Photo vault apps without a subscription
"Photo vault app with no subscription?" is a question people ask on Reddit every few months, and the answer keeps changing, because apps that sold a one-time unlock keep adding subscriptions on top of it, or quietly replacing it. This page lists what the major iPhone vaults charge right now, from their own App Store listings, and what you get for it.
What they charge
| App | One-time option? | Subscription? | Free tier | Encryption |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private Photo Vault | Yes — "Upgrade", $39.99 | Yes — Premium at $6.99/month, $35.99–39.99/year (several tiers listed) | Yes, with ads; no cloud backup on free | Cloud Vault is encrypted with a password the developer never sees; forget it and cloud data is unrecoverable (their words) |
| Keepsafe | Unclear — nine purchases listed, from $4.99 to $35.99, mostly labelled Premium | Yes — $9.99/month, $23.99/year | Yes, with ads | Listing says "military-grade"; files stored encrypted; cipher not published |
| Vaultaire | Yes — lifetime (its founder quoted $39.99 in an October 2026 interview; the site does not list prices) | Yes — weekly and annual also offered | Yes — 3 vaults, 100 photos and 10 videos | AES-256-GCM on device, key from your pattern, published architecture, recovery passphrase |
| Calculator# | — | Yes | Yes, with ads — 15% of its recent one- and two-star reviews are about the ads | Not stated on the listing; reviews describe videos becoming unplayable after iOS updates |
| Apple's Hidden Album | Free, built in | — | None. Hides from the main library; photos stay in your normal iCloud Photos sync and in every backup | |
| Fifth Pocket | Yes — one lifetime unlock, the only paid product | No. Never. | Yes — 50 items, no ads, full encryption and backup included | AES-256-GCM on device, key from your pattern, recovery key, encrypted backup to your own iCloud |
Why "lifetime" keeps turning into "monthly"
Two things happen. The first is a new premium tier: the lifetime purchase stays valid for the features it covered, and the new features (cloud backup is the usual one) go into a subscription. You still have what you paid for; it just feels like you don't. The second is the one that generates the one-star reviews: a free or lifetime feature moves behind the subscription, and people who paid years ago find themselves asked to pay again. Private Photo Vault's 2026 reviews describe exactly this: "I bought the full version many years ago, why did you change it to pay monthly?" and "Stolen lifetime subscription."
Neither is dishonest in a legal sense. Both are why "no subscription" is something people now search for before they install anything.
Fifth Pocket is coming to iPhone. Real encryption, a recovery key so you can't be locked out, and one price you pay once. Want to know the day it's out?
Tell me when it's out Opens an email to us. One reply when the app launches, nothing else.What "pay once" means for Fifth Pocket
One product in the App Store: a lifetime unlock. No monthly or yearly options exist to move you onto. Everything the app does, including encryption, backup and the recovery key, is in the free tier; the unlock removes the 50-item cap and nothing else. If we ever add a feature that genuinely costs us money to run, it would be a separate thing you could choose, and the unlock you bought would keep doing exactly what it did. We are writing this down here so it can be quoted back at us.
How to check any vault app before you buy
- On the App Store listing, open In-App Purchases. Count the entries. One or two is a simple app; nine means tiers have been added over the years.
- Look for the word auto-renew in the description. If it is there, there is a subscription, whatever the headline says.
- Search the reviews for "lifetime". Happy lifetime buyers rarely mention it; unhappy ones always do.
- Check what happens to backup on the free tier. If the free tier can't back up, your photos are on one phone, and the subscription is really a backup fee.
Sources
- Private Photo Vault on the App Store — in-app purchase list, description. Read 20 October 2026.
- Keepsafe on the App Store — in-app purchase list, description. Read 20 October 2026.
- Vaultaire — free tier limits and recovery passphrase, from its FAQ; lifetime price as stated by its founder in the Starter Story interview, October 2026.
- App Store reviews, US and UK storefronts, 500 most recent each per app, collected 20 October 2026. Quotes are verbatim from public reviews.
All names are trademarks of their owners. Fifth Pocket is not affiliated with any of them. Corrections: hello@fifthpocket.app.