10 Great Free Alternatives to Google Photos in 2021

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, let’s first accept one simple thing – Nothing comes for free. And if you’re not paying for it, you’re not the customer. You’re the product being sold. Ever since its launch in 2015, Google Photos has gone from just another Google app to an important app on every Android user’s smartphone.

According to Google, over 1 billion people backup more than 28 billion photos every week to Google Photos.

Salient Features of Google Photos

1. It’s a Google Product – Google is renowned for safeguarding user’s data with industry-leading security infrastructure, responsible data practices, and easy-to-use privacy tools. Data privacy is protected across Google with built-in security designed to automatically stop threats. And therefore users prefer Google Photos in terms of security.
2. One Home for All Your Photos & Videos – Google Photos automatically backs up photos & videos across all your devices, i.e., Mobile, Tablets, and Computer, so they’re safe and always available. With the app, you have every photo you’ve ever taken right at your fingertips. And since your photos and videos are already safely backed up to your Google Account, you will never again have to worry about deleting a photo to make space on your phone.
3. Organize Your Photos and Bring Moments to Life in New Ways – With all your photos and videos stored in one place, it becomes easy to navigate a lifetime of photos with simple gestures. Your Photos area automatically organizes people, places, and things that matter; therefore, it becomes much easier to search for anything specific. For example, you can just type “beach” and see photos from all your trips to the beach, even if the photo doesn’t have descriptions.
4. Edit Your Photos & Videos Like Pro – Google Photos includes powerful editing tools for your photos and videos, making it easy to enhance your photos in new ways that bring moments to life. Transform your photos and videos into collages, animations, short films with soundtracks, and more.
5. Easily Share and Save What Matters – Its easy-to-use interface makes it easier even for the novice to share photos and albums with friends and family. Google Photos supports sharing by email, text as well as various social media platforms. It allows users to share photos via short links which can save the high-quality images to their own photo library with a tap.

Google is still offering 15GB of Google storage for free and this storage limit is shared across all Google products like Gmail, Google Drive, Google Photos, etc. A Google storage link can show you an estimate of how long your storage will last, based on your upload history.

There’s good news for owners of Google’s Pixel smartphones, from the first to the latest version. Photos from Google Pixel smartphones are not subject to the limit, unlike other free storage users. However, the catch is that unlimited storage only applies to photos uploaded in High Quality i.e., Storage Saver quality, which is 16MP. Full-resolution photos use your storage quota as before.

Finding the best online photo storage site can be tough. Especially, if you already have certain criteria like reliability, faster performance, easy-to-use interface, etc. With so many options to choose from it’s hard to know which ones are worth trying and which ones you should avoid.

Here are the 10 best options if you’re looking to replace Google Photos.

1) Microsoft OneDrive

OneDrive allows you to upload, edit, and share photos from any of your devices. OneDrive offers many features such as automatic photo backup with Windows 10; private online storage for your family; unlimited storage for your Office 365 account. You can even use OneDrive in your Android or iPhone app so you can access, view, and share from anywhere.

OneDrive does not offer public sharing like other sites do but it’s perfect for storing individual pictures securely. They give you 15GB of free storage which is more than most other places offer and they have numerous plans that allow you to get more space if needed.

2) Amazon Photos

Amazon Photos offers free and offer unlimited full-resolution photo storage for Prime members. Amazon also automatically backs up your existing personal photos so you don’t have to manually upload anything. All you need to do is link your phone or camera with Prime and all your photos will automatically be backed up, organized, stored securely, and accessible from anywhere.

3) DigiBoxx

Digiboxx is India’s first cloud-based digital asset management platform. It’s free user plan offers 20GB storage space with Gmail Integration and Real time collaboration features. Thus, you can also add text, voice notes, tags, and captions apart from uploading photos. Apart from photos, you can store any type of file in your account including videos, mp3’s and documents. Your files will be kept safe from unauthorized access with AES-256 encryption.

4) DropBox

Dropbox is one of these great free alternatives. It lets you securely access and shares all your files on any device that has an internet connection. They offer 2GB of storage for free, which will be enough for some people. You can upgrade if you need more space though it costs money

Dropbox is one of these great free alternatives. It lets you securely access and shares all your files on any device that has an internet connection.

5) Box

Box offers 10GB of cloud storage space for free which lets you upload, save, and share photos all in one location without having to think about backing up your data or finding an extra hard drive. Box has Built-in integrations with thousands of apps like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, etc.

The premium plans targeting Individuals as well as Business Teams offer amazing features like secure file collaboration, manage workflows, note-taking, project management, etc.

6) Degoo

Degoo was founded in Sweden in 2012 and is built with Swedish engineering and entrepreneurship with a global team. Degoo currently offers up to 100GB of free storage. You can sign in from any device, and upload or download files from anywhere. The site uses 256-bit AES encryption, so you can rest assured that your data is secure. You can get a total of 500 GB extra cloud space by inviting your friends to Degoo i.e., 5 GB cloud space per friend. Degoo also offers free additional space through various promotional campaigns by its sponsors.

If you need more space, you can upgrade your account through an affordable monthly subscription plan.

7) Apple iCloud

One unique feature of Apple’s iCloud is that it can sync data with Apple devices, like phones and tablets. There are some limitations, for example, it doesn’t have many features for managing photos or video editing and sharing – but if you’re looking for an easy way to keep your files synced between your iPhone and Macbook, then iCloud may be worth checking out. Apple iCloud can also store your contacts, calendars, documents, health, activity, and other app data.

8) Imgur

Imgur is an American online image sharing and image hosting service with a focus on social gossip that was founded in 2009. The first look at the Imgur website will make you feel like visiting the 2005 to 2008 version of MySpace.com

It’s very simple and fast when uploading or downloading files. The only downside is that you can only upload videos up to 60 seconds long featuring sound, which makes it not so great for various video-based projects. They have unlimited bandwidth, no storage limits and it’s free!

9) ImageShack

ImageShack is a subscription-based image hosting website headquartered at Los Gatos, California. Although ImageShack always had a subscription service, the majority of its revenue was originally produced from advertising related to its free image hosting. They have their limitations of course, but it might be worth at least investigating before you sign up for something more expensive.

10) IDrive

IDrive offers 5GB free cloud storage. If you need more space, you can upgrade your account to 1TB of space for just $6.95 for a year ($69.50 for subsequent years). IDrive Cloud is AWS S3 compatible. And you can use your existing S3 compatible tools to access IDrive Cloud storage.