on cloud backup or on resetting a forgotten passcode by email, PV covers that and sigil. does not.
Can PV Secret Photo Album recover a forgotten passcode?
The App Store listing describes an optional recovery email for a forgotten passcode. sigil. has no email and no reset: the only way back is your recovery phrase.
Does sigil. back up to the cloud like PV?
No. sigil. is local-first and has no cloud backup yet. If the phone is lost and you have no copy elsewhere, the vaults are lost with it.
How do I move my photos from PV to sigil.?
Export the items from PV to Photos, import them into a sigil. vault, check they open, then delete the exported copies from Photos and empty Recently Deleted.
App names and icons belong to their owners; used only to identify the products compared.