One-Time Payment Photo Vault for iPhone: Pay Once
Yes, you can pay once. Cryptile Plus costs $39.99 once, or $19.99 a year if you prefer, and the free plan needs no payment at all. Before you pay once for any vault, check what "lifetime" covers and what happens to your photos if the app stops.
Try Cryptile free: join the beta on TestFlight
What do I need to know?
- Pay-once pays off after two years. $39.99 once costs the same as two years at $19.99.
- Check the in-app purchase list. An App Store listing shows its in-app purchases and their prices. Look for weekly plans hidden below the headline price.
- Your photos matter more than the price. Ask how you get them back if the app or the company goes away.
Why do so many vault apps charge a subscription?
Some run servers: accounts, cloud storage or sharing. Servers cost money every month, so a subscription follows. Others simply earn more that way.
A vault with no account and no server has fewer running costs. That is one reason a one-time price can work.
What should I check before paying once?
- Does it encrypt? A one-time price for an app that only hides photos is still a bad deal.
- What does "lifetime" include? Check that it removes every limit, not just ads.
- Who is it for? Some purchases cover one person only. Cryptile's do.
- Is there a free trial or free plan? Try the app with a few photos before paying anything.
- Can you get your photos back on a new phone? You need a backup you can restore without the developer's help.
- Are the prices stable? Watch for countdown timers and "today only" offers.
How does Cryptile price it?
- Free: 2 vaults, 100 photos and 10 videos. Encrypted iCloud backup is included.
- Plus yearly: $19.99 a year with a 7-day free trial.
- Plus once: $39.99, paid one time.
Plus removes the limits and adds more decoy vaults, the panic pattern and search inside the vault. There is no weekly or monthly plan, and the price is the same every day. Each purchase is for one person.
Should I pick yearly or once?
- Trying it out: start free, or take the 7-day trial on the yearly plan.
- Keeping it for more than two years: pay once.
- Not sure you need more than 100 photos: stay on the free plan.
If you start the trial and decide against it, cancel at least 24 hours before it ends. Settings → your name → Subscriptions → Cryptile → Cancel Subscription. Apple's cancel page has the steps for iOS 27.
What happens to my photos if the app stops?
This is the question most vault listings skip. With Cryptile, your vault is backed up to your own iCloud as encrypted files. You restore it with your 9-word recovery phrase, and there is no Cryptile server in the loop.
The encryption core is published for audit, with test vectors, so how the files are encrypted is documented outside the app. Our security page links to it.
What this doesn't protect against
A one-time price does not make an app safer. A vault is only as strong as your pattern, so use 8 or more cells. If you lose both your pattern and your recovery phrase, the vault is gone, whatever you paid. Cryptile Send, Files-app access, shared vaults and sync between devices are coming and are not available yet.
Do it with Cryptile
Cryptile encrypts photos, videos, files and notes with AES-256-GCM under a key made from a pattern you draw. There is no account and no server, and the developer never holds your keys.
Cryptile is free for up to 2 vaults, 100 photos and 10 videos. Plus is $19.99 a year (7-day free trial) or $39.99 once.