The ads problem
It is worth leading with this because its own users do. More than half of the recent one and two star reviews mention advertising — not data loss, not the lock, not the price. Ads.
That is an awkward foundation for a privacy app, because ad networks exist to collect behavioural data. It does not mean anyone is reading your photos, but it does mean the free tier of the app you chose for privacy is funded by an industry built on tracking.
Vaultine carries no ads on any tier, and there are no ad SDKs in the app. The free version is limited by capacity — one vault, up to 10 files — not by interruptions.
Locked categories, and what a lock does not cover
Secret Photo Vault's organising idea is good: multiple users and categories, each with its own password, plus decoy users so a particular code shows a harmless set. That is more thought than most of this category puts into plausible deniability.
The listing describes locking rather than encryption, and does not name a cipher. That distinction matters in exactly one situation — someone reaching the storage without going through the app — and that is the situation a vault exists for.
Vaultine encrypts each file with AES-256-GCM before it is written, splits and randomises the stored data so nothing on disk resembles the original, and derives the key from your pattern or PIN without ever storing it.
Decoys, and the step past them
A decoy user diverts. Vaultine's Decoy Vault does the same and lets you stock it yourself, so you know precisely what someone sees.
The Duress Vault is the additional tool: a third code opens an empty vault and wipes your real vaults as it does, for the case where the files must not survive at all. Both are Pro features and both are configured deliberately by you.
One vault, four platforms
Secret Photo Vault is an iPhone app. Vaultine runs on Windows, macOS, iOS and Android, which matters if the files you want protected are the documents on a laptop.
