sigil. vs Secret Photo Album

Short answer: choose Secret Photo Album if you want cloud backup of your vault, Face ID convenience, intruder photos and an iPad app, and you're comfortable with an email account for sync. Choose sigil. if you want a vault with no account and no server, where the encryption key comes from a sign only you know and a decoy pattern opens a decoy vault.

Both apps hide photos behind a lock and both offer a decoy. The main split is cloud and identity: Secret Photo Album can back your photos up to its cloud under your email; sigil. keeps everything on the phone.

sigil.

Secret Photo Album

Price

Free · Pro €39.99 once or €19.99/yrUS App Store 'Premium' items from $1.99 to $51.99

Lifetime option

€39.99 once, no subscription—

Free tier

100 photos and documents + 10 videos per vault, 1 vault + decoy vaultFree download; cloud and unlimited storage are Premium

Account required

No account at allEmail registration needed for cloud sync (Premium)

Encryption

256-bit encryption; key unlocked by your pattern (Argon2id, bound to the secure chip)'Encrypted, PIN-protected storage'; 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 nothingDecoy PIN

Disguised icon

Neutral utility icons that don't say vault.—

Private camera

Photos never touch the Camera RollBuilt-in camera

EXIF / location removal

Location/EXIF stripped on import and export—

Cloud sync

No — local-first, no cloud backup yetUnlimited cloud storage with Premium, tied to your email

Unlock

Only the pattern you draw — no Face ID or Touch ID, by designPIN, Touch ID, Face ID

Break-in alerts

No intruder photos; optional self-destruct after too many wrong patternsBreak-in alerts with intruder photos

Platforms

iPhone onlyiPhone, iPad

sigil. compared with Secret Photo Album

Feature	sigil.	Secret Photo Album
Price	Free · Pro €39.99 once or €19.99/yr	US App Store 'Premium' items from $1.99 to $51.99
Lifetime option	€39.99 once, no subscription	—
Free tier	100 photos and documents + 10 videos per vault, 1 vault + decoy vault	Free download; cloud and unlimited storage are Premium
Account required	No account at all	Email registration needed for cloud sync (Premium)
Encryption	256-bit encryption; key unlocked by your pattern (Argon2id, bound to the secure chip)	'Encrypted, PIN-protected storage'; 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	Decoy PIN
Disguised icon	Neutral utility icons that don't say vault.	—
Private camera	Photos never touch the Camera Roll	Built-in camera
EXIF / location removal	Location/EXIF stripped on import and export	—
Cloud sync	No — local-first, no cloud backup yet	Unlimited cloud storage with Premium, tied to your email
Unlock	Only the pattern you draw — no Face ID or Touch ID, by design	PIN, Touch ID, Face ID
Break-in alerts	No intruder photos; optional self-destruct after too many wrong patterns	Break-in alerts with intruder photos
Platforms	iPhone only	iPhone, iPad

Security model

Secret Photo Album's lock is PIN, Touch ID, Face ID. On encryption, the listing says: 'Encrypted, PIN-protected storage'; no cipher named. We could not find details on how the PIN relates to the encryption key, or how files are protected once they're in its cloud, so we don't make claims either way.

sigil. works without a stored code. You draw a sign on a 5×5 grid; it's hardened with Argon2id and bound to the phone's secure chip, and that unlocks the 256-bit key that decrypts the vault. A wrong sign doesn't fail a check, it opens nothing. More in pattern encryption and pattern lock vs PIN vs password.

sigil. deliberately has no Face ID or Touch ID. Biometrics are convenient, but someone can hold the phone to your face. A sign has to be drawn, and if you're forced, you can draw the decoy pattern instead.

Privacy

Secret Photo Album's cloud: Unlimited cloud storage with Premium, tied to your email. What it takes: Email registration needed for cloud sync (Premium). Its App Store privacy label reads: App Store privacy label: Data Used to Track You (Purchases, Location, Identifiers and more). The label is the developer's own declaration to Apple about app data, not a statement that your photos are shared.

sigil. has no account, no server and no ads. We don't know who you are, how many vaults you have or what's in them. The app sends no usage statistics. The cost of this is real: sigil. has no cloud backup yet.

Features

Decoy vault. Secret Photo Album offers a Decoy PIN. sigil. has a decoy vault too, opened by its own decoy pattern, while your other vaults stay hidden. It's 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 exist (multiple hidden vaults). We could not find multiple separate vaults described in the Secret Photo Album listing.

Break-in alerts. Secret Photo Album has Break-in alerts with intruder photos. sigil. takes no intruder photos. It offers self-destruct instead: after too many wrong signs, the vaults are erased. Free, off by default.

Camera. Secret Photo Album: Built-in camera. sigil.'s private camera writes straight into the encrypted vault, never into the Camera Roll.

Disguised icon and metadata. Not described in the listing we checked. sigil. can show a neutral icon that doesn't say vault (disguised icon), and strips EXIF and location on import and export.

Price

Secret Photo Album on the US App Store: US App Store 'Premium' items from $1.99 to $51.99. Free version: Free download; cloud and unlimited storage are Premium.

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 Secret Photo Album is better

• Cloud backup. Its Premium cloud means a lost phone doesn't have to mean lost photos. sigil. is local-first; if the phone is gone and you have no other copy, so are your vaults. See how to securely back up private photos and lost or stolen phone.
• iPad. It runs on iPhone, iPad. sigil. is iPhone-only today.
• Face ID and Touch ID. If speed matters more to you than resistance to forced unlocks, biometrics are faster than drawing a sign.
• Intruder photos. If you want to know who tried to open the app, it offers that; sigil. doesn't.
• User base. It's an established app with 39K ratings on the US App Store. sigil. is new.

How to switch from Secret Photo Album to sigil.

1. In Secret Photo Album, open the album you want to move, select the items and export them to your iPhone's Photos library. If some items live only in its cloud, download them to the phone first.
2. Install sigil., draw a sign and write the recovery phrase down on paper.
3. Import the exported items into your vault. sigil. strips location and EXIF data on import.
4. Open a few items in sigil. to check they are there and readable.
5. Delete the exported copies from Photos, then empty Recently Deleted (how to delete Recently Deleted photos).
6. Once everything has moved, delete the items in Secret Photo Album, including any cloud copies, cancel any subscription in your App Store settings and, if you no longer need it, close the account.

Verdict

Secret Photo Album is a feature-rich vault with cloud backup, biometrics, a decoy PIN and intruder photos, built around an email account if you want sync. sigil. chooses the opposite trade-off: no account, no server, a key that exists only when you draw your sign, a decoy vault and vaults the app never lists. If you need cloud backup today, Secret Photo Album covers it. If you want your vault to stay private even from the company that makes it, sigil. is the better fit.

For more options, see the best private photo vault apps for iPhone or sigil. vs Keepsafe.