FaceGate Alternative for Mac: Encrypted, No Camera Needed

FaceGate is a free, open source app locker for Mac that unlocks with your face.

People go looking for an alternative for four reasons, and they all show up in its own issue tracker and Reddit thread:

• The camera. Face unlock is the headline feature and the main source of support problems: camera not detected, the head-turn liveness check, the prompt appearing when you did not want to open anything.
• The install. FaceGate is not notarized by Apple, so you install it with a script or Homebrew, and macOS warns you about it.
• Apps only. It does not lock folders or files. Several people in its launch thread asked for exactly that.
• Nothing is encrypted. A locked app is stopped from launching. The app and its data are still sitting on the disk in the open.

What to use instead

Cloak

Cloak is the closest match if you want to skip the camera. It unlocks with Touch ID or a password, the same as FaceGate’s non-face modes, and adds what FaceGate does not have:

• Locks folders and single files, encrypted in place with AES-256.
• Hides apps completely, and a hidden app is encrypted, not just out of sight.
• Takes an intruder photo when someone fails the unlock. The camera is used for that, not for getting in.
• Lets you turn off the Mac password fallback, so someone who knows your Mac login gets nothing.
• Signed and notarized by Apple, so it installs like any other Mac app.

It is a one-time purchase from $9.99, and it runs on macOS 13 or later. FaceGate needs macOS 14.

Lockish

$9.99 one-time. It accepts your Mac password, so anyone who knows it gets in. No encryption, no folders or files.

Lock Pro

$5.99 on the Mac App Store. Apps only, no folders or files.

New in Cloak 2.0

Cloak 2.0 can lock an app only at set times and make a locked app look like it crashed. It can also lock the app in front with one shortcut and lock folders straight from Finder. See what’s new in Cloak 2.0.

FaceGate vs Cloak in one table

Schedule and fake crash rows added 23 October 2026.

Switching from FaceGate to Cloak

It takes about five minutes.

1. In FaceGate, unlock or remove your locked apps, then quit it and uninstall it, so two lockers are not guarding the same app.
2. Download Cloak, set up Touch ID or a password, and save the recovery key it gives you.
3. Press + under Locked apps and tick the apps you want behind Touch ID. Put anything nobody should see under Hidden apps.
4. Add private folders or single files under Locked folders & files, and turn off the Mac password fallback in Settings if other people know it.

The honest answer

FaceGate locks apps and nothing else. The moment you want folders and files covered, encryption behind the lock, an intruder photo, or a normal install, Cloak is the answer, for a one-time $9.99. The full head-to-head is in Cloak vs FaceGate.

Questions people ask