Free online photo storage

Millions of photos are taken each week but many of them get deleted within days from our smartphones and computers due to the huge file sizes, often making room for more photos that will go through the same process. It’s never been easier to store your photos online and we’re going to walk you through a few of the best sites out there so you can decide which is best for you. Many of them also allow you to share your photos with others in a secure environment, rather than having to do it over Facebook for the world to see your holiday snaps.

 

 

Part of the Google group, Picasa is a dedicated online photo storage site that integrates seamlessly with Google+, making it perfect for anyone who loves to use Google’s social network. As long as you have an email address you can sign up for a free account and start uploading your photos within seconds.

 

Features of Picasa Web Album: 

After uploading your photos you can edit them using the online tools, before organizing them into albums and there’s also a nifty desktop application you can download to make managing your photos even easier. You’re also able to re-download your photos, but unfortunately you can’t quickly download an entire album so be prepared for it to take you some time.

 

What free online storage is included with Picasa Web Albums?

There’s no limit placed on photo uploads as long as they aren’t any bigger than 2048x2048 pixels. If they are, you’re limited to 1GB of storage and will have to take out a paid for plan to increase the data limit. This may put off serious photographers with thousands of high resolution photos that need to be stored online.

 

 

 

Flickr is much more focused on photo sharing than storage, but does still offer an attractive proposition for anyone looking to store photos online to show to friends and family.  It’s free to sign up to and supports multiple devices to make uploading photos easier on-the-go.

 

Features of Flickr

You can upload photos from your desktop, as well as from any smartphone as long as you download the free app. After doing so it’s then easy to do some simple editing such as removing the dreaded red-eye or to crop the image and sharpen it up. Photos can then be organized into sets and collections to make it easier keeping track of those important family occasions or special days out. The sharing element is more advanced that many other online photo storage services, with the ability to share over social networks as well as adding comments and location tags. This makes is perfect for anyone looking to always have access to their images and to show off your latest albums.

 

What free online photo storage is included with Flickr?

With the free account you can upload images up to 30MB in size as well as any videos that you also want to store online. However, photos are compressed to reduce the file size after you upload them which means quality is reduced if you then want to download and print. Like Picasa Web Albums this probably isn’t the best solution for photographers who wince when quality disappears during compression.

 

 

 

As well as offering free photo storage, Snapfish is an online printing service that enables you to create your own photo books, posters and photo gifts from your images. This makes it a great solution if you’re looking to get your pictures printed rather than just storing them online for the rest of time.

 

Features of Snapfish

You can sign up for a free account to store your photos online, and unlike other services, they won’t be compressed. You can also put them into albums and share your selected photos with family members and friends by inviting them via email. You get access to a basic photo editor and can use the images in any of the photo gift products listed on the Snapfish site. 

 

What free online photo storage is included with Snapfish?

You can upload unlimited photos with no limitation on file size and no issues with compression. However, you do have to get at least one print a year from the company to keep the account open, however this is a small price to pay for the free online photo storage offered. It’s a great service for photographers rather than anyone looking to share photos en-masse and if you fall into this category, it’s likely you’re looking to get some prints made anyway.

 

 

 

Photobucket is one of the largest photo storage services online, hosting over 10 billion images so clearly it must be doing something right. It offers a suite of features to make storing photos easier, as well as ensuring they’re always backed up in case you have your computer stolen before you’ve had time to upload them to Photobucket.

 

Features of Photobucket

Photobucket really positions itself as the photographers choice due to the editing suite on offer and range of other tools. One of the most useful is an auto-backup application which will sync with the albums on your computer whenever you’re online. This is a huge plus-point, especially for anyone who has already had the experience of losing thousands of photos due to the death of a laptop of anti-virus attack. 

 

What free online photo storage is included with Photobucket?

A free Photobucket account will provide you with a 10GB monthly limit which is more than enough for amateur photographers. The max file size is 5MB so you may struggle with some larger photos on the free account alone. This can be upgraded to 20MB on subscription plans so look at your average file sizes before signing up to see if you’re likely to go over the 5MB.