Feature tables between vault apps all look the same. These five questions are what separate them.
1. Where is the key?
If the key is derived from something only you know, the maker cannot read your files. Vaultpod: the key comes from your pattern, mixed with a secret in your phone’s Keychain; a recovery phrase is the only other key.
2. What happens when you stop paying?
Vaultpod: you keep viewing, exporting and deleting. Only adding beyond the free limits pauses.
3. Is backup free, and can you test it?
Vaultpod: encrypted backup to your own iCloud, free, with a one-tap test restore.
4. What does it admit it cannot hide?
Every app on iOS shows its storage use in Settings. A vault that claims to hide everything is overselling. Vaultpod publishes its threat model.
5. Is there an account?
Vaultpod: none. Nothing to sign up for, nothing to leak, and the recovery phrase is in your hands.
Ask the same five of any app you compare it with. Read their privacy policy for the key question; it is usually answered there, one way or the other.