Google Photos has so far been a pretty effective way to backup photos from your phone for free. But that will soon change. From June 2021 onwards, photos uploaded in HD on Google Photos will count towards the free 15 GB of Google Drive storage that comes with your account. So, you will have to upgrade your Drive plan for more space. Or, you can choose from these best Google Photos alternatives for iPhone and iPad.
1. iCloud Photos
The most logical alternative for Google Photos on iPhone and iPad is iCloud. You can upload your photos, videos, backups, documents, messages, etc. Of course, all your data syncs across your Apple devices, ensuring you can easily access it.
One of the most significant advantages is that your camera roll is hooked right into iCloud Photos. So, you’ll never lose an image, and any edits you make are automatically synced everywhere. Further, you can access your full library from any of your devices without needing to download the entire database offline. Now, you can even get iCloud Storage as part of the Apple One bundle. Check out our guide to transfer your Google photos to iCloud.
Price: 5 GB Free (50 GB: $0.99 per month)
Pre-Installed on iOS
2. pCloud Storage
pCloud is an incredible alternative to Google Photos for a number of reasons. It boasts a healthy host of features such as file backup, encryption, audio storage and streaming, scanning documents to PDF for direct cloud storage, and much more.
We also appreciate the pricing plans: you only have to pay for what you intend to use. For example, if you’re looking to encrypt sensitive data, you can subscribe to pCloud Crypto while staying on a free storage plan.
Photos and videos make sharing experiences easy in the modern world of smartphones. That is, if you can easily share them. pCloud provides easy simple sharing solutions, allowing you to send links to specific files (without allowing access to the rest of the folder that it resides in).
With the free storage plan coming in at 10 GB (after completing some tasks like verifying your email address and inviting friends), pCloud is great for picking and choosing which files you want to upload. If you’re looking to automatically store everything that lands on your smartphone, you certainly can; but we recommend looking at a premium storage upgrade.
Price: 10 GB Free (Premium $4.99)
3. Microsoft OneDrive
Keep your photos and other files backed up, protected, synced, and accessible across all your devices with Microsoft OneDrive. It starts with 5 GB of free storage, and you can get 1 TB of storage when you upgrade to a Microsoft 365 subscription.
You can also choose to automatically back up photos and videos by turning on the Camera Upload feature. Further, it syncs across devices so you can view your photos on your phone, computer, or the web whenever you like. It offers many file management features, too, and you can protect your private files with identity verification.
Price: 5 GB Free (Subscription starts from $5.99)
4. Dropbox
Dropbox is one of the most popular Google Photos alternatives as it lets you back up and sync photos, videos, documents, and other files to cloud storage and access them from any device, no matter where you are. Further, it boasts advanced yet easy-to-use sharing features that make it easy to send photos or files to your family, friends, and co-workers.
You can automatically upload videos and photos from your camera roll, and it all happens quickly in the background. Further, you can even preview over 175 different file types without needing any additional software. You get just 2 GB of free storage, so you will need to upgrade to a paid plan for more.
Price: 2 GB Free (Starts at $11.99 monthly for 2TB)
5. Box
Check out this option to securely store, manage, and share all your files and photos with up to 10GB of free cloud storage from Box. It has been recognized as one of Apple’s best business apps and puts all your files at your fingertips.
It is packed with lots of fun features such as offline access for files and high-quality viewing for 100+ file types. Share essential photos, videos, notes, and other documents with ease.
Price: 10 GB Free ($79.99 per year for 100GB of storage)
6. Prime Photos
Here’s another great option to backup, share, and organize all of your photos. You’ll get 5GB of full-resolution photo and video storage and enjoy a range of fun features like customizing your Fire TV and Echo Show to display your favorite memories.
Further, you can order photo prints, custom gifts, and home décor from your phone, which eases the gifting process whenever needed. You can also remove photos and videos from your phone to free up storage, and rest assured that your media will be safe online.
Price: Free ($1.99 for 100 GB monthly plan)
7. Snapfish
This is an excellent app for backing up your photos and efficiently compiling them into custom photo books, cards, and more. This means you can easily create personalized gifts from your phone.
Moreover, you get 100 free prints to avail of every month, and it’s a breeze to order them through the app. The album and timeline view make it easy to find your photos whenever you like quickly.
Price: Free
8. Slidebox
Here’s an easy-to-use app that helps you sort images into albums in the native iOS Photos app. It shows you all of your unsorted photos, and you can select the name of the album you want to put them in.
Further, you can use gestures to organize, delete, compare, and mark images as favorites. Pin your most frequently used albums to the top of the list, and view and edit your albums on a different screen when you want to organize them.
Price: Free (In-app purchases start at $4.99)
9. Flickr
If you’re a photography enthusiast, don’t miss out on joining one of the largest and most popular photographer communities in the world. In addition to storing your photos, you can edit them and find inspiration too.
It makes it easy to organize and share your albums and unleash your creativity. You can browse with ease and sort hundreds of photos with just one gesture. It’s also convenient to share images with others.
Price: Free ($6.99 Monthly)
10. Piwigo
Piwigo is an excellent option to create your photo gallery on the web. It includes many powerful features such as the ability to upload photos of adjustable size and quality with description, author, tags, and EXIF metadata,
Further, you can even choose to have your images with or without GPS metadata. Create your photo gallery and search, edit, download, and delete files with ease whenever required. The best part is that it is free and open source.
Price: Free
So, what’s your pick for the best Google Photos alternative? Share your thoughts in the comments below. You might also like to check out the best photo vault apps to secure your private images.
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