Filen and Sealed, side by side

Disclosure. Sealed is made by Loopware LLC. We read Filen’s listing, home page and pricing on 13 November 2026, and did not install the app.

Where your files sleep at night

With Filen, your files live on its servers. The company says its headquarters and all its servers are in Germany, under German data protection law, and that no one can reach your data, Filen included (home page). You need an account, and the app also offers notes, chats, camera upload and Files app support (listing).

With Sealed, your files live on your iPhone. Your files never leave your iPhone unless you turn on iCloud backup or export them yourself. The only copy elsewhere is the encrypted backup in your own iCloud, if you keep it on. Files, names, notes and record fields are encrypted on your iPhone before they are uploaded, so iCloud receives only ciphertext. You can switch iCloud Backup off again in Settings, under Sync & Backup. Apple says the data an app keeps in a user’s CloudKit private database is accessible only to that user by default, isn’t visible in the developer portal, and counts toward the user’s iCloud storage.

So the choice is less about encryption, which both promise, and more about whose machines you want in the picture: Filen’s (home page), or Apple’s holding ciphertext you made. In your iCloud backup, Apple can see each record’s type, a random record name, when the record was created and changed, the size of its files and how many records there are, but not what is in them.

Side by side

Where Filen is ahead

• Low price per gigabyte. Its smallest plan is 200 GiB for 1.99€ a month (pricing). On the free plan you can add photos. Videos, documents, notes and records need Sealed Pro.
• Open apps. Every app’s code is public (home page). Sealed has not had an independent security audit.
• One provider, one country. If you want your data under German law on servers in Germany, it says exactly that (home page).
• Every device. You reach your files on every device (listing). Sealed runs on iPhone and iPad.

Which iPhones each one runs on

A detail that is easy to miss: Filen’s current app asks for iOS 26.0 or later (listing). Sealed asks for less. Sealed needs iOS 17.0 or later. If your phone or an older iPad in the family can’t move past iOS 18, check the store page before you plan around either app.

What a cloud drive does that a vault doesn’t, and the reverse

A cloud drive is the right tool for files that must open on a laptop or be shared with someone. A vault is the right tool for files that should open on the phone in your hand and nowhere else. You can open Sealed with Face ID or Touch ID, a 4-, 6- or 9-digit passcode, a password or a pattern. Sealed locks as soon as you leave it unless you choose a delay, and it covers its contents in the app switcher. Inside the vault, a record can hold a card, a login or an ID, with fields that stay masked until you ask. Records keep logins, 2FA codes, credit cards, bank accounts, IDs and passports, Wi-Fi networks, recovery codes, license keys, contacts and custom fields. In a record, sensitive fields such as a document number stay masked until you tap Reveal Values and confirm with Face ID or your device passcode, and they mask themselves again after 30 seconds.

Our guide to end-to-end encrypted photo storage compares the cloud side, and an offline vault with no account explains the phone side. How the vault protects your photos has the details of its encryption. Each file gets its own random 256-bit key, and that key is sealed with your vault key.

Where Sealed helps, and where it doesn’t

It helps if you want no account and nothing on a developer’s server. Sealed has no account, so there is nothing to sign up for. We run no server, so there is nothing of yours for us to see.

It helps if your iPhone runs an older iOS. Sealed needs iOS 17.0 or later.

It doesn’t sell storage: the backup takes your iCloud space. Backup uses your iCloud storage, and when it is full Sealed says so and stops adding new items. Apple says the data an app keeps in a user’s CloudKit private database is accessible only to that user by default, isn’t visible in the developer portal, and counts toward the user’s iCloud storage.

It doesn’t open your files on a laptop. Sealed runs on iPhone and iPad.

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