Top Online Photo Storage

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Photo by Julia M Cameron from Pexels

Google Photos

Google Backup Features pros and cons:

Google Photos is available on Windows, Mac, Android and iOS, as well as in-browser. Users can upload photos, view and share them. Google Photos also offers features such as photo-book collections, where it groups pictures together based on the date they were taken on, and the people and places featured.

It puts images into three categories: People, Places, and Things, and its search engine allows users to easily filter through them by searching for generic terms. It also offers Shared Albums, where users pool photos into an album, and then share it with other Google Photos users, who can also contribute.

Accessing photos and videos offline is also available, and if you delete a photo by accident, Google Photos holds on to the image for an additional 60 days in the trash folder. Google Photos also offers very basic editing functions, such as cropping, adding filters, and adjusting colour and exposure.

Price:

Google Photos offers free and paid plans. The free plan offers unlimited storage, but the images and videos you upload will be compressed to save space (16MP resolution for images, 1080p for video). The free tier is due to end on June 1, 2021. If you want to save images and videos in their original format and resolution, it’s free up to 15GB, and more storage is available through subscription services.

Upgrading to 100GB costs £1.59/$1.99 per month, 200GB costs £2.49/$2.99 per month, and 2TB costs £7.99/$9.99 per month. 10TB, 20TB, and 30TB options are available, but they’re currently more expensive than competitors.

Dropbox

Features; pros and cons:

Dropbox is also available on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS, and offers a website interface. It features an easy-to-use interface centred around a drag-and-drop system where users drag and drop files they want to store online into a Dropbox folder, which are then automatically stored in the cloud. Photos are able to be uploaded in their original format and resolution, and are accessible on other devices where the user has installed Dropbox.

Dropbox offers an automatic photo uploading feature where it allows users to automatically upload photos and videos from devices and SD cards to a dedicated “Camera Uploads” folder in their Dropbox, but it doesn’t offer a built-in image editing function.

If you edit pictures with an external program after uploading them to Dropbox, the changes will be automatically detected and synced in your Dropbox folder. Dropbox also offers a 30-day file version history viewer and a restore feature in case you accidentally delete a photo.

Price:

Dropbox offers a Basic, Plus, Family, and Professional plan, with the option of annual or monthly billing. The basic version offers a limited 2GB of free storage, and upgrading to the 2TB Plus plan which costs £95.88/$119.88 billed annually, or £8.99/$11.99 billed monthly. The Family plan is aimed at individuals wanting to share their storage space with others, also offers 2TB of storage, and costs £155.88/$203.88 billed annually, and £12.99/$16.99 billed monthly. The professional version offers 3TB of storage, but is aimed at small businesses and is too expensive for the average photographer.

iCloud

Features; pros and cons:

iCloud is available on macOS, iOS, Windows, and in browsers, but with no support for Android. Aimed at pre-existing Apple customers, it is seamlessly integrated into Apple’s ecosystem. It offers its own dedicated photo storage option, iCloud photos, which automatically backs up any photos or videos you upload to iCloud in their original format and resolution. These images and videos are then available for viewing and download on any device with iCloud set up.

iCloud Photos also offers built-in basic image editing options, such as cropping, and adjusting exposition and color. The image you edit will be updated across all your devices set up with iCloud. iCloud also features an ‘Optimized Storage’ function, which offloads older images from your device, storing them as low-resolution thumbnails, and saves the original-resolution image onto iCloud. The image is still available to view, but you will need a WiFi connection in order to download it from iCloud onto your device.

Price:

Setting up iCloud automatically gives you 5GB of free storage, which is notably less than Google’s 15GB. If you want to upgrade, there are 50GB ($0.99 per month), 200GB ($2.99 per month), and 2TB ($9.99 per month) plans, and the 200GB and 2TB option can be shared with others.

IDrive

Features; pros and cons:

IDrive is available on Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. It has cross-device compatibility, automated backup, file and folder sharing, real-time file sync, unlimited file access, and is privacy oriented, using standard, and end-to-end data encryption. Like Google Photos and Microsoft OneDrive, it offers facial recognition software which helps you organize your portfolio, and is able to sync images across all linked devices, much like Dropbox.

It offers an “Auto Camera” feature, which allows users to automatically upload photos and videos from their device to their IDrive account at their original format and resolution, although compressing them is also an option. IDrive does not offer any type of built-in editing feature.

Price:

IDrive offers 5GB of free storage, much like iCloud, and limited access to all of IDrive’s features. It offers Personal, Team, and Business plans, which are billed annually. The Personal plan offers 5TB from $69.50 a year or 10TB from $99.50 a year, and the Team plan offers between 5TB and 50TB for $99.50 to $999.50 a year. The Business plan starts at $199.95 for 500GB, and $799.40 for 2.5TB, but offers unlimited users and devices. IDrive runs frequent deals and offers, so these prices are subject to discounts.

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pCloud

Features; pros and cons:

pCloud is available on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and Linux, as well as offering an intuitive web interface. Much like the other major cloud services, it offers sharing individual files as well as groups of files, and has no file size limit as long as they’re within the overall limit of your subscription plan.

Storing photos and videos in their original format and resolution is supported, and pCloud also offers a built-in media player, and will create slideshows of uploaded pictures. However, no built-in editing feature is available. pCloud will retain deleted media for 15 days in case you change your mind.

It offers cross-device syncing, and file transfers are encrypted. In addition to encryption, pCloud offers two-factor authentication. pCloud is also able to exchange information with other cloud storage services such as Google Drive and Dropbox, and allows you to upload from other sites, including social media such as Facebook and Instagram, keeping the same folder structure you initially used. Social media syncing is unique to pCloud.

Price:

pCloud also offers free and paid plans. The free option provides 10GB of storage, which is less than Google’s 15GB, but more than Dropbox, iCloud, or IDrive offer. You can also use the service to send 5BG worth of data for free. There are two paid plans billed either monthly or annually. The Premium plan offers 500GB at $3.99 per month or $47.99 per year, and the Premium Plus plan offers 2TB at $7.99 per month or £95.88 per year.

Unique to pCloud, there is also the option of making a one-time payment lifetime plan of $175 for the Premium, and $350 for the Premium Plus plan. The Family plan is only available as a lifetime plan and provides 2TB of storage which you can share with other pCloud users. Free and paid accounts all offer the same features, unlike IDrive.

Adobe Creative Cloud

Features; pros and cons:

Adobe Creative Cloud is a service specifically aimed at photographers, videographers, and other content creators, and offers competitive collaborative features which enable users within a team to collaborate with other users and colleagues in real-time, automatically syncing and updating files as long as you have a stable internet connection. Users are then available to access these files on any device that has Adobe Creative Cloud installed.

However, Adobe’s Creative Cloud app, where your files are managed, does not support many file formats outside of those used by Adobe’s suite. There is integration with Gmail, Lightroom, and Photoshop elements, and RAW files are supported, but Apple’s file formats are unsupported. Unlike the Google Drive, iCloud, and many others, there is a file size limit - 1GB on the web, and 5GB on the desktop app.

Price:

Adobe Creative Cloud offers only paid plans, each providing 100GB, with an extra 20GB available for an additional $2.99, which is more expensive than its competitors. Adobe offers a student discount, which costs $19.99 per month instead of the usual $52.99 for full access to the Adobe suite, which includes Adobe’s photo and video editing software - Lightroom, Photoshop, and Premiere.

Adobe also offers plans geared specifically toward photographers, the Creative Cloud Photography plan, which includes a plethora of apps and 20GB at $9.99 per month, and the Lightroom plan, offering Adobe Lightroom on desktop and mobile, and 1TB of storage for $9.99 per month, with options to expand storage up to 10TB by contacting Adobe directly.

Microsoft OneDrive*

Features:

Microsoft OneDrive is a direct competitor to Google Drive, and is available on Windows, Mac, Android and iOS, as well as Linux. It offers a file sharing function, desktop synchronisation, and social media integration, allowing you to post pictures from OneDrive directly to Facebook. As well as this, it offers automatic camera roll backup from your mobile devices at full resolution, and supports RAW files, and has a file size limit of 100GB.

Files stored on OneDrive can be accessed anywhere with a stable internet connection, and downloading them for future use is also an option. Microsoft OneDrive features seamless integration with Microsoft Office, and offers a scan function, where you are able to scan physical documents and pictures, and upload them to OneDrive.

OneDrive also supports tagging in photographs, photo search, and album creation. However, it does not offer any built-in editing software. Files stored on OneDrive are encrypted, scanned for viruses, and any suspicious activity noticed on your account is immediately reported.

Price:

Microsoft OneDrive offers 5GB of free storage, with additional paid plans. An additional 100GB costs $1.99 per month. The 1TB option costs $6.99 and includes Office365, which is overall better value for money. For an additional $3 per month ($9.99) you get six additional OneDrive licenses, and get Office 365 on an unlimited number of devices.