“Commercials — Too many commercials and there were none before and it was free regardless.”
Independent automated assessment · 3 signal sources · 1,600 reviews scanned · analyzed 2026-10-06.
4.8 ★1,016,353 ratings
—Downloads
17+Age rating
172 MBApp size
FreeIn-app purchases
About this app
The Best and Most Private Photo and Video App for iPhone and iPad.
Millions of people trust Private Photo Vault® to keep their photos hidden.
Top 100 Photography App in USA, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, India, Italy, Finland, UK, South Africa, Egypt, Mexico, Malaysia, Australia, Hong Kong, France, Ireland, Germany and many more countries.
Reviews for Photo Vault®: * * * * * "Wow, I have been wanting a way to hide some of my photos for a while, this is a perfect solution."
* * * * * "Exactly what I'm looking for, can organize albums and even 'hide' others that I feel I need to."
PROTECT YOUR "SPECIAL" PHOTOS + VIDEOS • Password Protected App Entry • Pin Lock • Pattern/Dot Lock • Password Protected Photo Albums (Keep people out of your private albums) • Break-in Report: Photo + GPS • Decoy Password + Face Down Lock…
Preview
Real screenshots from the store listing.
Independent evidence report
Evidence and review signals
This is where the page changes from an app-store listing into an evidence report: findings, important reviews, pricing and a dated history.
Which version this describes
When we ran this analysis, and what the store lists now.
This analysis describes version 25.8 of the app, analyzed 2026-10-06 . The app may have changed since.
The store currently lists version 25.8, updated 2026-09-17.
What we measured
Each line is a measurement published as a measurement, never a verdict.
Each line is a measurement, published as a measurement. Where we have not looked, the line says so rather than reading as a zero.
Developer replies to reviews
Replies to fewer than 1 review in 20
Price in the store description
States no price and billing period
Cancelling, in the store description
Does not say how to cancel
Themes reported by reviewers
2 themes reported
Counted from the reviews we have read for this app. "No theme reported" means no theme reached our reporting threshold — it is not a finding that nothing is wrong with this app, and we do not say it is.
Five-star share of ratings
80–89% five-star
Arithmetic on the stores' own published rating counts. It says nothing about why the ratings fall where they do.
In the package we scanned
No package has been scanned for this app, so nothing is published about what it ships. That is an absence of evidence about the app, not a finding about it.
Graded bands · predicate set 1.4 · how these are measured
What the analysis found
App-specific findings, grouped by what each one rests on. How they are graded lives on its own page.
One source only — shown, not confirmed 2
A single kind of evidence. We publish these because withholding them would be the bigger distortion, and we do not treat any of them as a finding we stand behind.
Reported by users: Aggressive ad load
Advertising volume or placement that interrupts normal use: ads between every action, unskippable or forced full-screen ads.
What we saw: Aggressive ad load: raised by 17 distinct reviewers (1.1% of 1600 reviews scanned)
Reported by users: Paywall blocks the basics
The core of the app — not extras — sits behind payment, or previously-free function moved behind a paywall.
What we saw: Paywall blocks the basics: raised by 5 distinct reviewers (0.3% of 1600 reviews scanned)
Highlighted reviews
Representative public review excerpts shown as user reports, not Appworthy audit evidence.
““Improvements” — These “improvements” have made this app sluggishly slow to open, any ‘secure’ folders are just as slow to request password/touch-id, and the “improved” icons for secure folders look like icons from 30 years ago. What…”
“Was good until ads — Was the best free app but now they’re making u wanna pay for a subscription. Ads every 3 seconds. Garbage app now.”
Assessment & version history
App changes and Appworthy events in one timeline.
Store listing updated to version 25.8.
What this app sells
Useful store-disclosed pricing, kept below the app listing.
Business modelFree
Prices and terms as disclosed by the store listing.