Sometimes, a Facebook album or an Instagram post isn’t the best way to store and share your photos. With an evolving web that’s increasingly becoming more visual because of mobile browsing, free image hosting is becoming a must-have digital tool.
Here are 10 of the best sites that offer free photo hosting, making uploading and sharing your images easier than ever.
Unlimited Free Storage via Mobile Upload: Google Photos
Google Photos is probably one of the most valuable photo resources you can use, mainly for its powerful automatic backup feature. And since you probably have a Google account, setup is easy.
Automatically backing up photos.
Uploading large quantities of photos.
Editing, organizing, and using visual search with high-quality photos.
Unlimited free storage for photos taken by smartphones and point-and-shoot cameras (16 megapixels or less).
Use your limited storage space from your Google account for photos taken by DSLR cameras.
Upload videos in 1080p HD.
Access Google Photos on the web at photos.google.com or download the Google Photos app for iOS or Android to automatically upload the photos you take with your devices. Your photos sync across your account and devices, becoming accessible from anywhere.
Use Google Photos to edit your photos, organize photos according to people, places, and things, and share photo online even with non-Google Photos users. The more you use Google Photos, the more it learns about your photo habits and customizes your photo management.
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Ideal If You Want To Upload and Share GIFs: Imgur
If you spend any time on Reddit, you probably know that Imgur is the social news community’s favorite free image hosting site for Redditors. Upload photos in stunning quality quickly and easily without needing a free Imgur account. Sign up for a free account to leave comments and share your images with the Imgur community.
Uploading photos and animated GIFs generated from videos without losing quality.
Sharing anywhere online, especially social networking sites.
20 MB for all non-animated GIF images and 200 MB for animated GIF images.
Choose to post your pictures publicly or opt to keep pictures hidden and accessible using a private share link. Upload and store as many photos and GIFs as you want, create albums, generate memes, and edit your images. Use Imgur on the go using its excellent iOS and Android apps.
Upgrade to Imgur Emerald for an ad-free experience and additional features.
Perfect for Creating Organized Photo Albums: Flickr
Flickr is one of the oldest and most widely known photo-sharing social networks around, and it’s still going strong. Flickr is great for free image hosting and has editing tools that perfect your photos before you show them off to the rest of the Flickr community. Flickr also makes it easy to organize images into albums.
Editing your photos to look their best.
Creating albums and sharing to social networks.
Publish your photos under Creative Commons licensing to allow others to use your photos with attribution.
1,000 items (no filesize limit) of free storage space.
Configure your privacy options to share your photos with a selected audience or make your photos available for everyone to see. Upload photos from a variety of platforms, including the web, your mobile device, email, or other photo applications. The official Flickr mobile app is stunning, and one of the best features of the platform.
Upgrade to a Flickr Pro account to take advantage of the Flickr Uploadr tool, which seamlessly backs up your photos from your computer, Apple iPhoto, Dropbox, and other places.
A Platform for Serious Photographers: 500px
Like Flickr, 500px is a popular social network for photographers looking to share their best photos. You can’t directly link to photos to share them elsewhere. However, 500px is still a fantastic option for photographers looking to show off their work and maybe make a little money.
Social networking with other photographers.
Licensing or selling your photos.
No file size or storage restrictions are listed, but you can upload very large JPEG files.
With a free membership, 500px users create a profile to share their photos and can upload up to seven photos a week. Premium users get unlimited uploads and an array of professional services. Use the service on the web or through its iOS and Android apps.
Cloud Storage for Photos and Other File Types: Dropbox
Dropbox is a free cloud storage provider where you can store different file formats, including photos. Get a shareable link to a single photo file or an entire folder containing multiple photos to share with other people.
Sending or sharing individual photos or folders of photos with others.
2 GB of free storage with the opportunity to earn extra free storage by inviting other people to join Dropbox.
The Dropbox mobile apps are powerful tools for uploading, managing, and sharing your photo files from your device. Tap the arrow beside any filename to make it available for offline viewing when you don’t have internet access.
Upgrade to a paid Dropbox plan for additional storage and other features.
Simple and Speedy Individual Image File Uploads: Free Image Hosting
Free Image Hosting is another top site for sharing photos quickly and easily. It’s similar to Imgur, but without the trendy layout and convenient hyperlink shortener. As long as you don’t mind the site’s ads, upload images with or without creating a free account. Free Image Hosting provides you with the HTML code for a direct link to your photo, so it’s easy to share your images.
Uploading individual photos quickly.
Directly linking to your photos for display on social networks, websites, forums, and more.
3,000 KB-per-photo file size.
The site stores your images forever, even as an anonymous user without an account, as long as you adhere to the terms of service. Upload animated GIFs, as well, although some may look distorted if too large.
Great for When You Want To Share Images in Forum Posts: Postimage
Postimage is a simple site that offers free image hosting for life with or without creating an account. When you upload an image, have your photo resized using the selections from the drop-down menu or opt for no image resizing. Set an expiration date for your photo for deletion after one day, seven days, 31 days, or never.
Uploading individual photos for sharing on forum message boards, blogs, and social media sites.
Free accounts are limited to 24 MB and 10K x 10K pixels.
Premium accounts are limited to 48 MB and 10K x 10K pixels.
This site is primarily used for hosting images for forums, blogs, and websites. It comes with a simple image upload mod to install and use. Upload multiple images at one time and resize images for avatar use, message boards, web, email, or computer monitors.
A Secure Place for All Your High-Res Photos: ImageShack
ImageShack has a free account option and also offers a 30-day free trial to check out its premium features. This image hosting alternative has a great-looking interface, somewhat similar to how Pinterest showcases its images in a pinboard-style layout. Use the service to upload as many high-res photos as you want, create albums, organize everything with tags, and discover featured photos from other users for inspiration.
Business use.
Uploading, organizing, and sharing single photos or entire albums.
10 GB per month for free trial and non-premium users.
Privacy options are available if you don’t want your photos open for public viewing. It’s easy to share a single photo or an entire album with anyone you like. ImageShack also hosts photos for businesses and has several applications (both for mobile and the web) for even easier image management.
A Quick and Simple Solution for JPEG/JPG: ImageVenue
ImageVenue holds images up to 10 MB in size and can resize big pictures to reasonable dimensions at upload time. Image quality and aspect ratio are preserved when resizing. It’s a simple, basic way to share images or galleries.
Bloggers, message board users, and eBay sellers.
Uploading and organizing large quantities of photos to share through single photos or entire albums.
Must be less than 10 MB per image file.
Upload as many images as you want. Images stay on the ImageVenue servers forever unless they’re not accessed for a year. After one year of no access, images are permanently deleted.
Image filetypes are limited to JPEG and JPG.
Fast and Easy Uploads for Multiple File Types: imgbox
imgbox is a free photo-hosting service that offers unlimited storage and promises super blazing fast uploads. When you upload a picture or multiple pictures, select the content type and thumbnail size, and enable or disable comments. imgbox creates a URL to share with friends or use on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or other social media sites.
Anyone who wants fast and simple uploads.
Sharing photos on social media sites.
Unlimited storage.
Upload files of up to 10 MB.
There’s no need to create an account to use this free service. However, an account gives you access to upload presets to make uploading your images even easier.
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