Cryptomator and Sealed, side by side

Disclosure. Sealed is made by Loopware LLC. We read Cryptomator’s App Store listing and its own pages on 13 November 2026, and did not install it. Where it is the better tool, we say so.

A lock for your cloud, or a place on your phone

Cryptomator does not store anything itself. You give a folder in your cloud a password, and it calls that folder a vault: whatever you save into it is encrypted before the cloud sees it (listing). Your files then live in iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive or another service, and you browse them in the Files app.

Sealed works the other way round. The vault is in the app, on your iPhone, and the cloud is only where an encrypted backup goes. Your files never leave your iPhone unless you turn on iCloud backup or export them yourself. Backup goes to your own iCloud account, not to a server of ours.

So the real question is where you want the photos to sit day to day: in a cloud folder that every computer can reach, or in an app on the phone.

Side by side

Where Cryptomator is ahead

• Any cloud, any computer. One vault can be reached from your phones and computers through the cloud you already use (listing). Sealed runs on iPhone and iPad.
• No storage limit of its own. Room is whatever your cloud plan gives you, for any kind of file.
• Code you can read. Its iOS code is public and it has been audited (listing).
• Pay once. Write access on iOS is a single purchase (pricing).

What changes for photos in particular

A cloud folder suits documents well. Photos are harder. With a folder tool, the pictures you want to protect still start in the camera roll, and you move them through the Files app yourself (listing). The originals stay in Photos until you delete them, and the same is true with a vault app. Until you delete them, the originals stay in Photos, outside the vault.

A vault app is built around that step. Photos and videos are sealed the moment they arrive, and afterwards you can remove the originals from Photos if you like. After you import photos, Sealed asks whether to delete the originals from Photos or keep them, and says that deleted originals move to Recently Deleted in Photos. It also gives you a grid of thumbnails rather than a list of files, and the thumbnails are sealed too. Thumbnails are encrypted like the photos, and Sealed wipes the decrypted copies it shows in the grid when the vault locks.

If you leave a vault app one day, you want a way out that does not depend on it. The open copy keeps a copy of your vault in your iCloud Drive, in a folder named Sealed, that opens without the app on any computer, with your recovery key and the Sealed reader. Our guide to locking files in the Files app covers the built-in options, and end-to-end encrypted photo storage explains what “only you hold the key” means in practice.

Who should pick which

Choose Cryptomator if your files must open on a Windows PC or a Mac, if you want to stay with the cloud you pay for, or if you care most about open, audited code (listing).

Choose a vault if most of what you protect is photos and videos taken on the phone, and you want them sealed the moment they arrive. If you are weighing other tools too, read our comparison with an encrypted drive and with the Files app.

Where Sealed helps, and where it doesn’t

It helps if you want photos sealed inside one app, with no account. Sealed has no account, so there is nothing to sign up for. Photos and videos are sealed the moment they arrive, and afterwards you can remove the originals from Photos if you like.

It helps if you want a backup that is part of the app. Encrypted iCloud backup is free. Files, names, notes and record fields are encrypted on your iPhone before they are uploaded, so iCloud receives only ciphertext.

It doesn’t run on a Mac, a Windows PC or the web. Sealed runs on iPhone and iPad.

It doesn’t have an outside security audit. Sealed has not had an independent security audit.

It doesn’t keep videos or documents on the free plan. On the free plan you can add photos. Videos, documents, notes and records need Sealed Pro.