Both catalog your external drives so you can search them while they're unplugged. The real difference is where that catalog ends up — on your desk, or in your pocket.
DriveVault is a macOS app that scans your drives and lets you search them from the Mac after you unplug them. CachePix does that too — on macOS and Windows — and then syncs the catalog to your iPhone or Android so the archive is browsable when you are nowhere near the computer.
Which matters depends entirely on where you are when you need to find a photo. If that is always at your desk, the phone half is irrelevant. If it is at a family dinner, in a meeting, or standing in a shop wondering whether you already own the thing you're looking at, it is the whole point.
| CachePix | DriveVault | |
|---|---|---|
| Desktop platforms | macOS and Windows | macOS |
| Phone apps | iPhone and Android | — |
| Browse the catalog away from the computer | Yes, offline | — |
| Search drives while unplugged | Yes | Yes |
| Built for | Photo libraries | Files of any type |
| Reads photo metadata (dates, keywords, names) | Yes | — |
| Drive limit | Unlimited on any paid plan | Tiered by number of drives |
| Free tier | 1 drive or ~5,000 photos | 1 drive up to 4 TB |
| Price | $4.99/mo, $29.99/yr, or $99 once | One-time, $14.99–$99.99 by tier |
| Cloud upload | Never | Never |
DriveVault catalogs any file type, not just photos — if your archive is documents and video as much as pictures, that breadth is real. DriveVault details verified from drivevault.io, August 2026.
An offline catalog exists to answer one question: do I have a photo of this, and where is it? A catalog on your Mac answers that question in the room with your Mac. The moment the question arrives somewhere else — and it usually does — you are back to "I'll look when I get home," which is where photos go to be forgotten.
CachePix syncs a thumbnail for every photo to your phone over your own Wi-Fi. On a measured library of 190,566 photos totalling 885.66 GB, the whole thing came to 8.03 GB on the phone — under 1% of the source. The full numbers are here, including what happens if you turn optional high-resolution previews all the way up.
A general file index tells you a filename exists on a drive. For photos that is rarely enough — you don't remember what you named it, you remember what it looked like and roughly when. CachePix syncs a visible thumbnail for every image and indexes the metadata already written into your files: capture dates, folders, keywords, and the names of people if your files carry them. You browse and recognise rather than recall and type.
Yes. Neither one modifies your drives — both read your files and build their own index — so running both causes no conflict.
As of August 2026 DriveVault ships on the Mac App Store. CachePix has a Windows desktop app alongside the macOS one, and one subscription covers both.
No. Both are local-first. CachePix syncs its catalog from your computer to your phone across your own Wi-Fi and has no cloud component at all.
Comparison compiled August 2026 from publicly published product information. Details change — check both sites before deciding.