A picture is worth a thousand words. It tells stories and captures time.
Back in the day, photos used to be costly and challenging to produce. With everything going digital in today’s world, everyone can take photos and record videos.
It’s that easy!
With that being said, storing the images and videos is another problem.
While sharing them with your loved one would be another problem that needs to be solved.
If that’s not enough, how about all your songs and music? Music cloud storage sounds great but can they live stream and play directly into my playlist?
Most smartphones have limited storage space and even if you do store them on your laptop or computer – you can’t depend on your hard drive’s life expectancy.
What if your laptop crashes? All of your images and videos are gone.
Or your computer simply does not have enough storage for it like a Chromebook?
Aside from a backup solution, the request we receive most from our readers is “What is the best cloud storage for photos?”
This is why we decided to put together a list of the best cloud storage for videos and photos in particular.
You will not have to worry about losing your files – if your phone is stolen or your laptop crashes because you’ve saved them to digital photo storage.
Using a cloud storage provider means that your precious media will be safe and secure – yes, it will be secured – from any accidents.
You will be able to access and share your photos and videos at any time, wherever you are, from any device.
Before we begin with the list, let’s take a look at what we had summarized.
We differentiated the cloud storage service into their respective categories according to usage as the best option for storing pictures and videos.
7 Predefined Categories for Your Selection
- pCloud – for Media & General Use
- Amazon Photos – for Photo Printing Services
- Google Photos – for Best Photo Management
- Dropbox – for Brand in the industry
- iCloud – for Apple and Mac Users
- Canon Irista – for Professional Photographers
- Nikon Image Space – for Nikon Owners
It’s a very long reading starting from the line below. Jump to our FAQ section for some quick insights. But we do encourage you to go through our content to fully understand your needs for media storage on the cloud.
Best way to organize digital photos
Do you still do a photo washing in a darkroom?
Most of us take photos and videos using our smartphones if not digital cameras.
This is where cloud storage comes into play for real-world applications for photography or videographer purposes.
Most of the cloud storage in the market is convenient, cheap, and offers huge capacious space. Of course, unlimited storage is the best.
But it depends on the providers as not all providers offer the same number of plans, but most do come with a free plan or trial.
Not to mention, security plays an important role when it comes to keeping your photos and videos private.
That is why in this article we will not share or discuss image-sharing sites that can store photos digitally as well but lack privacy and in the sense of security.
Most cloud storage vendors make it easy by setting secured restrictions to ensure that the pictures and videos are accessible only to your password-protected account, or to anyone with a private web link.
Many of them also offer an efficient and effortless way to sync images as well as organize and share images and videos.
Backing up your photos and videos on cloud storage is pretty easy as well. You can access your photos and videos from anywhere at any time as long as you have an Internet connection.
Most cloud storage services are compatible to be used on desktop and mobile phones.
So, getting your images and videos online without hassle is an added advantage.
But if you want to know more about what is cloud storage and the benefits of using it, check out our guide article on cloud storage.
What is Online Photo Storage
Most simply, online photo storage is where you take digital images and store them in a database that is well-protected and overlooked by a digital overseer.
Most of the time, they are simply just online databases that specialize in ensuring that PNG and JPEG files (predominantly used for pictures) can be stored in very large quantities.
This will ensure that anyone that is trying to get and save their images can do so that is going to look good for a long time.
This is essential because if you’re determined to protect your images, you’re going to want to do it in this way, but there are a lot of common complaints that are by no means valid when you compared them to something else.
Sure, you could use any sort of online cloud storage service, but there are plenty of online storage services that are much better if you’re concerned about the preservation of precise file formats, how secure is the file transfer or sharing, but also if you’re worried about turning photos into hard copies or prints.
Now some services are entirely dedicated to preserving online photos, but there are also storage centers where that emphasize storing all sorts of data.
But online photo storage is no longer a niche category, but rather, an essential part of taking care of your photos.
This will ensure that if you’re serious about protecting your photos, you can do so in a responsible way.
How Does Online Photo Storage Work Actually
For the most part, a service works very similarly to most online cloud storage sites.
You make an account, you are assigned an encrypted area to store your photos, and you can begin seamlessly uploading images.
As previously stated, if you’re concerned about protecting your digital photos for long-term storage, there are a lot of services that will actually take prints and digitally convert them.
While those services are actually few and far between, you have to realize that if you’re serious about long-term storage, you have to be able to stay on top of it because some of these services can be slower than others.
But it’s also important to know what to look for in the service in the first place.
Fortunately, these 7 excellent online photo storage services work around those issues – VERY effectively if I may add.
Now that you know the best way to organize your photo is by using cloud storage, let’s take a look at these photo cloud storage services.
1. pCloud
- Automatic upload & free up space
- Attractive Lifetime plan
- Plugin for Lightroom
- Resize photos & compress video directly
pCloud is one of the top leading cloud storage services in the world. Our pCloud review tells a lot about them here.
Unless you are working with creatives or are a professional graphic designer, Adobe Creative Cloud might be a better choice.
There’s much to admire, especially with the security excellence in their system, which is an excellent advantage when it comes to storing private pictures and videos. Their website and mobile app are pretty easy to use, and their features are well-defined in simplicity.
If you opt for pCloud which 8 million users already did, you will not be disappointed because you will have the option to view pictures and play videos as well. There’s also an option to upload photos and videos automatically using the mobile app and further reduce the storage intake from your mobile device.
Sharing on pCloud is simple and easy as well.
You can invite anyone to your folder using a file-sharing link, which they can view and modify. The file-sharing link can be shared via email or directly to social media.
With that being said, pCloud supports Windows and Mac as well as Linux, which is a pretty good deal. There’s a free plan that comes with 10GB of free storage.
However, if you think that 10GB isn’t enough for you; you have the option to select one of the 2 plans:
- Annual: Premium (500GB for $4.99 per month) and Premium Plus (2TB for $9.99 per month)
- Lifetime: Premium (500GB for $199), Premium Plus (2TB for $399), and newly launched Custom Plan (10TB for $1190)
Find Out How:
Is the Lifetime plan worth it? Check out our saving calculator on how much you can save on it.
You can also choose to level up your cloud security with zero-knowledge, where you should check out their pCloud Crypto encryption add-on.
It’s a shame that these excellent security features do not come in standard and you’ll have to purchase them additionally.
It comes with 3 different plans with their pCloud Crypto:
- $4.99 per month
- $49.99 annually
- $150 lifetime
If you don’t know what is zero-knowledge security, read our article on it.
2. Amazon Photos
- Amazon Prime member gets unlimited photo storage
- Easy photo printing services
- Custom prints
Amazon Drive offers a good experience when it comes to storing photos and videos. Their web interface is easy to use, which presents an overall pleasant experience. All you have to do is create a sync folder and upload it by storing files or folders in it. It applies the same to the mobile app as well.
Using the web interface, all you have to do is generate a shared link, and then you can either share it via email or directly to Twitter or Facebook. You can also create a custom group and share that as well.
There’s also a shared tab option that allows you to view what content you’ve shared. However, you can’t set passwords for the shared links.
One of the coolest elements about Amazon Drive is that you can view the photos using a slick and attractive photo viewer. There’s also the Prime Photos app that is connected to Amazon Drive.
Prime Photos App
With the Prime Photos app, you can easily create albums and share them with groups of people as well as edit photos and order prints.
This is where the jewels for Amazon Photos are, you can create a photo book and print them out professionally and get it delivered to you at your utmost convenience.
If you are an Amazon Prime user, you’ll get unlimited storage, or otherwise, using Amazon Drive Storage, the uploaded images will be counted towards your storage limit.
Another exciting option in Amazon Drive is the “family vault.” It allows you to set up a collection of users and invite them to contribute with their photos and videos in one place. However, video streaming is restricted to videos shorter than 20 minutes and smaller than 2GB.
Similar to pCloud, Amazon Drive offers free storage too, 5GB, which is a decent amount but nothing compared to pCloud. If you do require more than 5GB, they provide one of the most flexible storage plans.
Overall, Amazon Drive offers a good experience for users, but it has limited videos and photos and only offers unlimited storage to Prime users.
3. Google Photos
Google Photos stands as the best cloud storage choice for photos, recognized globally by professionals and regular users alike.
Google Photos offers a high-quality, reliable, and user-friendly platform for storing, organizing, and sharing your precious digital memories.
With Google Photos, users can back up and access their photos and videos anytime, anywhere, from any device connected to the internet.
Google Photos also comes with a range of on-the-go editing tools and smart features like facial recognition, automatic organization, and ‘rediscover this day’ notifications.
Its intelligent search feature allows you to effortlessly locate photos using image content or date.
Moreover, Google Photos effortlessly syncs across different devices, providing a seamless user experience.
Overall, for its ease of use, wide compatibility, and advanced features, Google Photos is the top-tier choice for cloud-based photo storage and management.
4. Dropbox
- Everyone knows what Dropbox is
- Compatible with almost every platform
- All-rounded branded cloud storage provider
Dropbox is one of the most commonly adopted cloud storage besides Google Drive. Similar to Amazon Drive and Google Cloud, its web and desktop interface is pretty straightforward to use.
All you have to do is upload files into the system, and you can create a quick access option to your files.
Overall, its user experience is amazingly intuitive. You can also sync your mobile phone using the app, so any image or video can be uploaded automatically.
When it comes to sharing images and videos, there is an option to generate a link. If you want to share a folder, you can create permissions for other users to either edit or view the files.
One of the most interesting about Dropbox is that it has undoubtedly the best image viewer. It allows you to zoom and view the full screen as well as comment on specific areas, which is an excellent feature for reviews and feedback. It also comes with a playback option and another feature to increase play speed.
Dropbox offers 2GB of free storage, which is for certain it’s not going to last very long. Alternatively, you can consider other Dropbox options here.
However, if you want added storage, you can either choose Plus or Professional Personal Plan. Dropbox Plus provides 1TB of storage for $10 a month whereas Professional offers $20 per month with more features but with 1TB of storage.
With that being said, you can use Dropbox on Mac, Windows, and Mac and the mobile app works on both iOS and Android. When it comes to sharing, there is an option to generate a link, which is pretty similar to Google Cloud. Dropbox also offers permission to view or edit files.
5. iCloud
- The perfect companion for Apple user
- Apple Time Machine work as a backup
- Safe and Secure
iCloud is a cloud storage and cloud computing service from Apple that is known for its smooth and gorgeous-simplicity user interface with tons of excellent features.
iCloud is one of the best dependable solutions when it comes to backing up your images and videos.
Similar to Dropbox and Google Drive, iCloud offers a feature that allows you to quickly back up your pictures and videos on your phone.
For those who have an iPhone, your pictures and videos are automatically back-ups, which makes it super-convenient.
Similar to Amazon, iCloud offers photo-editing features, live photo support, tagging, and machine-learning-supported search.
However, it only offers 5GB of free storage.
iCloud also provides other paying plans: 50GB, 200GB, and 2TB which in my opinion it’s expensive and a premium price to pay for it.
Read more about the iCloud review here.
6. Canon Irista
- 15GB free storage for photos
- No compression, store it RAW
- Direct upload from devices
Canon Irista is one of the best in class when it comes to online photo storage services for professionals.
What can you say more when the service is from a specialized manufacturer of optical and imaging company, Canon, right?
They know how to handle and store all your professional photos and videos securely.
They had a wide range of plans that starts from 15GB of free storage and up to 10TB of paying plan.
One of the best features of Canon Irista is its non-compressed technology, so you are ensured that your images are as sharp and original as how you took them.
They like it in RAW formats.
All your photos can be uploaded directly from your camera to Irista as well at your convenience and also as a double backup even before you take any action.
With all the RAW files in place, you can further edit and enhanced them accordingly to your need.
Check out all the plans offered by Canon Irista below:
- 15GB – Free
- 100GB – $2.25 / month
- 500GB – $7.99 / month
- 1TB – $12.99 / month
- 2TB – $25.99 / month
- 5TB – $64.99 / month
- 10TB – $129.99 / month
All in all, it is dependable and easy to use.
For professional photographers, it is an affordable price to pay as what Canon offer is much more than storage capacity if you are looking for high-quality cloud photo storage.
7. Nikon Image Space
- It’s totally free
- Generous 20GB for Nikon owner
- Full-screen browsing
- Group photos automatically
It’s good to know that Nikon never charges a single cent for the digital photo storage that you utilize at their Image Space platform.
However, you will only be given 2GB of free storage under the basic plan if you do not own any of the Nikon products.
The good news for those who purchase any of the Nikon cameras, you just have to sign up for a Nikon ID and register your Nikon product to enjoy a whopping 20GB of free storage.
Find out all the details and tutorials on Nikon Image Space here.
Final Say – Which Photo Storage Options will you pick?
Even though we had made it easier for you to pick the best cloud storage for photos service from our 7 categories, you still need to answer some of the basic and crucial questions here.
Local storage vs Cloud Storage?
You can’t store your photos digitally forever if you start on the wrong foot in the very beginning.
You must choose the right cloud storage to store your photos and videos. And most of them come with a photo storage app.
After all, these are the precious moments you captured that are meant to be kept for a very long time.
With photo storage on the cloud, you can store, sync, and organize your images and video in the most convenient, cheap, and spacious fashion.
Getting on how to share photos on the cloud is way easier now.
While none of the above offers the perfect combination of storage space, price, convenience, functionality, and great aesthetic features.
We should instead look into the 7 categories that I had put them into.
With that in mind, you should be able to find flexible image storage that meets your needs.
Whichever digital photo storage you choose, consider these factors:
- How much storage do you need?
- How much you’re willing to pay?
- Are they really important and valuable?
- What are the pictures and videos you wish to store are they important and sensitive?
FAQ
What is the best cloud storage for photos in 2023?
The best cloud storage for photos in 2023 will greatly depend on your specific needs and usage. Services to consider include Google Photos for its excellent integration with other Google services, and iDrive Photos which offers a significant amount of storage space. Another option is a cloud storage service with free unlimited storage for photos such as numerous free cloud storage options available.
How do I choose the best cloud storage service for my photos?
There are several factors to consider when choosing the best cloud storage service for your photos. Firstly, consider the amount of storage you’ll need. If you plan on storing a large number of high-resolution images, you’ll need a service that provides at least 100GB of storage. You should also consider whether you want a free or paid service, whether you need photo editing tools, and if you need the capacity to back up photos automatically. Security, reliability, and ease of use are other important factors.
What is the best photo storage service with a free option?
Google Photos: Google Photos offers 15GB of free storage, which is enough for most people. It also has a great photo editing app and features like automatic photo backup and facial recognition.
pCloud: pCloud offers 10GB of free storage and a variety of features, including photo editing, password protection, and file sharing
What are top 3 best cloud storage options for photos and videos?
Noting that the best cloud storage option depends on individual needs, top picks could include Google Photos, iCloud, and secure cloud storage like pCloud.
Are there best cloud storage services that can also handle video storage?
Certainly. Many of the best cloud storage services also provide video storage. For instance, Google Photos allows for not just photo storage, but also video storage. Other services such as pCloud also cater to video storage, providing even up to 2TB of storage depending on your plan.
Why should I consider using a cloud backup for my photos?
Using a cloud backup for your photos ensures that your photos are always safe and accessible. If anything happens to your physical devices, having your photos stored in the cloud enables you to easily retrieve them. Additionally, cloud storage provides easy sharing and accessibility across different devices.
Can I edit my photos directly in the cloud?
Yes, many cloud storage services also provide tools for you to edit your photos online. For example, Google Photos offers robust photo editing tools, allowing you to perfect your images directly within the platform. Other storage solutions, like pCloud, also come equipped with this feature.
What is the best online storage for photos for users requiring high storage space?
If you require high storage space, consider cloud storage services that offer plans with large amounts of storage or even unlimited cloud storage. MEGA, for instance, offers plans that efficiently cater to high storage needs.
Are there cloud storage services that offer free trials before choosing the best cloud storage option for my photos?
Yes, many cloud storage services offer a free trial or a free service tier so you can test out their features before committing. Google Photos, for instance, is totally free for storing photos at the expense of your Google Drive.
What are the best value cloud storage services for storing photos?
Our personal preference would be cloud storage that offers a lifetime deal. You only paid once and can utilize the cloud storage platform to store your photos or video for as long as you like.