For many years, Google Photos has been one of the best options offering free unlimited photo storage that all changes on June 1st, 2021. Any photo uploaded after that date will count towards your 15GB of free google drive storage. Here I will give you additional choices offering free photo storage. We will count down the top five Google Photos alternatives.
5. Mega Cloud Storage
Coming in at number five is Mega Cloud Storage based in New Zealand, this cloud storage and file hosting service is a good alternative to Google Photos since it offers a generous 50GB for free signing up. Just be aware that after 30 days the storage limit will drop to just 15 gigabytes so this might not work best for those of you with a large collection of photos and videos. Mega uses end-to-end encryption and you are in control, even folks at Mega won’t be able to see your data. It is also available in multi-platform with availability in Windows, Mac and Linux. And if you have some spare lying around, they have plans starting at $6 a month.
4. Flickr
The number four pick as an alternative to Google Photos is Flickr. What I am sure about is most of you have heard of this service by now. The service has changed quite a bit since its launch back in 2004. Now it is more of a social network with a large community of photographers. You can upload up to 1000 images in full resolution for free in Flickr. Their service also lets you showcase your best photos that you make available, browse works by others and follow photographers that you appreciate. And if you plan to upload more images, $7 a month will give you unlimited storage with more advanced stats of your images.
3. Degoo
Not as well-known as the others, the service is called Degoo the service based in Sweden offers a massive 100 gigabytes of storage for free. Degoo is a good Google Photos alternative however, one downside is the 512MB upload file size limit which might be an issue if you’re uploading large videos but shouldn’t be any problem with uploading photos on the positive side. The best part is there is no limit on how much you download or view any of your photos. So, it could be one of the best alternative to Google Photos.
They also offer end-to-end encryption and offer a referral bonus of up to 500 gigabytes for referring friends. Their free service comes with ads included. And If you still want to use their free tier and want to keep it like that then you need to log in at least once every 90 days. If you go with one of their paid plans those start at around $3 per month for 500 gigabytes with no ads and you get additional features.
2. Microsoft OneDrive
From Microsoft, coming in at number two is Microsoft OneDrive. As Google Photos alternative, not only is it available for Windows, it is also available for Mac, Android and iOS. Your data in OneDrive is synced across all the devices you are logged in and can view or edit on the go without downloading. If you subscribe to Microsoft 365 Personal tier, you get 1TB storage and with Microsoft 365 Family tier, you get 1TB per person up to six people. But if you do not want to pay and still want to use it, the free tier will still give you 5GB to be used and synced across the board.
1. Amazon Photos
The best alternative to Google Photos, in my view is Amazon Photos. Most of us already are subscribed to Amazon Prime already, and if you happen to be among the ones with that, you are in luck. You get unlimited photo storage with Prime membership plus 5GB of video storage. The best part about this service is it does not compress your photos like Google Photos “High Quality” backup does. And like said earlier, if you do not want to pay, you still get 5GB of photos and videos storage combined for free.
Conclusion
The is no real competition or alternative when it comes to Google Photos. It is one of its kind. Google Photo’s AI based searches, auto albums with face detection, etc. are not available in other services. They may be available later in the future with different services, still those features will be missing from the other mentioned services. Yet, since Google Photos will start counting towards free 15GB quota, its high time we look for alternatives. And this Google Photos alternative list is what I recommend for you folks.
If paying is not an issue, Google One is still best out there. And if you do not want to stick to Google and still want good service that you can pay for, Flickr is a good choice which comes at around $7 for unlimited storage. And for the same price, you get 1TB storage with Amazon.
