Top 10 Best Online Photo Storage Services [2018]

Apple calls its online storage service iCloud. This service not only stores your photos but other files too, like word documents, notes and songs.

Apple has built this service into all its devices so that they all work perfectly together.

Additionally, anyone that uses an Apple device is given 5GB of free iCloud storage by Apple. Any additional storage must be purchased for an additional charge.

Specifically, if you want a 50GB of online storage, then Apple will charge you $0.99 a month. 200GB of storage costs $2.99 a month and 2TB of storage costs $9.99 a month.

In order to access your online files, users will have to sign in using their Apple username and password on the iCloud homepage.

This is one of the best online photo storage services because it works so well with iPhoto Library, Apple’s main application for managing photos. As long as you have iCloud services enabled on your Apple device, every new photo that you upload will be automatically backed up to your iCloud drive.

This makes Apple’s iCloud storage service ideal for anyone that uploads many photos, as they can avoid having to manually back up each one.

Amazon also offers an online photo storage service called Amazon Cloud Drive. 

Like Apple’s service, they also offer 5GB of free online photo storage to any customer. If you are an Amazon Prime member, however, you get unlimited photo storage. An Amazon Prime membership costs $12.99 a month. 

If you want more than 5GB of storage but don’t want to sign up for an Amazon Prime membership, then there are two plans you can choose from. The 100GB plan costs $11.99 per year while the 1TB plan costs $59.99 per year. 

This is one of the best online storage services because it works so well with Amazon’s other services. Many customers already have an Amazon Prime membership and are thus able to benefit from the unlimited photo storage option. 

Yet, even if you don’t have an Amazon Prime membership, the two main storage options are still relatively affordable when considering other prices on the market.

Microsoft OneDrive is another online photo storage service that is popular with many users. 

As is typical in the industry, they offer 5GB of free online storage. 

For 50GB of storage, they charge $1.99 a month. For 1TB of storage, they charge $6.99 a month. They also offer 5TB of storage for $9.99 a month. 

As you can see, these storage plans become more affordable as larger sizes are selected. Furthermore, Microsoft offers a 5TB option. Both of these things mean that Microsoft OneDrive is one of the best online photo storage services available if you need maximum storage. 

This is often the case for certain creative types that record lots of video and need lots of space to store their footage. These kinds of users would benefit from the 5TB plan, as it would free up the space on their computer for other important tasks, like editing or streaming.

Adobe also offers an array of services when it comes to online photo storage. 

This service is included with any Adobe Creative Cloud membership, though the amount of storage you receive varies depending on the membership you have.  These membership options can be found here. 

If you have a full Adobe Creative Cloud membership or a single application membership, you get 100GB of online storage. If you have a Creative Cloud Photography membership, then you get 20GB of storage. Lastly, if you have a free membership or a trial product, then you get 2GB of storage. 

This is one of the best online photo storage services because Adobe gives you some breathing room if you go over your quota. Other inferior photo storage services make strict cutoffs when you reach your storage capacity, sometimes not even telling you that you’ve gone over limit. This could result in files that are not backed up, which could lead to lost or damaged files. 

You don’t have to worry about that with Adobe’s photo storage service. The Creative Cloud desktop application syncs up to 1GB of overflow data from any of your devices. This allows you to temporarily store a photo until you are able to free up some storage room.

Flickr is another company that offers an online photo storage service for its members. 

Specifically, Flickr offers a free plan, a monthly plan, and an annual plan, each one offering 1000GB of storage. 

The monthly plan costs $5.99 a month and most notably does away with advertisements when using Flickr. 

The annual plan costs $49.99 per year. Beyond the monthly savings, this plan also includes a number of discounts on other products related to photography, like 15% off an Adobe Creative Cloud membership. 

Flickr is one of the best online photo storage services because it offers 1000GB of storage for free, which is unmatched in the industry. This is more than enough storage for most people. 

Most importantly, this free plan allows you to be a part of the Flickr community, which is full of both amateur and professional photographers. This makes it a diverse platform for sharing and storing photographs. 

Most online photo storage services merely offer you storage and nothing more. Yet, this can make your life complicated when you want to access these photos to share them, as you must constantly open some new application or window. What’s great about Flickr is that users can edit and share their photographs in addition to storing them. 

This minimizes the stress that an artist must deal with, which is important considering how difficult it is already to be an artist in the 21st century.

Flickr is another company that offers an online photo storage service for its members. 

Specifically, Flickr offers a free plan, a monthly plan, and an annual plan, each one offering 1000GB of storage. 

The monthly plan costs $5.99 a month and most notably does away with advertisements when using Flickr. 

The annual plan costs $49.99 per year. Beyond the monthly savings, this plan also includes a number of discounts on other products related to photography, like 15% off an Adobe Creative Cloud membership. 

Flickr is one of the best online photo storage services because it offers 1000GB of storage for free, which is unmatched in the industry. This is more than enough storage for most people. 

Most importantly, this free plan allows you to be a part of the Flickr community, which is full of both amateur and professional photographers. This makes it a diverse platform for sharing and storing photographs. 

Most online photo storage services merely offer you storage and nothing more. Yet, this can make your life complicated when you want to access these photos to share them, as you must constantly open some new application or window. What’s great about Flickr is that users can edit and share their photographs in addition to storing them. 

This minimizes the stress that an artist must deal with, which is important considering how difficult it is already to be an artist in the 21st century.

Canon Irista offers 15GB of free online storage for photos and videos. 

For $2.25 a month, users can 100GB of storage while for $7.99 a month, users can get 500GB of storage. 

Many people use Canon Irista because of the security it offers over your files. Canon has advertised that they use the same security that banks use to keep your information private. This makes their service ideal for anyone storing sensitive photographs and videos. 

Additionally, Canon Irista is one of the best online photo storage services because you can upload to the drive from a compatible Canon camera. This streamlines the upload process and prevents you from having to deal with manually uploading photos. 

The main drawback to this service is that you can only store photos and videos, not other files.

500 Pixels is a free online platform for photographers that was founded in 2009. It offers photographers the chance to showcase their portfolio and view the work of others. 

The only catch is that there is a limit on how many uploads you can make, namely 7 per week. If you want to upload unlimited photos, you can purchase an Awesome plan for $6.49 a month or $35.88 for the entire year. 

This platform would be perfect for professional photographers looking for an online community. However, if you don’t plan on participating in the community, then this would not be the ideal photo storage service for you.

For individuals, Dropbox offers a Plus or Professional plan. Both of these include 1TB of online storage, though the Professional Plan offers more administrative and collaboration tools. 

The Plus plan costs $9.99 a month while the Professional plan costs $19.99 a month. 

Dropbox also offers a number of tools for teams, making it one of the best online photo storage services. For example, their Advanced plan for teams gives you unlimited storage and costs $25 per user per month.

Even though Facebook is often viewed purely as a social media platform, it also functions conveniently as an online photo storage service. 

There is no limit to how many total photos you can upload, though you can’t upload more than 1000 photos per album. 

What’s great about Facebook is that it’s free, which is a benefit that many companies can’t match. Even though most storage companies offer a free basic plan, they usually charge if customers want to expand their storage beyond 5GB. This is not the case on Facebook, making it also preferable for users on a budget. 

Many younger users, for example, don’t have much money to spend on an online photo storage service. These users would benefit from Facebook’s service, as it would also allow them to organize their photos by albums and even tag friends in the photos. These additional features make Facebook one of the best online photo storage services available. 

The only drawback to using Facebook to store photos is that the platform is not conducive to transferring many photos at once. 

For example, if you relied on Facebook for storing your photos for many years but suddenly wanted to upgrade to another online service, it might take a while to move all your photos to the new service, especially if you have a lot. 

While there are various extensions and applications you can download to overcome these obstacles, this still represents an unnecessary expenditure of energy when compared with using other online photo storage services. Many other services allow file transfer seamlessly between devices without requiring the download of some third-party application.