Google Photos has ended its unlimited photo storage for free accounts starting June 1, 2021. You don’t have to worry about the same because here we have come up with a list of Top 5 Free Google Photos Alternatives.
Last November Google Photos announced that they are going to introduce a new storage policy effecting from June 1, 2021.
As per Google Photos new storage policy, any new photos and videos uploaded after June 1, 2021 will count toward the free 15GB of storage that comes with every Google Account.
So, you might think what about those photos and videos that you have uploaded before June 1. Well, for those photos and videos, Google Photos team had said they will not count toward the free 15GB of free storage.
That means, the new Google Photos storage policy is only applicable to the photos and videos uploaded after June 1, 2021.
Those who own any Pixel 1-5 devices are also excluded from the new Google Photos storage policy. Any photos (even the high resolution one) taken from Pixel 1-5 devices and uploaded to Google Photos will not be count towards the free 15GB storage limit even after June 1, 2021.
Now, even though Google Photos has revoked the free unlimited storage facility for Photos and Videos, in my opinion it is still the best cloud storage for Photos and Videos.
Here is why?
First, the 15GB of free cloud storage that is given to all the Google Accounts stores data from Google Photos, Gmail, and Google Drive.
Now, out of these three services, you can consider most of the mails you received on Gmail is eating negligible storage, unless and until, most of the mails contains large files attached with it.
Coming towards Google Drive, if you are not storing any data there then you can assume you still have 15GB of Google’s cloud storage for Photos and Videos.
However, in case you store data in your Google Drive account or receive large mails in Gmail, then there are some other online free cloud storages where you can store your photos and videos. You can say these cloud storages an alternative to Google Photos.
So, without a further ado let’s look at these cloud storages.
5 Free Google Photos Alternatives
While there are many paid cloud storage services out there with plenty of features that might be useful for photos, below, I have listed some of the best services that are completely free and is ready to hold your photos to some extent.
I have sorted the below list based on the quality, trustfulness, and authority of the service.
And of course, all the services listed below are available for free.
Microsoft One Drive
Like Google, when a user creates an account on Microsoft.com the website allocates 5GB of free Microsoft One Drive cloud storage space to the user which is called the One Drive Basic.
In this 5GB of free cloud storage space, the user can store a plethora of file types that includes Images too.
Microsoft one drive is the most secure than all the Cloud Photo Storage Service listed here. First, OneDrive encrypts the data using its BitLocker technology. Also, it encrypts each file using a unique AES256 key that in turn is encrypted with a set of master keys that are stored in Azure Key Vault. Since, OneDrive encrypts data on per file basis, if anyone somehow get access to the encryption key then also, they would be able to access a particular file only. You can read more about How OneDrive secures their user data from here.
Also, so far, Microsoft One Drive haven’t listed out in any of the major data breaches.
For more security, Microsoft One Drive users can also enable Two Factor Authentication.
For advanced security users can store their files in the Microsoft Personal Vault which is a separate protected area in Microsoft One Drive.
The Basic Plan let the user to store up to 3 files in the Personal Vault that is said to be protected by identity verification.
Identity verification means, one can unlock the personal vault only via Fingerprint, Face, and SMS Code.
Microsoft said, in personal vault users can store their most sensitive files.
One can think Microsoft Personal Vault as the most secured place on its cloud storage service.
Dropbox
Another popular Cloud Storage Service Dropbox is also providing free storage space where one can back up photos.
While Dropbox supports a plethora of file types, for image only it supports 35 different Image file types.
Dropbox has a Photo Tab where you can browse all your photos stored on the Dropbox with ease.
Dropbox provides free 2GB storage space to all its users.
Talking about the security, Dropbox encrypts its files using 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).
Those of you who don’t know AES is based on Symmetric-Key-Encryption that uses the same key to encrypt and decrypt the data.
Do you know, You can also create and edit Google Docs inside Dropbox.
Nikon Image Space
Eight years ago, by renaming my Picturetown, Nikon launched its free online Image storage service called Nikon Image Space.
Nikon Image Space offers two types of free storage plan – Special and Basic.
The special plan is available for those users who own a Nikon ID, the basic plan, on the other hand, is available for everyone.
Talking about the storage space provided in these two plans, the special plan offers 20GB space whereas the Basic plan offers 2GB space.
The special plan also offers more advanced functions. For example, password protect an image while sharing, restrict image downloads.
Mega
Mega is another cloud storage service popularly known for its 50GB storage allocation for free accounts.
While many of you may not heard its name, we put Mega at the fourth place in this list first because the amount of storage space it is providing and second because it offers high security to the files stored in its servers.
For those who are friendly with the names, let me tell you that Mega offers end-to-end encryption to your files. On Mega users’ files are encrypted with a key derived itself from the user’s password. That’s why Mega says it has User-Controlled End-to-End Encryption.
To more enhance the security, Mega offers two factor authentication for accounts.
If you are looking for a cloud storage service that offers large storage space for free and have a great security then Mega is the right choice.
Digiboxx
Last December, the NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant launches the India’s first digital file storage Digiboxx.
Digiboxx has a feature called Instashare that let the user to share large sized documents such as images, videos, pdfs, and others.
For individual users, Digiboxx offers free and paid plans.
The free plan comes with 20GB of storage space and one can upload a file of maximum size 2GB.
Digiboxx also has its Android and iOS app so that users can operate it even from mobile devices.
Talking about the data security, as per the website user’s data are secure on Digiboxx as per Indian Personal Data Protection bill.
Digiboxx offers a plethora of features in its cloud storage space. Some popular ones are editing, advanced searches, detect duplicate files, and others.
Other Notable Mentions (Free Google Photos Alternatives)
Other notable mentions are Icedrive, PCloud, Flickr and 500px.
While Icedrive and PCloud both offers 10GB of free cloud storage, Flickr provides 2000 free image uploads, 500px, on the other hand, let you upload seven photos every week in the free plan.
