Aegis vs Authy (2026): Encrypted Local Vault or Cloud Sync Across Devices?

Short answer: choose Aegis if you use one Android phone and want your 2FA secrets in an encrypted vault you control, with open-source code and backups you make yourself. Choose Authy if you want the same codes on iPhone and Android, on a tablet or an Apple Watch, with an encrypted cloud backup restoring them on a new device. Both generate standard TOTP codes, so any service that works with one works with the other. The difference is where your secrets are kept, and how hard it is to leave.

Sources, all read on 14 October 2026: the Aegis README and its vault design document on GitHub, the Aegis source code for its Authy importer, Authy's features page, and Twilio's changelog announcing the end of the desktop apps.

At a glance

Where the secrets live

A TOTP code is calculated from a secret that the service gave you once, usually as a QR code. Whoever holds a copy of that secret can produce your codes. So the useful question is: how many copies exist, and what protects each one?

Aegis keeps one copy, on the phone. The vault is encrypted with AES-256-GCM. The key that unlocks it comes from your password through scrypt, or from biometrics held in the Android Keystore. Nothing involves an account. If you want a second copy, you make it: Aegis can write automatic backups of the vault to a folder you choose. Our Aegis encryption explainer goes through the scrypt parameters and the key slots in detail.

Authy keeps copies on your devices and, if you turn backups on, in its cloud. Its features page says it will "encrypt your 2FA data and store it securely in our cloud", that it decrypts "only on the devices using a password only you know", and that Twilio never receives that password, so it cannot recover it if you forget it. That is client-side encryption of the backup: the cloud copy is only as strong as the backup password you pick.

Where Aegis is ahead

• You can read the code. Aegis is open source and on F-Droid, and its file format and cryptography are documented publicly.
• No account, no phone number, no cloud. There is nothing to sign in to and nothing stored on someone else's server unless you put a backup there.
• You can leave whenever you want. Plaintext or encrypted export, and import from a long list of other apps.
• Screen protections. The README lists screen capture prevention and tap-to-reveal.

Where Authy is ahead

• It is on iPhone, and on more than one device. Phone, tablet, Apple Watch, with sync between them. Aegis is one Android phone.
• Recovery is built in. With backups on, a new device gets your codes back once it is approved and you enter your backup password. Authy's features page says new devices are added "with SMS, voice or existing device approval".
• No backup file to look after. For people who will never copy a file to a safe place, that matters more than any cipher.

An external drive beside a laptop: with Aegis, the backup copy of your vault is a file you keep somewhere like this. With Authy, it lives in Twilio's cloud.

The catch: leaving Authy

This is the part most comparisons skip. Aegis does list Authy among the apps it can import from. But the Aegis source code shows how: its Authy importer reads Authy's internal storage files on the phone using superuser access. On a phone without root, that import is not available. And Authy's features page lists no export option.

So for most people, moving from Authy to Aegis means doing it account by account:

1. Install Aegis, set a vault password, and turn on automatic backups.
2. Log in to one service, open its security settings, and set up two-factor authentication again, scanning the new QR code with Aegis.
3. Confirm a login with the code from Aegis.
4. Only then delete that entry from Authy.
5. Repeat for each account, starting with email, since email recovery opens everything else.

It takes an evening for a long list. Keep each service's recovery codes while you do it. If you are changing phone at the same time, our guide to moving an authenticator app to a new phone explains the safe order.

How to choose

• One Android phone, and you will keep a backup file: Aegis.
• iPhone, or several devices: Authy, or another cross-platform app from our best authenticator apps guide.
• You need codes on a computer: neither, in their current form. Authy's desktop apps are gone and Aegis has never had one.
• You want to be able to leave easily later: Aegis, whose export is documented.
• Comparing with Google's app as well? See Aegis vs Google Authenticator.

The bottom line

Aegis and Authy produce the same codes from the same standards. Aegis gives you an open-source, encrypted vault on one Android phone and makes you responsible for backups. Authy gives you iOS and Android, sync across devices and an encrypted cloud backup, and since 2024 no desktop app. Before you commit to Authy, know that leaving it for Aegis without root means re-enrolling every account by hand.