21 Best Google Photos Alternatives In 2022

Since launching in 2015, Google Photos has solidified its place as the most popular cloud storage solution for photos and videos. More than a billion people have flocked to the service because of its ease of use, great features, and exceptional value. 15 GB of free storage with unlimited photo backup Google Photos is unquestionably an outstanding cloud storage service, but now it is no longer free.

Any photos and videos uploaded after 1st June 2021, will now be calculated towards your 15 GB of free storage quota and once you consume your free storage, you will have to make a choice: either buy Google One subscription plan or switch to another cloud storage service.

If you have been uploading a lot of pictures and videos on Google Photos, then it is unconditionally worth it for you to buy a Google One subscription plan but what if you’re looking for the best Google Photos alternatives?

In this guide, we review 21 Best Google Photos Alternatives to help you choose the best one for you.

1. NordLocker

Available On: Microsoft Windows, MacOS, Android, iPhone, iPad

Nord Security might be more known for offering one of the best virtual private networks (NordVPN), but it’s also developed a powerful substitute to Google Photos. NordLocker will enable you to upload all your photos and videos to the cloud, where they’ll be protected by end-to-end encryption.

As well as being highly secure, it’s also easy-to-use and allows you to backup your photos using a simple drag-and-drop interface. When you want to access your photos and videos, you just need to log in to your NordLocker account on a PC or Mac. Thanks to automatic data backups, you can easily retrieve your precious photos and videos if your device is broken or lost.

NordLocker also boasts a secure file sharing feature, which allows you to give someone permission to access one of your encrypted folders (i.e. locker) and send it to them securely. So, you’re probably wondering how much an encrypted cloud storage solution will cost? Well, there’s actually a free version of NordLocker, and it’ll provide 3GB of cloud storage. If that’s not sufficient, you can always go premium.

For an annual fee of $47.88 ($3.99 per month), you’ll get 500GB of cloud storage.

2. Degoo

Available On: Android, iOS

A slightly lesser-known alternative to Google Photos with a sizeable free storage option is Degoo.

100GB is a very good allowance for all of your photo storage needs and it lets you sign in to your Google account – which is a nice bonus. The app isn’t that great, but Degoo offers unlimited file size uploads with no quality reduction.

Here’s a big bonus, for every single friend you refer, you’ll get an extra 5GB of free storage up to 500GB.

A downside is that there are intermittent ads, plus you’re limited to three devices and your account can be closed after 90 days of inactivity, which might be enough of a compromise for people wanting an extra free photo and file storage option.

500GB of monthly storage is cheap at just $2.99 per month.

That paltry pricing removes ads, increases referral bonuses to 10GB per friend who joins up to 1,000GB, and ends the 90-day login requirement.

3. Apple iCloud

Available On: macOS, Microsoft Windows, iOS, iPadOS

If you have an iPhone, odds are you’re already using iCloud.

It’s just as robust a cloud storage tool as Google Drive, if not surpassing it in certain cases. iCloud Photos is the part we’ll be focusing on here, and like Google Photos, it’s an easy way to keep all of your photos safely stored in the cloud.

It doesn’t have the same search capabilities, but you can access your photos from virtually any device. Free users are limited to 5GB of storage, but Apple iCloud offers some of the cheapest plans for expansion. 50GB runs just $1 a month, 200GB runs $3 a month, and 2TB runs just $10 a month.

You can also save money on other subscriptions like Apple TV Plus and Apple Music by bundling them together with Apple One. However, if you’re not an iPhone user you’ll want to look elsewhere. There’s currently no official support for Android phones, and it doesn’t look like it’s coming any time soon.

You can access some limited functions via a mobile browser, but it doesn’t offer anywhere near the same level of convenience.

4. Apple Photos

Available On: iOS, iPadOS, OS X, watchOS, tvOS

Apple Photos is undoubtedly the best Google Photos alternative for iOS and macOS users.

The service offers 5GB of free storage for all users, and its paid plans are priced at par with Google’s offerings. You can get 50GB of iCloud storage for 0.99$ a month, 200GB for $2.99 a month, and 2TB for $9.99 a month.

Much like Google Photos and Amazon Photos, it syncs all your media across Apple devices in an instant and keeps them secure. On the downside, Apple Photos doesn’t offer a client for Windows or Android devices. So, if you don’t have a good iPhone or Mac, you’re straight out of luck.

As far as features are concerned, Apple Photos offers pretty much all the features you’d find on Google Photos. It offers an AI-powered search feature, powerful editing tools, a feature called Memories that automatically creates galleries based on your activities, and more.

5. Slidebox

Available On: Android and iOS

The best part about Google is it automatically sorts your pictures into albums. Well, Slidebox completely ignores this feature.

It asks you to do it manually. Now, imagine going through hundreds of pictures and sorting them into different folders. It may sound like a lot of work but Slidebox makes it easier. Just like Tinder, you have to swipe the pictures in the folders and if you want to delete them, just swipe up.

The deleted pictures won’t be gone forever; you can recover them from the recycle bin. If you get short of storage space, just empty the recycle bin.

Point of Concern: Slidebox requires a lot of manual work.

6. Mega

Available On: Microsoft Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS, Linux, Browser extension, Windows Phone

Regardless of your thoughts of the people behind Mega, the fact is that it usurps the free storage with a Google account by 5GB.

20GB (upped to 25GB with a sign-up bonus) of storage is available to all users, but there is some other features that simply don’t exist on the other Google Photos alternatives. An encrypted messenger is included, with file sharing and collaboration tools available that might prove useful – if a little out of place.

Mega is better suited to people wanting to share their files with friends and colleagues but does provide plenty of space to store your Google Photos library of photos and videos.

7. 500px

Available On: Android, iPad, iPhone, Apple TV

500px is a left-field option for those looking for a Google Photos alternative, but we think it’s worth considering. The platform’s biggest strengths are its portfolio-building interface and the option to license images to other uses for a small fee.

This makes 500px the only platform in our list that can actually earn you money. The platform is suited for professional photographers and designers who want to share their best pictures with the world, and maybe even make some spare change in the process. Like Flickr, 500px is part storage solution, part social media platform.

There are many ways to interact with other users on the 500px apps and website. Users can join groups, explore popular images, and join quests, which are challenges that, according to the company, “help photographers test their skills, get recognised for their work, and win exciting prizes.”

However, 500px is not suited for storing your entire photo library, and cannot completely replace Google Photos. Also, all the photos you upload to 500px will be publicly accessible, making it unsuitable for images that need to remain private. Users may also have concerns with data security.

In 2019, 500px announced it was the victim of a cyber intrusion in mid-2018, resulting in the personal data of 14 million users being leaked. The company says it has improved its security measures in response to the attack.

8. iDrive

Available On: Microsoft Windows, Mac, iOS and Android

Given that iDrive is our favorite cloud storage solution, it’s also an excellent choice for anyone who wants a place to organize their photo collections online. If you don’t have a massive budget to spend on a photo storage app, you can always sign up for the free version of iDrive.

It’ll provide 5GB of storage, which is suitable for those who don’t have a massive amount of photos to store. But should this not be enough storage, you can upgrade to 5TB or 10TB. What’s more, as a premium account holder, you’d be able to upload and store photos from all your devices.

What we also love about iDrive is that it offers some useful features for photographers.

Namely, you can use the Auto Camera feature to back up all the photos and videos stored on your device to the cloud automatically. There’s also a facial recognition feature that can order your photos automatically, and you can sync photos on a range of linked devices.

And if your data is ever wiped, you can use iDrive Express to access a physical hard drive containing all your backed-up photos and videos.

9. TeraBox/Dubox

Available On: Microsoft Windows, iPhone, Android

TeraBox, earlier called Dubox, is a nice Google Photos alternative.

You can upload your hundreds of files, folders, pictures and videos, and forget about exhausting your free storage, as it offers 1TB or 1000GB of free storage, which should be enough for most of the users.

The only drawback is, though you can enable automatic backup for photos for free, you need a premium membership to automatically backup videos. TeraBox does fire off some “security concerns” areas in our minds, but the app may be using this as a way to pick up Google Photos users looking for an alternative place to store massive libraries.

1024GB of online space is likely going to be enough to keep people happy for a long, long time.

While the storage allowance is fairly sizeable, we would not suggest putting sensitive files or important files on TeraBox servers. The upload speeds are fine, but download speeds are fairly slow and sometimes a little shaky.

Even so, we didn’t want to gloss over TeraBox as it might provide people with a high-volume free Google Photos alternative with some caveats.

10. Microsoft OneDrive

Available On: Microsoft Windows, iOS, Android

Next up is Microsoft’s cloud storage solution. OneDrive is a popular choice for business users due to its integration with Office apps, but it’s a capable Google Photos replacement, too.

You can download the app to your phone and have it automatically sync your photos to the cloud. The gallery allows for searching and automatically tags pictures based on their content (just like Google Photos). The free version is more limited at just 5GB, but you can bump that up to 100GB for just $2 a month.

That’s the exact same price that Google charges for 100GB. Microsoft 365 users also get 1TB of storage as part of the $7 per month (or $70 per year) plan.

This makes it a natural choice for anyone who uses Microsoft apps for work or personal use.

11. Amazon Photos

Available On: Microsoft Windows, iOS, Android

Amazon Photos is the best Google Photos alternative for you if you’re an existing Amazon Prime member. It offers unlimited full-resolution photo storage for Prime members and 5GB storage for videos, while non-Prime users get a total of 5GB of free storage.

Along with that, Amazon Photos lets you share your unlimited storage with up to five family members, offers a powerful search feature to help you quickly look up photos, and it also packs some editing features.

Since Amazon Photos comes bundled with an Amazon Prime membership, it offers incredible value as a lot of people pick up Prime for the shopping benefits anyway.

But if you don’t have a Prime membership, it’ll cost you $20/year for 100GB of storage. Given that a Google One subscription for 100GB of storage also costs $20 annually, it makes little sense to move away from Google Photos if you’re not already a Prime member. For those who really can’t do without unlimited storage, though, getting an Amazon Prime membership isn’t a bad deal.

It costs $119 (plus taxes) annually and comes with a boatload of other services like shipping benefits, Amazon Drive, Amazon Music, Prime Gaming, Prime Video, Prime Reading, etc.

In comparison, $100/year on Google One will get you 2TB of storage that you can share with up to six family members, 24/7 priority customer support, a 10% cashback in the Google Store, and a VPN for your Android phone.

12. Adobe Bridge

Available On: Microsoft Windows

Adobe is known for producing costly software.

However, Adobe Bridge is a free photo management app for computers. It gives you access to many advanced features such as panorama support, color management, batch renaming and resizing, HDR support, and watermarking.

There is definitely a shortage of photo apps for desktops. Adobe Bridge bridges the gap in this regard.

It is for professional photographers who use DSLRs and other digital cameras. The app makes it very convenient to transfer pictures from a camera to a computer.

Point of Concern: Adobe Bridge is more of an app for “camera to desktop” photos transfer, rather than “mobile to desktop” transfer.

13. Local storage

Do you already have a hard drive laying around or plenty of space on your PC or laptop? Well, if you do, kiss the cloud goodbye and get back into local backups.

In all honesty, this might be the best idea if you have thousands upon thousands of images and videos. The upside is that you can expand your storage at any point, the downside is that this comes with an associated cost. However, a 4TB external drive can be picked up for under $100 and will provide more than enough space for thousands of high-resolution images and even hundreds of 4K UHD video clips and files.

The process is a little slower and requires a PC or laptop for the transfer procedure, but provided you keep your drives offline, it’s actually one of the safest ways to store all of your personal memories and files.

14. pCloud

Available On: Windows, MacOS X, Android, Linux, iOS

pCloud is the most secure of all the platforms reviewed on this list.

This will matter to you if you want to ensure your photo library is only seen by you and those you choose. Everyone, but particularly those working in creative industries in which images are part of your livelihood, needs to choose a cloud storage platform that provides encrypted storage.

pCloud provides its premium Crypto customers with end-to-end encryption for all files. Unmatched by any other platform in this buying guide, this means that no one, not even the pCloud team, can access your images.

The optional pCloud Crypto add-on costs $47.88 per year. pCloud also differentiates itself by offering a lifetime subscription plan. The Premium Plus 2 TB plan costs $350 ($95.88 if paid annually). Lifetime access to pCloud Crypto costs $125.

These options can make the platform more affordable than many competitors. Another thing we love about pCloud is its support for RAW image thumbnails.

It’s a feature we’ve not seen on many other platforms, and it makes pCloud one of the best Google Photos alternatives for professional photographers.

15. Flickr

Available On: Android, iOS

Many cloud storage solutions charge obscene amounts for just a tiny amount of storage, but that’s certainly not the case with Flickr. The American image and video hosting platform will let you store up to 1000 photos and videos at no cost.

But you’ll need to deal with in-app advertisements, which obviously allow Flickr to make money while being generous with its free cloud storage. If you have over 1000 photos and videos you want to store on Flickr, you’ll need to sign up for a premium account.

A $6.99 monthly plan provides unlimited storage, no adverts, and more. The main attraction of Flickr is the fact that photos are organized in a neat and tidy social feed, which you can have as public or private.

By setting your Flickr photostream as public, other photographers can follow and comment on your work.

16. Your own server

The last Google Photos alternative is by far the most complicated, but the most versatile.

Setting up your own cloud server will give you complete control over your files, and free you from persistent subscriptions to any one service. However, it will take far more time and effort than any other service on the market.

You can use Plex, Synology, OwnCloud, or a number of other services to do this, but it will take some technical know-how.

There may also be subscription fees or larger up-front costs, so keep that in mind when budgeting.

17. Dropbox

Available On: Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS

Dropbox is another useful cloud storage solution that you can use as a Google Photos alternative to backup your media.

While it isn’t specifically meant for photo storage, it offers a few useful features that will help you keep your backups organized. The service offers automatic backups for photos, videos, and screenshots, a document scanner, a dedicated section in the mobile app to browse through media, and comprehensive access controls for any media you share with others.

On top of that, a paid plan will get you access to Dropbox Transfers to share large files, Dropbox Passwords to securely store your passwords, and a Vault feature to store sensitive files. Sadly, Dropbox’s free plan only offers 2GB of storage.

So it isn’t a good deal if you’re not willing to pay for storage space. Even if you are willing to pay, Dropbox’s plans are a bit more expensive than Google’s. Its 2TB Individual Plus plan is priced at $120, which gives you single-user access to all of the services mentioned above.

If you want to share your cloud storage with family members, you’ll have to shell out slightly over $200 for 2TB of storage. The Family plan will let you add up to 6 users and give you access to all of the features mentioned above.

In comparison, Google One’s 2TB plan is $20 cheaper, and it lets you share your storage space with five others from the get-go.

18. Piwigo

Available On: Android, iOS, Web Version, and self-hosted

Piwigo is a photo management app for professionals and small businesses. The uploaded pictures can be categorized as per author, location, and other tags. The photos can be designated to individual albums.

You can bring pictures from digiKam, Lightroom, Shotwell, and other mobile apps. Piwigo can be used as a tool to backup photos as well as to showcase your work. There are many templates, plugins, and features available to enhance the presentation of your photos.

Photographers can share content within the app to their clients and get feedback in the form of comments, ratings, favorites, etc. The clients can download photos or albums as well. In addition, small companies can also use Piwigo professionally.

They can add different team members to the company account. The account administrator can manage the users, groups, messages, galleries, permissions, and notifications. Piwigo is a cloud-based app and offers end-to-end encryption.

There is also an option to host the app yourself but you need technical expertise. The app is open-source so anyone can look at the code and find the vulnerabilities.

Point of Concern: Piwigo is considered a little bit technical and it’s for advanced users.

19. Adobe Creative Cloud Photography

Available On: Microsoft Windows, macOS

Another option that, like Amazon Prime, might be useful if you already subscribe to the Adobe Creative Cloud or a specific application package.

Make no mistake, Adobe’s cloud storage platform is very expensive if you do not use any of the extensive suite of applications as part of the Creative Cloud plan. As just an alternative Google Photos option that you can access and haven’t already tried or used your free 100GB cloud locker.

That sizeable allowance is only available as part of the $52.99-per-month plan that includes all Adobe software.

20. Cluster

Available On: Android, iOS, and Web Version

Cluster is a private social media of sorts. You can upload pictures, make albums, and share them with selected people.

They can comment or like your photos and you can see who viewed the album and respond to their comments. Similarly, you can also be invited to view the albums of your friends and family. It is a private viewing party of your personal photos.

You can decide the audience for every album and enjoy the response.

Point of Concern: When you sign up, Cluster gathers your personal information and shares it with its partners and third parties in the name of improving its service.

As we have mentioned earlier, data gathering, sharing, and usage of any sort always raise concerns for privacy.

21. Piktures

Available On: Android

People who are sick of the default Google Photos app on their Android phone can switch to Piktures, which is specifically made for Android users.

The app has an attractive interface and can be navigated easily.

It will organize the pictures with respect to location and date. There’s also a calendar view where all the images will be displayed as per the date and month. Just like other apps, Piktures also has a paid version that provides Dropbox sync, PIN-protection, and other features.

The basic account of Piktures lets you upload your GIFs, photos, and videos.

Conclusion

That’s pretty much it! So, there are Best Google Photos Alternatives.

If you have any other favorite Best Google Photos Alternatives then don’t forget to share them with us in the comment below. Also, if you liked this article, Share on your favorite Social media platform.

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