Subscription or pay once?
A vault app that holds your photos on its servers has a bill every month. One that holds nothing does not. That single fact explains most of the pricing in this category.
Why vault apps charge every year
Cloud storage costs the developer every month, for as long as your photos sit there. A recurring price is not a trick.
An app that stores nothing has no monthly cost to pass on. A subscription there is margin, not infrastructure.
What the years add up to
- Keepsafe
- $23.99 a year. About $120 after five years, about $240 after ten. Photos on its servers, so the cost is at least real.
- Private Photo Vault
- About $19.99 a year, for files that published research found stored without encryption.
- AlterVault
- $19.99 once. The same $19.99 after five years and after ten. Nothing on a server, so nothing to keep paying for.
The honest risk of paying once, and how AlterVault covers it
A subscription only gets paid if you stay. A one-time purchase has already been paid. The risk is an app nobody maintains.
- Full-quality export, any time
- Share or save any item back out at the original resolution. Nothing is held hostage.
- A backup file you keep
- Your whole library writes to one encrypted file. If the app vanished from the store, your installed copy keeps working and that file is the way out.
- A real free tier
- Ten items, with the encryption, the decoy, the shake and the backup all included. Test the whole thing before paying.
Photos
Files