Keepsafe alternative
The Keepsafe alternative that keeps your photos off the cloud.
Secure Folder: Incogni Vault and Keepsafe solve the same problem — hiding private photos and videos behind a lock — but they take opposite positions on one question: where your photos live. Keepsafe is built around an account and its Private Cloud, so your photos sync across devices and can be recovered if you lose your phone — which also means they sit on a company's servers, reachable by a subpoena or a breach, and behind a recurring cloud bill. Secure Folder has no account and no server: your photos stay on your iPhone and nowhere else. Both offer a fake-PIN decoy and break-in alerts, so the real choice is cloud-and-account convenience versus on-device privacy. This page lays out the trade honestly, including when Keepsafe is the better pick.
The short version
Pick Secure Folder if you want your photos on your device only, with no account. Pick Keepsafe if you want cross-device cloud sync and recovery.
Secure Folder vs Keepsafe, side by side
| Secure Folder | Keepsafe | |
|---|---|---|
| Storage | On your iPhone only | Cloud (Private Cloud) |
| Account / email required | No | Yes |
| Photos leave your device | Never | Synced to their servers |
| Decoy vault (fake PIN) | Yes | Yes |
| Intruder alerts (photo) | Yes (Pro) | Yes |
| Disguised app icon | Yes — 9 icons | Limited |
| Cross-device cloud sync | No | Yes |
| Recover photos if phone lost | Only from your own backup | Yes, from cloud |
| Price | Free + optional Pro (sub or lifetime) | Free + subscription |
Competitor details verified against public sources, July 2026. Apps change — see sources below.
Choose Secure Folder if…
- You don't want your private photos on anyone's servers — no cloud, no account, nothing to breach or subpoena.
- You'd rather pay once (lifetime) than rent cloud storage every month.
- You want a disguised app icon so the vault doesn't advertise itself on your home screen.
Choose Keepsafe if…
- You want your hidden photos backed up and synced across devices, and recoverable if you lose or break your phone.
- You already use Keepsafe across Android and iOS and want one account everywhere.
- Cloud recovery matters more to you than keeping photos strictly on-device.
Common questions
Does Keepsafe store my photos in the cloud?
Yes. Keepsafe is built around an account and its Private Cloud, which syncs your hidden photos across devices and stores them on Keepsafe's servers. Secure Folder has no cloud and no account — photos stay only on your iPhone.
Is there a free Keepsafe alternative?
Secure Folder is free to download and use: the vault, PIN and Face ID lock, decoy vault, and stealth icons are all in the free tier, with a limited number of imports. Incogni Pro (subscription or one-time lifetime) unlocks unlimited imports, intruder alerts, and widgets.
Can I move my photos from Keepsafe to Secure Folder?
Yes. Export your photos out of Keepsafe back to your camera roll, import them into Secure Folder, then delete the originals from Photos. Because Secure Folder stores them on-device, there's no account to create.
What's the catch with on-device storage?
The honest trade-off: with no cloud, there's no automatic recovery if you lose your phone. Keep your own backup of anything irreplaceable. In exchange, your photos are never on a server and your PIN is never reset from outside your device.
See for yourself.
Free to download — your photos stay on your iPhone.
Sources