Google Photos Alternatives

What is Google Photos?

Google Photos is a platform that gives free storage for saving photos and videos. You can upload your photos and videos with the help of this platform. Users can watch, edit, save, and create new clips, animations, collages, albums, and picture books, in addition to importing new photos. Additionally, you can download uploaded data whenever required, making it easy to back up your data to a cloud-based platform and restore the backup to your laptop or external hard drive.

Why do we use alternatives to Google Photos?

Google Photos is one of the best platforms available worldwide, but in June 2021, Google Photos stopped or discontinued its free uploading policy for high-quality pics and videos.

In June 2021, Google launched its new policy in which they do not provide high-quality images and video storing features. Instead, they informed users that their Google account's free storage, which is 15 GB, would be used to store Google Photos data along with other Google services like Mail, Drive, etc. The main reason to use the alternatives is that Google Photos' free storage limit of 15GB may not be enough for many users. Although the storage limit can be increased by subscribing to Google One by paying some money, users always want to explore more options to compare different platforms and save their money. There are many alternatives to Google Photos in the market, and one can try these options to fulfil their needs.

Alternatives to Google Photos

The following are some of the well-known alternatives to Google Photos:

1. GoogleOne

GoogleOne is the same as Google Drive; it is pretty good because it provides good storage in a decent amount. Google one offers the 100GB per month storage plan at just Rs. 130 in India. Google One acts as a central repository for backups for all of your Google services, including Gmail, Photos, and more. The most excellent aspect is that your family can share some of that space with you. One can visit the official page of Google One to explore more about Google One and its pricing based on different countries.

2. IDrive

IDrive is one of the best alternatives to Google Photos. It is not designed mainly for storing pictures and videos but provides the best and most user-friendly functionality. If your main priority is demanding max-storage, then IDrive is best for you; it offers a decent amount of storage at a very reasonable price. It can be used to upload any kind of digital data.

IDrive provides free storage for up to 5GB, and you can quickly increase it up to 10TB. It is easy to afford and provides good backup facilities compared to others. It offers special deals in which one can get up to 10TB of storage for just $3.98 for their first subscription. No other cloud storage is as affordable as IDrive, depending on the storage capacity. Therefore, this can be your best option if you are in charge of a huge image library. Due to the large file sizes of the RAW format, IDrive will be especially appealing to photographers who use it.

3. Flickr

Flicker is one of the best platforms that provide free storage for photos for a particular time. You can store up to a thousand photos and videos at no cost, but one drawback is that it contains ads in its free subscription.

Regular photographers will soon reach the free limit, which is 1000 photos and 50 of them can be marked as private. However, there is also an upgrade option called FlickrPro to further simplify matters and meet the needs of professionals.

For monthly or yearly subscriptions, FlickrPro offers unlimited photo cloud storage. Images can be stored at full resolution and uploaded automatically. Additionally, the bundle comes with several professional analytics tools.

4. PCloud

One of the best features of the PCloud is that it provides you with a lifetime subscription at just a little investment. You can use it for a lifetime without paying extra money.

The minimum lifetime subscription investment is nearly about $175. It provides you with storage of 500GB, but if you need more storage, you can pay more. This gets you an additional 2TB of storage at $350, but if you don't want to spend a huge amount, you can buy the higher annual plans available.

PCloud works the same as IDrive. It automatically uploads your photos and videos to cloud storage. Also, you can automatically sync each connected device. You may additionally use PCloud to create backups of your snapshots if you save them on websites like DropBox, Facebook, Instagram, OneDrive, and Google Drive.

5. Adobe Creative Cloud

It is comprised of two products that are combined into a single subscription package. When we talk about the best photo editing apps like Photoshop and Lightroom, they are the premium standard, so if you are a professional photographer and want to buy a premium product at a reasonable price, it is best for you. In the creative subscription package, Adobe Creative Cloud (CC) provides you with many features, including access to additional photography apps.

You also receive 20GB of cloud storage on top of these benefits. According to Adobe, this is sufficient data to back up around 4,000 JPEG files.

6. Microsoft OneDrive

Microsoft OneDrive is one of the trusted platforms globally known after Google. Although it is well-known, it is not explicitly designed for storing photos and videos. Still, it provides accessible storage where you can store different formats of digital data, including pictures and videos. The latest versions have a separate photographs section where users can browse their images in reverse chronological order. Additionally, users have limitless ability to organise and create albums.

You can buy an annual subscription pack of OneDrive in which you get a 100 GB storage capacity, which also gives access to the other offerings like Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel via the web portals. OneDrive is among our best Google Photos selections due to its comprehensive package.

7. ApplePhotos

If you are an Apple product lover like iPhone or iPad, ApplePhotos is the best platform. It provides Apple users with a beautiful ecosystem, making it one of the best Google Photos alternatives for apple users. It offers several functionalities at a reasonable price, and it is highly secured,

The main advantage of ApplePhotos is that it provides a deep connection with the entire iCloud ecosystem.

ApplePhotos offers up to 5GB of free storage and maximum storage of up to 2TB. However, users will have to pay for the expansion of the storage capacity. It is the best option compared to Google Photos, which also offers high security at a reasonable price.

8. Amazon Photos

Amazon Photos are one of the quality alternatives to Google Photos because it provides the same functionality as its competitors at a reasonable price. It can also compress your photos to save data, allowing access to more uploads.

You'll have to pay Amazon if you want to keep the high resolutions of your "unlimited" photographs. Only Prime members have unlimited photo storage facility and 5GB of video storage. Despite this, a total of 5GB of photo and video storage is offered to non-Prime subscribers. The space provided makes it one of the top free alternatives to Google Photos; however, even then, it falls short in offering free storage compared to its competitor.

9. 500Px

500px is a globally known photo-sharing platform by which you can also earn money. It is the best Google Photo alternative that also provides a portfolio-building interface and the choice to licence pictures for a small price to be used for other applications. As a result, it is the only platform on our list that allows you to generate income.

500px is a combined social media and storage alternative platform. There are several ways to connect with the other users on the 500px and website. You can join the various groups where you can get many pictures, participate in contests and challenges provided by 500px and win many prizes. It provides the free storage of 10GB, and you can update it up to 10TB with paid subscriptions.

10. Dropbox

Dropbox is one of the oldest cloud storage platforms built in the early 2000s. For photographers, designers, and other creators trying to store many images, it's still one of the most acceptable Google Photos alternatives.

Dropbox is easy to use since it provides a powerful unique interface and security, offering total encryption of images while in action and at rest.

It provides up to 2TB of online storage, automatic syncing offline file access, and 30-day file recovery, all included with Dropbox Plus. Dropbox Professional offers 3TB of storage and advanced features like 180-day file recovery, account insights, and watermarking if you require additional storage capacity and comprehensive capabilities. Despite this, it also provides free storage for up to 2GB. Users can select the plan as per their requirements to store data and access other features.