Breadth or depth
SPV takes the wide approach: photos, contacts, passwords and a private browser, all behind a single PIN. If what you want is one place for several kinds of private thing, that is a reasonable design and clearly a popular one.
The trade-off shows up in what the listing does not say. It describes PIN protection, not encryption, and it does not name a cipher. That distinction only matters in one situation — when someone reaches the storage without going through the app — but that is exactly the situation a vault is for.
What encryption changes
Vaultine encrypts each file with AES-256-GCM before it is written, and splits and randomises the stored data so nothing on disk resembles the original. The key comes from your 5x5 pattern or six-digit PIN and is never stored anywhere.
Pull the drive, mount it on another machine, run recovery software over it: without your code there is nothing readable to find. That is a different claim from "the app will not show these photos without a PIN", and it is the one worth checking before you trust an app with anything sensitive.
The subscription question
Pricing complaints are the second most common theme in SPV's recent negative reviews, behind losing files. Its App Store listing shows several premium tiers ranging from $4.99 to $39.99, plus a $19.99 lifetime option.
Vaultine Pro is $1.99 a month, $14.99 a year, or $39.99 once. The free tier already includes the same AES-256-GCM encryption as Pro — paying adds capacity and the Decoy and Duress vaults, not better cryptography.
One vault, four platforms
SPV is an iPhone app. Vaultine runs on Windows, macOS, iOS and Android, which matters if the files you most want protected are the documents on a laptop rather than the photos on a phone.
