Keepsafe Photo Vault compared with Vaultopaz
Keepsafe suits people who want their photo vault tied to an account, with optional backup to Keepsafe's Private Cloud and a forgotten PIN reset by email. Vaultopaz suits people who want no account and no online service, and who accept that their pattern, recovery phrase and backup file are theirs to keep.
The short version
Keepsafe Photo Vault keeps photos and videos encrypted on the phone, linked to an account with your email address, and can mirror them to Keepsafe’s own Private Cloud. Vaultopaz has no account and no online service: every pattern opens its own encrypted vault, and a backup is a file you export yourself. The choice comes down to whether you want an account and online copy behind your vault, or neither.
Side by side
| Topic | Keepsafe | Vaultopaz |
|---|---|---|
| Where files are stored | Encrypted in Keepsafe’s vault on the phone. With backup on, the vault is mirrored to Keepsafe’s own online Private Cloud. | Encrypted in its own private storage on the phone. No cloud and no servers. |
| How you unlock | A PIN or pattern, with optional fingerprint or face authentication. After too many wrong attempts in a row, Keepsafe blocks new attempts for a short time. | A pattern on a 5 by 5 grid. Wrong patterns in a row wait longer each time, up to 30 seconds. |
| Encryption | Keepsafe says files are encrypted with 256-bit AES as soon as they are added, and that backups are encrypted too. | AES-256-GCM, with keys wrapped by the phone’s hardware keystore. |
| Backup | Optional backup to Keepsafe’s Private Cloud, turned on with the cloud icon. Keepsafe strongly advises keeping it on. | A file you export yourself, sealed with a password or your recovery phrase. |
| Account | Required. You sign up with your name and email address and verify the email. | None. No sign-up, no internet permission and no analytics. |
| If you lose access | A forgotten PIN is reset with an access code sent to the verified email address on the account. | Nine recovery words, shown once at setup, reopen the vault on the same phone. Losing both the pattern and the phrase means the files are gone. |
| Moving to a new phone | Log in on the new phone with an email access code and download the items that were backed up. Items that were never backed up cannot be recovered if the old phone is lost. | Through an encrypted backup file. The recovery phrase alone does not move a vault. |
| Which phones | Android (Google Play) and iOS (App Store), according to Keepsafe’s login guide. | Android 10 or newer, with a hardware-backed keystore. |
Where Keepsafe is the better choice
- An online copy if your phone is lost. Keepsafe offers an optional cloud backup to its own Private Cloud, and items that were backed up can be downloaded again on a new phone after you log in.
- A forgotten PIN is not the end. Keepsafe sends an access code to your verified email address, and you set a new PIN or pattern.
- Quick unlock. Besides a PIN or pattern, Keepsafe can be opened with a fingerprint or face authentication.
- Android and iPhone. Keepsafe’s login guide lists both Google Play and the App Store.
- Extra lock options. The Play listing describes locking when the phone is laid face down. It also describes a separate PIN per album and break-in alerts that photograph someone who tries to get in, but places those two outside the basic Keepsafe app.
Where Vaultopaz is different
- No account at all. Vaultopaz asks for no name and no email address. It has no servers, no internet permission and no analytics.
- No online service. The encrypted backup is one portable file, sealed with a password or your recovery phrase. It opens on another phone without this phone’s hardware key, and Vaultopaz itself never uploads it.
- One pattern, one vault. Each pattern opens its own vault. The unlock screen never lists vaults, and a pattern that opens nothing gets the same quiet refusal as a mistyped one.
- Encryption on the device. Files, notes and metadata are encrypted with AES-256-GCM, with keys derived through Argon2id and wrapped by the phone’s hardware keystore.
- Notes, folders and search. Next to photos and any other file, a vault holds encrypted notes, nested folders, name search and sorting.
- Camera into the vault. A photo taken inside Vaultopaz is encrypted at once and never reaches the gallery.
- Auto-lock and screenshot block. The vault locks immediately or 30 seconds, 2 or 5 minutes after you leave, and content screens refuse screenshots and screen recording.
Because there is no account, nobody can reset a vault for you: losing both the pattern and the recovery phrase means the files are gone. Vaultopaz opens images, videos, text files and notes in its viewer; PDFs and other documents are stored and can be exported, but they do not open inside the vault. It has not had an independent security review yet.
Moving from Keepsafe to Vaultopaz
There is no automatic transfer. Export the photos you want from Keepsafe; Keepsafe says exported files are decrypted back to normal files. Then import them in Vaultopaz through the Android system file picker. Vaultopaz does not delete the originals, so remove the exported copies yourself once everything has arrived in the vault.
Before you rely on Vaultopaz alone, write down your recovery phrase and make an encrypted backup, since there is no account to fall back on. For a comparison with a vault that is built into Google Photos, see Vaultopaz vs Google Photos Locked Folder.
Good to know: the limits
- The app has not had an independent security review yet.
- Losing both the pattern and the recovery phrase means the files are gone. There is no account and no reset.
- The recovery phrase works only on the same phone. Moving to another device needs an encrypted backup file.
- Unlock is by pattern only, on purpose. A pattern is knowledge you can keep to yourself, and a quick fingerprint or face unlock would give away that a vault exists.
- Only wrong patterns in a row wait, longer each time up to 30 seconds; a correct pattern or fifteen quiet minutes reset the count. Someone who knows one pattern, a decoy included, can reset the wait that way, so the wait only slows a person who knows no pattern; a longer pattern is the real protection. After a phone restart the quiet time cannot be proven, so the last count carries into the next attempt once.
- The viewer opens images, videos, text files and notes. Videos play with the phone's own decoder straight from the encrypted file, so a format the phone cannot decode shows a message instead; PDFs and other documents are stored and exportable but not shown inside the vault.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an account to use Keepsafe?
Yes. On Android you sign up with your name and email address and verify the email before you create a PIN. Logging in on a new or second device needs an access code sent to that email.
What if I forget my Keepsafe PIN?
Keepsafe resets a forgotten PIN with an access code sent to the verified email address on the account. On Android you start this from the menu with Reset PIN, and Keepsafe waits 5 minutes before it sends the code.
Can I move my Keepsafe photos to Vaultopaz?
Not automatically. Export them from Keepsafe, which says exported files are decrypted back to normal files. Then import them in Vaultopaz through the Android file picker and remove the exported copies yourself.
What happens in Vaultopaz if I forget my pattern?
The nine recovery words reopen the vault on the same phone. There is no account and no email code, so losing both the pattern and the recovery phrase means the files are gone.