Free online photo albums provide an easy way to securely store and share images with others.
Use Flickr as a free online photo album
Flickr originally started as a photo community and was then acquired by Yahoo. In this “veteran” among online photo albums, Flickr, you can organize images into different categories, exchange ideas with other members, comment on other members' photos and add them to your favorites. For a long time, Flickr was one of the most popular platforms for photographers to share and store high-quality images.
- You decide who can see your photos. If you make your photos available to everyone, it is not necessary for visitors to set up a Flickr account. However, if you make your photo albums available only to certain user groups within Flickr, the person who should see your photos must also be a member of Flickr.
- However, in January 2019, Flickr severely limited its free storage options. You can now store a maximum of 1,000 photos or videos in your free account.
- For owners of large photo collections, this means either deleting old images or upgrading to a paid account. This move was necessary to keep the platform profitable, but it has angered many users who relied on the unlimited storage space.
- Flickr is aimed at amateur photographers who want to edit, organize and share their photos with powerful tools. The app for iOS and Android also lets you directly upload photos taken with your smartphone.
- Despite the limitations, Flickr is a good choice for amateur photographers if the quality of the images is the most important thing. Flickr allows you to upload images in full resolution and offers extensive sorting and presentation options. The option to add detailed tags to images and organize them in groups or albums is particularly useful.
- The community features also make Flickr attractive for people who want to exchange ideas with other photography enthusiasts. However, if you want to save more than 1,000 images, you will have to upgrade. Flickr Pro currently costs €65 per year. (As of September 2024)
Instagram photo community
On Instagram, you can share your photos and videos with a billion people worldwide. There are now 500 million active users in Germany.
- Download Instagram for your iPhone or Android smartphone for free. Once you have registered, you can get started right away.
- Take a photo or shoot a short video, add a filter and upload it to your Instagram story or as a post on your feed. You can also share the snapshot with your friends on Facebook at the same time.
- Decide whether your profile is public, visible to everyone, or private. Follow other Instagram users, tag them in your photos, save your favorite videos, and comment on them. Users who see your photos can also comment and like your photos.
- You can log in to your account at www.instagram.com. Although you cannot upload any pictures here, you can use the “Like” function and also comment.
- You can chat and exchange ideas with your followers via Instagram Direct.
- With IGTV you can upload ten-minute videos. Instagram stars publish video clips from their lives that are up to 60 minutes long.
Dropbox: Practical storage, but few photo features
Dropbox is primarily known as a cloud storage space, but is also commonly used for storing and sharing photos.
- The free plan only includes 2GB of storage, which may quickly become too little for photo fans. However, if you mainly store your photos as a backup and don't want to share them online in large quantities, Dropbox could still be a solution. The main advantage of Dropbox is its easy integration into various operating systems and the straightforward sharing of files.
- There are no special photo features like Google Photos or Flickr, which can make organizing your images difficult. The photos are simply saved in folders without any automatic sorting or editing options. One plus point, however, is the ability to store your photos securely and encrypted. Dropbox offers a solid basis, especially for users who want to synchronize their data with other cloud services.
- You can get additional free storage space for your photos with the Photobucket service or the Telekom media center.
- Customers of some freemail providers, such as gmx.de and web.de, can also create free online photo albums and then share them with friends.
- Pinterest is a free “online photo album” of the new generation, although it is not primarily or exclusively about sharing images.
- Image editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop Elements, is helpful for optimizing the uploaded photos.