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The Best Photo Sharing Sites

posted by on March 04, 2019 in Cameras and Photography, Photo / Video Sharing, Guides & Reviews, Top Picks :: 39 comments


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These days, images are perhaps the most popular method of communication, so much so that many hardly bother with the written word anymore. Teens “text” one another using photo and video selfies on Snapchat. Internet publications offer travel stories through photos, recipes through videos, and entertainment through GIFs of animals doing adorable things. Families share stories and life events through their snapshots on Facebook.

In short, more of us are taking photos than ever before — and that means we need places to back up, store and share these memories.

Photo storage sites are for more than just backups. Cloud storage services let everyone give family and friends access to their most memorable moments. For enthusiast and pro photographers, these sites offer a chance to showcase their skills to the photography community and the rest of the world. Beyond making it easy to share, the best sites provide ways for users to organize their photos in a way that makes them easily available when they’re needed.

With so many photo sharing services for every need, finding a good one isn’t hard. It’s the weeding through all of them and picking the best one for you and your needs that might be tricky. But worry not, because we’re here to help.

Picking the best photo sharing site for you

There’s really no one best photo sharing service for everyone. You have to pick the one that is best for you personally or professionally. To do so, you must first figure out what you need and what you want to get out of it. Here are a few considerations that will help narrow down your choices:

Shareability: How do you want to share your photos? Would you prefer putting your best foot forward, sharing only a few chosen ones like a blogger or an influencer would? Or do you need to share all your snaps for your family and friends to see? Or would you rather share your images with a community of photographers for feedback and for exposure?

Storage Space: Storage space is just as important when choosing a photo-sharing service, especially if you’re looking for a place for back-ups. Hard drives, after all, can break, and once those photos are gone, they’re gone forever. Some services give you unlimited storage and automatically back up your mobile photos, while others take a little more effort and are better for images you’ve painstakingly taken with your high-res camera.

Photo Quality: This one is almost non-negotiable. You have to find a service that doesn’t overly compress your images or, even better, posts them in full quality. This is especially important if you’re an enthusiast or serious about going pro. Your photo sharing account is practically your portfolio, and there’s nothing worse than a photo portfolio with badly compressed images.

Ease of Use: Is the user interface easy to understand and navigate? User-friendliness and accessibility is very important for when you want to share your images with people who might not be computer-savvy. But it’s just as important to have an easy to use interface when you’re uploading, captioning, tagging and organizing many images all at once.

Cost: Many photo services offer free accounts, with paid subscriptions adding more storage space, ad-free browsing, or tools you can utilize to make uploading, adding captions, and other things easier. A few sites, like Instagram, are completely free.

Privacy Options: If you need a photo sharing service for personal use, you might want to look into the privacy options. Some offer password protection that you can give out to family and friends so only they can see your photos.

Now let’s take a look at the best photo storage services you can find.

Best All-Around Photo Sharing Site: Google Photos

Google Photos

One thing we love about Google Photos is its unlimited storage space for "high quality", compressed of images up to 16 megapixels, which covers most smartphones and may digital cameras. And if you do take higher resolution photos and want to save them at their original resolution, you can get 100GB of storage space for the low price of $2 per month. The space is shared with Google Drive and Gmail, but it’s a lot no matter how much you keep on your Google account. Another thing we love is that the Google Photos app is such a terrific automatic photo uploader that it makes backing up your photos — and by extension, clearing up space on your mobile device — effortless. Plus it notifies you when your device is almost out of space and enables you to free up space with a just click.

Of course, that’s not all it offers. Google Photos gives its users amazing tools for sharing, organizing and browsing photos. It tags images with location, date and more to make them a breeze to find, and it can automatically sort your photos based on the people — and even pets — who are in them. The Assistant feature automatically creates photo books, movies, collages, stylized images and animations. And if you want to edit these suggested project or create your own, you hardly have to lift a finger. And with “Rediscover This Day”  and "Then and Now" you will find yourself revisiting and sharing photos with more frequency.

Google Photos takes all of the aspects of photo sharing, from the backing up and organizing to rediscovering and sharing, and makes them all easy.

Cost: Free unlimited storage for compressed images, starts at $1.99/mo ($19.99/yr) for full-quality images
Storage space: Unlimited for compressed images, 100GB to 1TB for full-quality images
Platform: Web, desktop app, mobile app
Printing: Photo books only

Best Photo Sharing Site for Storage: Flickr

Flickr

Flickr's huge community of photographers welcomes everyone from casual shooters to professional photographers and encourages the sharing of information and resources. There are strictly followed guidelines that protect the community and your photos. Privacy options let you limit who can see your photos to who can comment on and tag them, and you can easily share your photos on Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, Pinterest, and by email. Flickr even displays your photos’ metadata, which is very useful for enthusiasts and budding photographers who want to learn from the more experienced members. Plus, the user interface is so simple and user-friendly that things like uploading, organizing, searching, commenting/”fave”-ing, and even downloading photos are a breeze.

And the price is right. Users have the choice of a free membership, which lets you upload just 1,000 photos, or a paid subscription, which gives you unlimited uploads for about $50 per year. Either way, you're getting a lot of storage for a reasonable cost.

Cost: Free for up to 1,000 images, $5.99/mo ($49.99/yr) for unlimited images
Storage space: 1,000 images for free, unlimited images with a subscription
Platform: Web and mobile app
Printing: Via Blurb

Best Photo Sharing Site for Social Sharing: Instagram

Instagram

Instagram is perhaps the best thing that came out of our addiction to instant gratification. Instagram has not only given many the perfect platform to effortlessly share photos, but it is so easy to use that kids and grandparents can figure it out.

All you need to do is install the app on your phone, create an account, and let the uploading begin. Browsing, liking, and commenting on photos is a breeze. And because it’s mobile, you can share and browse images from anywhere. Beyond just posting photos, Stories let you post Snapchat-style, with your photos vanishing after 24 hours — though you can create Highlights of your favorite Stories that will stick around. And the Collections feature lets you make your own Pinterest-style inspiration boards.

Unfortunately, Instagram’s focus on social means it isn’t the best platform for storing and backing up your photos. While you can upload as many as 10 photos per post and tag them, posts are sorted chronologically and older photos will be harder to find. But no service can compete with Instagram’s social sharing.

Cost: Completely free, though users can promote their images for a cost
Storage space: Unlimited for compressed images
Platform: App
Printing: None

Best Photo Sharing Site for Families: Amazon Photos

Amazon Photos

Being an Amazon Prime member has a lot of perks, and that includes the Amazon Photos service. It gives you unlimited space for storing your images at full resolution plus 5GB of video storage. That’s amazing, especially for families who have accumulated a few thousand photos over the years from important milestones and memorable family events. Amazon Photos offers an incredibly convenient place to keep the whole family’s photos and share them, even if family members don't have an Amazon Prime account.

The key to sharing is a feature called Groups. It allows you to create a private group of loved ones who can download photos even if they don’t have an Amazon Prime account. And if 5GB for videos isn’t enough, you can upgrade to a 100GB plan that will only set you back $11.99 per year.

On the organizing front, Amazon Photos lets you sort by People (thanks to face recognition), Places, Things (like Food, Plant, Toy etc.), Date, and Type (photo or video).         

Cost: Included with Amazon Prime membership for $12.99/mo ($119/yr), extra video storage starts at $11.99/yr
Storage space: Unlimited photo storage, 5GB video storage
Platform: Web and app
Printing: Via Amazon

Best Photo Sharing Site for Photography Enthusiasts: 500px

500px

Co-founded in 2009 by Evgeny Tchebotarev who champions the look of film even in his digital photographs. 500px started as a blog for photographers looking to share their work with fellow photographers as well as advertisers and publishers. In fact, you can even license your photos here so that you can earn 60% royalties every time someone pays for a license to use your image.

Free members can only upload 7 images a week, but a subscription (about $50 per year) lets you upload as many photos as you’d like. As people view and like your photos, their Pulse score will go up so more people will see them — and, potentially, pay for them.

The user interface isn’t as intricate as Flickr’s, but that lets the photos speak for themselves. Still, you can create galleries, send messages to other photographers, and more.

Cost: Free for limited uploads, $6.49/mo ($47.88/yr) for unlimited uploads, $12.99/mo ($71.88/yr) for additional professional features
Storage space: 7 image uploads per week for free, unlimited uploads for subscribers
Platform: Web and app
Printing: No

Best Photo Sharing Site for Photographers Who Want to Turn Pro: Unsplash

Unsplash

When we think of Unsplash, we think of stock photography at its very best. The high-res images you typically see on this stock photography site are beautiful, taken and shared by actual creative photographers with vision. Best of all, these images are royalty-free, with photographers only requesting (not requiring) credit so that they gain exposure.

It’s a great space for publications, bloggers, and small businesses to collaborate with talented photographers. Users can only upload and publish 10 photos a week, so it isn’t ideal for personal photo storage and backups. However, it’s the perfect way to get the exposure up-and-coming photographers need to get their foot in the door for paid gigs.

Cost: Free
Storage space: 10 image uploads per week
Platform: Web and app
Printing: No

Updated on 3/4/2019 with new top picks

[family views photos via Shutterstock]


Discussion loading

There are a lot more

From Anonymous on May 01, 2017 :: 5:49 pm

Why not include mger.co, imgur or imgbox as well?

Reply

A family Friendly Photo site

From B Collen on May 31, 2017 :: 5:43 pm

In case you are considering updating this article please consider adding http://www.familycrossings.com for storing and sharing family photos. Here is a link to an informative page https://www.familycrossings.com/photos/family_photos.html
Please let me know if you would like me to setup a free account for you.

Reply

Family Crossings

From Scott on June 17, 2017 :: 2:56 pm

B Collen - I was just checking out your site. It says for the premium subscription you get 1,000 MB…I assume that is supposed to be 1,000 GB?

Reply

free unlimited

From Ron Ablang on June 04, 2017 :: 10:45 am

It’s hard to find a free photo hosting site that allows unlimited storage and bulk uploads.

Reply

bulk upload

From B Collen on June 04, 2017 :: 5:09 pm

We use the FTP function to upload zipped folders with lots of photos in them. It unpacks them automatically.

Reply

There Needs To Be More...

From Brandi on June 22, 2017 :: 5:49 am

I’ve finally grown to absolutely hate Photobucket.  I totally get having ads on free accounts but it’s so bad now I can barely get to my photo’s because of the constant barrage of them. It’s unbelievable how bad it is. Sure it only costs just under $3 a month to go ad free but when you are disabled, with no income and monthly medical bills even small payments are impossible.

I’ve been using Photobucket for the last several years but it’s just become unbearable. I’ve been searching for a replacement and it seemed like Flickr was going to be it but then I find it out you have to use a Yahoo login. I’ve been slowly moving all my Yahoo contacts to Gmail because I didn’t want to use it anymore so being forced to keep it just to use Flickr rubs me wrong.

So now it’s continue to suffer with a virtually unusable Photobucket or keep using a mail service I don’t want just to sign up for Flickr. I will probably end up having to keep Yahoo because Photobucket has made me hate their service.  Who thought finding a photo sharing site would be such a pain.

I’m really surprised that there are so few quality options for photo sharing, I thought there would be more.

Reply

Agreed!

From June on June 23, 2017 :: 1:08 am

I’m having the exact same issue as Brandi. Photobucket is absolutely awful and I can no longer even stand to log in. I thought Flikr was going to save the day but I’m just not feeling it so the search continues. Clustr seems like a decent options but I don’t want viewers to have to have an account to see photos.

Back to the drawing board!

Reply

Flickr

From Steve on July 08, 2017 :: 8:29 am

I’ve been using Flickr since January and created my account using my Gmail address. Just pick the option to use an existing address instead of creating a yahoo one. Hope this helps

Reply

own opinian

From Shayne on June 27, 2017 :: 5:09 am

Do you think that SA musicians has reached they maximum level? or are we where we belong…  Do you think we have quality musicians that are better than the ones we see everyday on Tv that represents SA…

Reply

Wtf

From Kato on April 19, 2019 :: 12:22 pm

Opinion. Dummy

Reply

Good Post

From Daisy Nosh on July 07, 2017 :: 2:19 am

Wow.!!

You explanation is really awesome.
Thanks for sharing

Reply

what?

From brayden on July 12, 2017 :: 5:27 pm

what is your opinion on this website?

Reply

no sharing to publiclyissues being recorded hacked my accounts for the galaxy7activeits crashed its

From ginny meyer on July 14, 2017 :: 10:40 am

my galaxy7active phone i I am having sserious phone issuby att isn’t that a breach of contract its terrible to think we have uverse bundle and my 3rd new phone with serious issues that now im afraidshing fails to send help from to to use it I’m not happy 700.oo lgv10 after I got 3 refurbished phones I was offered this oredge over the phone or galaxy7active ! I think they dont want to help anymore i ALWAYS been a customer no more after I pay my about 200.oo off im going back to the rugged flip phone simple without drama and so many issues that are serious I’m tired of this or a basic rugged flip phone simple without drama even a jitterbug I’m tired of this on going stuff ! it being seious issues and no help shame on AT&T! I’ll go somewhere else for a phone! they I believed day 1 it was a lemon a new phone and they are supposed to helpful samsung is the only one reaching out to ME!  who can I CALL a manager at AT&T and tell him! ? use it I’m being hacked by accounts chrax

Reply

Shutterfly does not allow for download of full-resolution

From Andrew on August 04, 2017 :: 4:41 pm

https://support.shutterfly.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/181/~/available-image-download-options

to quote:

“Pictures are print-quality but not full-resolution. Downloads are a 1600x1200 copy, which is sufficient for printing up to and including 8x10.”

Reply

Combine organizing, sharing and annotating

From Patrick J. on September 07, 2017 :: 2:11 pm

There’s a great iOS app called Anno that helps teams of people organize, share and annotate photos.  Definitely worth checking out (look for “Anno - Photo Sharing for Teams” in the app store).

Reply

Looking for New Photo place!

From James on September 11, 2017 :: 8:22 am

Looking for New Photo place other than Flickr!  Flickr has gone down hill and accepts junk photos and not real Art by Professionals! Critique by Pros is gone!  They let Toys and Origami in!  Not Art!

Any suggestions?

James

Reply

Me too brother

From BobC. on July 09, 2018 :: 11:36 am

Cancelled my Flikr account due to all of the unfocused, poorly framed and just awful dumps of images now occuring.
It’s going down the same road CB radio and etc. did years ago.

Reply

Ignoring the Benefit of Displaying Captions on Photographs

From A. T. on October 16, 2017 :: 9:16 pm

When I share pictures with others, I want them to be able to see, if I want, captions indicating some description of the picture. That criterion seems to have been ignored in this review.
Google Photos is supposed to have this feature now, but the caption disappears (if it appears at all) after displaying it for about 5 seconds, making it almost useless.

Reply

Famipix

From Nathan on October 30, 2017 :: 5:09 am

Please also add Famipix (www.famipix.com/schools) to this list.
Famipix is used by families and schools in over 100 countries to safely share photos..

Reply

Picshare Party

From Jeremy on November 02, 2017 :: 2:51 pm

Don’t forget picshareparty.com - by far the easiest way to gather pictures from an event using nothing more than text message. No app install is needed either.

Picshare Party allows you to create a private event picture gallery built instantly by attendees through text message. Guests simply text pictures to the gallery’s phone number and the gallery is instantly updated!

Reply

picshareparty.com is now QuickShare.photos

From Jeremy on March 07, 2019 :: 11:00 am

FYI: picshareparty.com is now QuickShare.photos

Still the same easy-to-use photo sharing service as before.

Reply

Really good one

From Ron on January 27, 2018 :: 7:07 am

Nupic.co is also great (free) image hosting and sharing service. Just upload and share your images across a variety of popular social platforms. Really good.

Reply

you can find lot more about these sites

From Abhinit Dutta on September 25, 2018 :: 2:11 am

Hello,
First of all, amazing collection of information you have done here. Though some sites are just for the name and actually don’t do much, while some are very expensive to afford. You can find some of such site and their features in the given link.

Reply

Hi, I found this app

From AlBasirr on September 25, 2018 :: 4:20 am

Hi, I found this app which is very interesting this app got many features, it got many sounds (Fart, funny, animals, nature, annoying etc) you can also share these to your friends and make it your ringtone.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beautiful.sounds

Reply

Try imgrpost

From John Smith on October 14, 2018 :: 1:30 pm

What about https://imgrpost.com 120MB limit. Fast SSD storage, No Resizing, Guest upload, Private albums, Direct image links, forums, social media, for free, forever, I use it every day wink

Reply

Web Solution Winner - The World's Most Successful Blog

From Web Solution Winner on April 09, 2019 :: 9:17 am

Hello, thanks for this site! I’m looking for a photo-sharing site that will allow me to share about 200 photos with friends.

Reply

QuickShare.photos

From Jeremy on April 09, 2019 :: 10:25 am

Here you go!

https://quickshare.photos

Reply

Awesome & Amazing Share!!!!!!!!!!1

From Maxwell on May 08, 2019 :: 6:52 am

Wonderful Share !!!! I do SEO for my business promotion so these sites are very useful for me. These websites are perfect spots to improve our knowledge and build high-quality backlinks. Previous i searched more Image sharing sites but after seeing your post, it’s fantastic,You share great list of dofollow and nofollow Image sharing sites for building back links. Really it’s very useful for beginner like me. Once again Thanks For a valuable and informative blog.

Reply

Nice list

From tom on May 17, 2019 :: 9:10 am

But why not include Clickasnap too? Easily the best photo hosting site out there today

Reply

Image Host Site

From Mark Horner on June 17, 2019 :: 3:22 pm

hi, another free option is http://imgbay.host no registration required

Reply

amazing

From mariah on July 04, 2019 :: 3:12 pm

I was searching for websites who will pay me for my photographs thanks a lot for helping me out with these amazing collection of stock photography sites where I can submit my photographs . even if I dont get paid I can at least know my flaws .

Reply

TAKE PHOTO + SUBMIT + PHOTOgetsDOWNLOADED = EARN MONEY

From Elizalde Baron on July 21, 2019 :: 1:56 am

Wow! is so great way to improve the quality of your pictures.
At the same time, your picture can earn money. Click the link on how: http://bit.ly/2XVnb5z

Reply

Free - Sometimes you get what you pay for!

From Ann Matuszak on August 14, 2019 :: 2:47 pm

For many items, a free option is fine but for my precious irreplaceable family photos, free is not the best choice.  So many free sites have changed what they offer, increased how much of your data they capture or have gone out of business completely.

I own a photo management company and we have more than 400 of our clients using www.forever.com/ambassador/pixologie.  It is paid storage but you pay once and it is guaranteed for your lifetime plus 100 years.  It is private, secure and you share as you choose. 

Absolutely our number one recommendation for your curated photo collection.

Reply

ImageCoast

From Aly on August 14, 2019 :: 3:20 pm

I recently found ImageCoast after looking for an image host site. I needed something easy and quick so I could upload and share my photos with others. I can share via URL and/or email and it’s free to use.

Reply

JPGMAG.COM

From TR on August 16, 2019 :: 2:15 pm

I like using jpgmag.com.  The storage is free and the community is very friendly.  They even have photo challenges, post the best images of the week and month

Reply

multiple people upload to one location easily

From Kathy on March 11, 2020 :: 5:59 pm

I work with a non-profit who often has volunteers take pictures with their phones and asks them to upload to us.  Right now we have them email them so we can create the slide shoe for the awards ceremony at the end of the day.  What can we use that will allow our volunteers to send directly to storage location?

Reply

Free Apps For Earning Money

From nhseven on June 05, 2020 :: 2:04 pm

very use full thank you.

Reply

Considered Pixstash.net?

From Dominik on June 28, 2020 :: 12:40 pm

I am using https://pixstash.net/ for some time now. They offer 100mb storage and one thing I like the most is that they offer private stored images as well as self destruction mode on images. Maybe consider reviewing them?

Reply

Mark Smith

From Massimiliano Peluso on May 06, 2021 :: 5:50 am

Have you heard about https://100asa.com ?

A truly photo sharing website where you get genuine feedback on your work

Reply

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