MEGA and Sealed, side by side

Disclosure. Sealed is made by Loopware LLC. We read MEGA’s listing, store page and help centre on 13 November 2026, and did not install the app.

Space for everything, or a place for a few things

MEGA is a cloud drive with chat and calls on top. Its pitch is room: a big free allowance, camera backup for every photo and video, version history and share links that can expire (listing). It says it encrypts and decrypts on your device only.

Sealed is not trying to hold your whole library. You choose what goes in, and it is sealed on the iPhone. Sealed imports only the photos and videos you choose, and deletes the originals in Photos only when you ask. Photos and videos are sealed the moment they arrive, and afterwards you can remove the originals from Photos if you like. Sealed encrypts every file with AES-256-GCM before it is saved.

Side by side

Where MEGA is ahead

• Free room. The free allowance holds far more than photos alone (listing). On the free plan you can add photos. Videos, documents, notes and records need Sealed Pro.
• Your whole camera roll. Automatic backup takes every new photo and video (listing).
• Any device. Files are reachable from any device (listing). Sealed runs on iPhone and iPad.
• Open code. The iOS app’s code is public (listing).

Two recovery keys, two shapes

Both products put you in charge of getting back in, and both warn you plainly. With MEGA, the password is the key that opens your data, and a recovery key is the spare. If both are lost, MEGA says you will never get the data back (help centre).

Sealed starts from a random key, not your passcode, so a short passcode doesn’t weaken what is stored. Your vault key is a random 256-bit key. It is not made from your passcode. Your backup is sealed with your random vault key, not with your passcode, so a short passcode doesn’t make the backup easier to open. The recovery key is what brings the vault to a new phone or resets a forgotten passcode. The recovery key is the only way to decrypt an iCloud backup on a new iPhone. If you forget your passcode, your recovery key lets you set a new one.

What differs is the help you get in keeping that key safe. Sealed can print it, split it among people you trust, or lock a copy under a phrase. The recovery key screen can save or print your key as a PDF sheet, so you can keep a copy on paper that outlives the phone. Key guardians split your recovery key into 3 parts where any 2 bring it back, or into 5 parts where any 3 do, one part for each person you trust. A sealed copy locks your recovery key under a phrase only you know, so the copy can sit in your email or in Notes. See key guardians and our explainer on what a recovery key is. Whichever app you use, write the key down the day you set it up.

Tracking, in the labels

Store privacy labels are filled in by developers, not checked by Apple, and they describe what may happen, not what always does (store page). Still, they are worth a look. MEGA’s label lists data used to track you, and third-party advertising among its purposes (store page). Sealed contains no analytics or tracking SDKs, and it collects no data. Our page on which vault apps collect data reads more labels side by side.

Where Sealed helps, and where it doesn’t

It helps if you want only chosen photos kept apart, with no account and no tracking. Sealed has no account, so there is nothing to sign up for. Sealed has no ads and no tracking.

It helps if you want more than one way to keep your recovery key safe. Key guardians split your recovery key into 3 parts where any 2 bring it back, or into 5 parts where any 3 do, one part for each person you trust. A sealed copy locks your recovery key under a phrase only you know, so the copy can sit in your email or in Notes.

It doesn’t back up your whole camera roll. Sealed imports only the photos and videos you choose, and deletes the originals in Photos only when you ask.

It doesn’t give you storage of its own: the backup uses 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 have chat, calls or a computer app. Sealed runs on iPhone and iPad.