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Having access to the best cloud storage for photos is important if you take a lot of pictures. With the best camera phones now featuring up to and beyond 100-megapixel sensors, and with the widespread availability of full-frame digital sensors in cameras, large image files are becoming the norm. The average user has around 2,100 photos on their phone. Having the added space that cloud storage provides is therefore extremely useful for photographers, reducing their reliance on physical storage.

The best photo storage and sharing sites also give photographers peace of mind. Whether youre a casual family photographer, or taking pictures is your livelihood, its important that your images arent lost if, for example, your hard drive dies. Saving images to the cloud means you wont lose your photos should the worst happen.

When choosing the best cloud storage for photos, you should consider a few things. Obviously, theres the price. Some sites offer free access, usually with limited storage, so youll need to pay if you want lots. Youll also want to consider the features that come with your chosen storage site, such as categorization and mobile applications.

To help you make the right decision for you, weve tested the best cloud storage sites for photos on these metrics. All you need to do is read on.

Looking for the best cloud storage for your photos without getting into the nitty-gritty? Heres a quick rundown of top cloud storage options, emphasizing their unique benefits. Dive deeper into the reviews below for a detailed analysis.

Best overall

The best cloud storage for photos

IDrive stands out as a top choice for cloud storage, offering rapid uploads and automatic image detection. The facial recognition feature further enhances photo organization.

Read more below

Best for features

The most feature-packed cloud storage for photos

Google Drive, more than just storage, integrates with Google Workspace for enhanced productivity. While it lacks some photography-specific features, using it alongside Google Photos offers a comprehensive solution.

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Best for flexibility

The most flexible cloud storage for photos

With a vast user base, Dropbox offers easy photo uploads and an intuitive folder system. Its unique features, like a 30-day file version history, make it a top pick.

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Best for simplicity

The most straightforward cloud storage for photos

OneDrive offers a familiar interface for Windows users and integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365 apps. While its not solely focused on photography, it provides useful photo management tools.

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Best free storage

The best free cloud photo storage

Flickr stands out as a blend of cloud photo storage and a photo-sharing social network. It offers a generous free storage limit, and its Pro+ account provides unlimited storage.

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Best for photo editing

The cloud storage for photos with the best editing tools

Adobes cloud storage integrates with its renowned photo editing tools. It offers plans that include apps like Lightroom and Photoshop. Its compatibility with RAW images makes it ideal for photographers.

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Best for easy-to-use tools

The best cloud storage for photos with easy-to-use editing tools

pCloud differentiates itself with easy-to-use editing tools and supports various photo file types. Its unique pricing structure allows users to pay a one-time fee for lifetime storage.

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The best cloud storage for photos

Free plan?: Yes

Starting price: $2.95 per year

Storage: From 100GB

Rapid uploads and downloads

User-friendly web interface

Automatic image detection and uploading

Overage charges if you exceed storage limit

Prices may increase when your first-year discount ends

IDrive ranked top of our rundown of the best cloud storage services for general use, so its not surprising that its also a fantastic option for storing photos. You can connect your account to multiple devices, which is perfect for any photographer who shoots on more than one camera.

Also making IDrive one of the best cloud storage services for convenience is an Auto Camera setting. If you activate this, IDrive will automatically upload any new photos or videos that appear on the device, so you never have to worry about losing a shot.

Another cool feature is automatic facial recognition. If you have a large family or take a lot of portrait shots, this tool will automatically sort photos by the people in them, and facial detection information can be shared across any devices added to your IDrive account.

Read our IDrive cloud storage review.

The most feature-packed cloud storage for photos

Free plan?: Yes

Starting price: $1.99 per month

Storage: From 100GB

Connects to other Google productivity apps

AI recognizes and organizes photos by faces

Video storage

Confusing connection between Google Drive and Google Photos

No longer unlimited storage

Google Drive is more than just another storage app. This is a well-rounded cloud platform that connects to the comprehensive Google Workspace productivity suite, which supports file sharing and collaborative document editing.

You can store your photos and sync live changes and edits from your desktop computer using Windows and macOS applications. However, Drive does lack some of the photography-oriented features found with other services on this list.

Thats why the best way to use Google Drive to store your photos online is to use the connected Google Photos storage service. Until mid-2019, photos would sync automatically between Google Drive and Google Photos, but Google decided this was too confusing for users and discontinued the practice.

And up until 2021, Google Photos allowed you to upload an unlimited number of photos as long as they were under 16MP in size. Now, after you hit your 15GB limit on Google Drive, including images, videos, and documents, you'll need a subscription.

A 200GB subscription costs $1.99 a month receive 200GB, and there are plans up to $9.99 a month for 2TB a month.

Read our full Google Drive review.

The most flexible cloud storage for photos

Free plan?: Yes

Starting price: $9.99 per month

Storage: From 2TB

Proven network cloud infrastructure

Uploads your photos automatically

Easily restore a previous version of your gallery

Paid plan is quite pricey

Fewer photo-specific features than other platforms

With around 400m users storing approximately 600bn pieces of content, Dropbox is one of the largest file storage platforms around. When you look at its features, many of which are great for photos and images, its easy to see why.

For starters, Dropbox simplifies the process of uploading photos. If you install the app on a phone or tablet, you can activate the automatic transfer of new images from your camera roll to your account. You can also do this on a desktop by telling the Dropbox Windows or macOS program to scan connected camera cards or mobile devices for images.

Once photos are uploaded, a helpful folder system organizes them. Even better, if you want to edit photos after uploading, the desktop app can sync folders so that they appear in Windows Explorer or macOS Finder. Any modifications you make with photo editing software will be automatically detected and synced.

Besides this, Dropbox has unique features that you wont find with many other cloud photo storage services, including a 30-day file version history viewer and a restore feature to protect you from accidental deletions.

You can get 2GB free, which is a good starting point if you dont have too many photos. For a more reasonable capacity, its worth upgrading to Dropbox Plus which, for $9.99 a month, will net you 2TB.Free and paying Dropbox users can upgrade storage capacity by referring the platform to a friend.

Read our Dropbox cloud storage review.

The most straightforward cloud storage for photos

Free plan?: Yes

Starting price: $1.99 per month

Storage: From 100GB

Affordable multi-user plans

Get free access to useful office tools

Advanced photo search features

Not entirely focused on photography

5GB free space fills up fast

If youre looking for a straightforward personal cloud storage platform where you can store your photos without having to figure your way around new and unfamiliar interfaces, Microsoft OneDrive is worth a look. OneDrive is available as part of Microsoft 365.

Microsoft has intentionally made OneDrives appearance similar to that of Windows 10, which means theres basically no learning curve for any Windows users moving to the platform.

OneDrive is a general-purpose cloud storage platform, and its chief selling point is seamless integration with popular Microsoft 365 applications like Word and Excel. But thats not to say that OneDrive doesnt have some excellent photo management features. In fact, it supports tagging, photo search, and album creation.

Pricing is pretty affordable too. It matches Google Drives budget plan, with 100GB costing $1.99 a month. For $6.99 a month, you get 1TB and desktop versions of Office apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.

Read our Microsoft OneDrive cloud storage review.

The best free cloud photo storage

Free plan?: Yes

Starting price: $5.54 per month

Storage: Unlimited

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Best cloud storage for photos and pictures in 2024 - Tom's Guide