F-Stop Gallery is a photo organizer: tags and star ratings you can write into your JPEG files, smart albums, nested folders and a metadata editor, in a free version with ads and in-app purchases, plus a separate Pro key that unlocks everything. Piktures is a gallery for the phone and for the clouds and servers where your photos already are, OneDrive, Dropbox, Nextcloud, a NAS, with no account, a Secret Space behind a PIN, and a one-time purchase that removes its ads. Facts checked on 15 October 2026; tell us if an app changed.
What is the difference between Piktures and F-Stop Gallery?
What each one is for. F-Stop, by Seelye Engineering, presents itself as "the ultimate photo organizer": custom tags that "will seamlessly accompany" your images when you transfer them to a PC, ratings, smart albums that pick images by criteria, a viewer and editor for "some image metadata (including tags, ratings, title and caption)", batch renaming, and a vault "behind a password or biometric authentication". The Pro key adds a Places map, full search results instead of 10, metadata written "using the XMP standard so it can be read by popular applications such as Adobe Lightroom", custom sorting, nested folders and albums, every smart album condition, themes and bookmarks.
Piktures organizes less and reaches further. It has personal tags written inside the photo file too, searches by text, album, type, year, month, place, camera and tag, saves a search as a smart album, bookmarks albums, renames several photos at once, and shows a map in each photo's details. Beyond that, it opens Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Koofr, Yandex Disk, Nextcloud, any WebDAV server and SMB network drives as albums next to the phone's, with no account to create, and it has a photo editor, a video editor and the Secret Space. Neither F-Stop's listings nor its site mention a cloud account or a server.
Which clouds and servers does each app open?
| Piktures | F-Stop Gallery | |
|---|---|---|
| Phone and SD card | Yes | Yes |
| USB drive | With Premium or Prime, FAT32 | Not mentioned |
| Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox | Yes, as albums | Not mentioned |
| Koofr, Yandex Disk, Nextcloud, WebDAV | Yes, as albums | Not mentioned |
| NAS or computer on the home network (SMB) | Yes | Not mentioned |
| Account needed | None | None mentioned; the Pro key is checked on the device |
"Not mentioned" means F-Stop's two listings and its site name no such feature; see Sources. Piktures' facts: How to add a cloud and the guides.
How do tags, ratings and smart albums compare?
| Piktures | F-Stop Gallery | |
|---|---|---|
| Tags | Personal tags, written inside JPEG photos; with Premium or Prime | Custom tags; written into JPG files, or XMP sidecar files for other types, with the Pro key |
| Ratings | Not offered | Star ratings, written with the tags |
| Search | Text, album, type, year, month, place, camera, tag | By tag, rating and some EXIF data; 10 results in the free version, all with the Pro key |
| Smart albums | A saved search, with Premium or Prime | Criteria-based albums; every condition with the Pro key |
| Folders | Albums are the phone's folders; bookmarks and groups | Nested folders and nested albums with the Pro key |
| Batch rename | Several photos at once, with Premium or Prime | Yes |
| Map | A map in each photo's details | Places, with the Pro key |
Piktures' facts: Tags, Search and filters, In-app purchases, The bookmarks.
How does each app hide private photos?
F-Stop has a vault: "Lock sensitive images behind a password or biometric authentication." Its listing says no more about where the vault's files go or what happens on uninstall.
Piktures has the Secret Space, behind a 4-digit PIN of its own, or the phone's biometric unlock. Files are renamed and scrambled so other apps can't open them: deliberately light protection, not encryption. It is stored only on the phone, never backed up online, and erased when the app is uninstalled; you export it to a PikBackup folder to keep a copy. See Hide photos behind a PIN.
What does each app cost, and what does it send?
F-Stop's free version carries the "Contains ads" and "In-app purchases" labels, with purchases from $0.99 to $19.99 per item, and the separate F-Stop Pro key was sold at $19.99 in the US when we checked. Its privacy policy, last updated on 15 October 2012, says the app uses "BugSense metrics tool" for analytics, that "ad serving technologies are integrated", and that it may collect the user's IP address and country.
Piktures is free with a few Google ads in its Basic plan; No ads is a one-time purchase that removes them, Premium a one-time purchase and Prime a monthly subscription that also unlock tags, smart albums, batch renaming, more clouds and drives, automatic backup, USB drives and the Secret Space's extra options. The app sends usage statistics and crash reports through Firebase Analytics and Crashlytics. See In-app purchases and An Android gallery with no account and no server.
Piktures vs F-Stop Gallery: the facts
| Piktures | F-Stop Gallery | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Publisher | Diune | Seelye Engineering | Play listings |
| Price | Free with a few ads; No ads, Premium (one-time), Prime (monthly) | Free with ads and in-app purchases, $0.99 to $19.99 per item; Pro key $19.99 | Play listings |
| Last update on Google Play | Free version 18 August 2026; Pro key 11 August 2026 | Play listings | |
| Account | None | None mentioned | Play listings |
| Clouds and servers | Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Koofr, Yandex Disk, Nextcloud, WebDAV, SMB | Not mentioned | Play listings, site |
| Tags written to files | Yes, in JPEG, with Premium or Prime | Yes, XMP in JPG or sidecar files, with the Pro key | Pro key listing |
| Ratings | No | Yes | Play listing |
| Smart albums | A saved search, with Premium or Prime | Yes; all conditions with the Pro key | Play listings |
| Private photos | Secret Space: own PIN, scrambled files, phone only | Vault: password or biometric | Play listing |
| Editing | Photo editor and video editor | Metadata editor; no photo editor mentioned | Play listing |
| What the app sends | Usage statistics and crash reports (Firebase); ads in the free plan | BugSense analytics, ad serving technologies, IP and country, per a 2012 policy | Privacy policy |
| Android | 11 or later | Not stated on the pages we read | |
| Play rating when checked | Free version 3.8, 1M+ downloads; Pro key 4.4, 100K+ | Play listings |
Piktures' facts come from its help center: Welcome to Piktures, Our product principles, Tags, Search and filters, The Secret Space, Photo editor, In-app purchases.
Which should you choose?
Choose F-Stop if you rate and tag your photos the way Lightroom does, want smart albums with many conditions and nested folders, and your photos live on the phone. Choose Piktures if your photos also live on OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, Nextcloud or a NAS and you want one gallery for all of them, with no account, a photo and video editor, and the Secret Space. Both have a free version with ads; Piktures' ads go away with a one-time purchase, F-Stop's full feature set comes with a separate paid key.
Questions
Does F-Stop Gallery show OneDrive, Nextcloud or NAS photos?
Its listings and its site describe the phone's photos and mention no cloud account or server. Piktures is built for that: see the guides on OneDrive, Nextcloud and WebDAV and a NAS.
Does Piktures write tags into my photos like F-Stop?
Yes, with Premium or Prime: a personal tag is written inside the JPEG file itself, not on a server, so it follows the photo wherever you copy it. Piktures has no star ratings. See Tags.
Is Piktures free?
Yes, with a few ads in the free Basic plan, which the one-time No ads purchase removes. Tags, smart albums and batch renaming need Premium, a one-time purchase, or Prime, a monthly subscription.
Does the F-Stop Pro key work without the free app?
No. The key's listing says "the free version MUST be installed with this app": the key only unlocks the free version's features.
Sources
All read on 15 October 2026.
- Play listings: F-Stop Gallery on Google Play, by Seelye Engineering, updated 18 August 2026, "Contains ads", "In-app purchases" from $0.99 to $19.99 per item, rated 3.8 with 1M+ downloads; F-Stop Gallery Pro key on Google Play, updated 11 August 2026, $19.99 in the US, rated 4.4 with 100K+ downloads, with the list of unlocked features quoted above.
- Website: fstopapp.com, copyright 2012 to 2021: tags, ratings, albums, favorites and smart albums; no pricing, no cloud or network feature.
- Privacy policy: F-Stop privacy policy, "Last updated 10/15/2012": BugSense metrics, ad serving technologies, IP address and country.