Best Online Storage for Photos

pCloud is one of the best options when it comes to keeping your photos safe within cloud storage. The service offers quality that would satisfy even professional photographers, as well as amateurs, which is one of the best ways to determine the service’s value.

It will cost you $8 per month if you commit to an annual plan, but in return, you will get a massive 2TB-large storage space. Alternatively, you can pay $10 for a month-to-month subscription. Of course, pCloud also has a free version which will provide you with 10GB for free, and allow you to earn an additional 10GB if you complete a few steps and bring a few friends.

You can upload photos automatically, the service comes with no bandwidth limit, but it also lets you set it so that it only uploads when you connect to Wi-Fi. pCloud can also communicate with other cloud services and even social networks like Facebook or Instagram. You can even share pictures with ease, simply by creating a link to each image and share it with others.

Next, we have Google Photos, which is such a convenient option that a lot of people never really have the need to look beyond it and try to find an alternative. Technically speaking, Google Photos and Google Drive are two separate services. However, they share the same space in the cloud, together with Gmail, so you can also view them as the same thing.

Google Photos GUI allows you not only to view photos but also to edit them. Further, it features its AI, Google Assistant, which will stylize photos for you, automatically. You can even create shared albums in order to make it easier to distribute photos. All of this is particularly useful for Android users, as their mobile app can upload photos taken by the camera automatically. It is not a unique feature, but it is useful.

Perhaps the most useful feature of Google Photos is its search capability, which uses machine learning algorithms to categorize objects in photos and sort them by using location data. It is quite convenient, and it saves a lot of time, so you don’t have to do it yourself. Best of all — you get 15GB of storage for free with each account you make.

Then, we have Sync.com, which offers a 2TB plan for $8 per month, just like pCloud. However, it does not charge you anything for zero-knowledge encryption, as it is already included in the $8 price. Photographers love having good, strong security for their files, which is why Sync.com is often one of their top choices. However, since the service always uses zero-knowledge encryption, it does have a few downsides. One of them is not allowing you to preview photos via a browser.

Sync.com includes additional safety features, such as password protection, expiry dates for link sharing, the ability to pick and set download limits, and more.

Obviously, this is a service which focuses heavily on security, which also includes protection from file corruptions with the best versioning system out there.

When it comes to Amazon Prime Photos, it offers unlimited storage, which is perfect for those who are constantly taking photos. It will also come for free to all subscribers of Amazon Prime. As such, it is likely one of the best options on this list.

Apart from unlimited storage for your photos, you will also receive several practical features that will make it easier to share your photos, including a shared folder known as Family Vault. Simply put, you can use it to create photo archives with others.

While Amazon may have come quite a long way since it established Amazon Drive — one thing remains quite worrying, which is the fact that files are not encrypted server-side. But, this does not have to be a deal-breaker, as the service also integrates with Boxcryptor, which allows you to encrypt your files yourself prior to uploading them. Simply put, you will get the same protection as offered by the likes of pCloud or Sync.com — for free.

Finally, we have Flickr. Flickr is an interesting one, as it offers the storage where you can place up to 1000 photos or videos for free, and the cost of doing so is covered by unobtrusive ads. Of course, there is also an ad-free option that will provide you with unlimited storage, although it will cost you $7 per month, of $50 per year.

Flickr stands out thanks to another feature as well, which is the ability to display photos in a photostream, which is quite attractive. If you wish to allow it, others can follow your activities, and comment on your photos. Alternatively, you can make your images private. In other words, the app serves as image storage and a social media network, in accordance with your choice.

In fact, Flickr would rather present your shots instead of simply storing them, which is why it only works with GIF, JPEG, and PNG file types.