How Does Google Photos Stack Up Against the Competition?

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google photos - How Does Google Photos Stack Up Against the Competition?

One of the big announcements made by Google (GOOGGOOGL) at its recent Google I/O 2015 conference was a new online photo storage service.

Google GOOG GOOGL

Google Photos lets users upload unlimited photos and videos with robust organization and sharing tools and it’s compatible not just with Android, but also PCs and Apple (AAPL) iOS devices. Google Photos is also free.

Of course, Google is wading into a crowded market for cloud-based photo services. Apple has its iCloud Photo Library and both Microsoft (MSFT) and Amazon (AMZN) have their own versions.

Read on to see how Google Photos stacks up against competing online photo storage services.

Best Online Photo Storage: iCloud Photo Library

Apple has been ramping up its online photo storage offering in a big way, in large part because iPhone users shoot a lot of photos and videos that eat into their limited local storage.

AAPL iCloud Photo Library

Source: Apple

Tied to an Apple ID, a user’s iCloud Photo Library automatically uploads and stores all the photos and video from devices using that Apple ID, then syncs thumbnails of that library across all the devices. Tapping a thumbnail downloads a copy that’s optimized for the device’s display resolution.

  • 5 GB free, 1 TB of storage costs $240/year
  • Access limited to iOS and Mac OS devices, plus support for Windows 7 and 8 PCs using iCloud for Windows app
  • Photos stored in full resolution
  • Automatic web backup of photos and videos on enabled devices
  • Photos available on all enabled devices at optimized resolution

Best Online Photo Storage: Amazon Cloud Drive

In March, Amazon announced a new option in its Amazon Cloud Drive online storage services aimed specifically at digital photo hoarders: the Unlimited Photos Plan.

AMZN Amazon Cloud Drive

Source: Amazon

The option of storing as many photos as you want online was already a free service for Prime members, but Amazon opened it up to the public for a low annual fee.

  • Unlimited photo storage costs $11.99/year
  • Includes 5GB of storage for videos and other files
  • Access tied to Amazon account
  • Photos can be accessed via Amazon device, web (PC) and apps for iOS and Android
  • Photos can be automatically uploaded by enabled devices

Best Online Photo Storage: Microsoft OneDrive

Microsoft uses its OneDrive cloud service as the backbone for its online photo storage.

MSFT OneDrive

Source: Microsoft

With the company’s recent focus on offering its products and services to everyone — not just Windows users — OneDrive is an option for Mac, Android and iPhone users, too.

  • 15 GB free, 1 TB costs $84/year (includes Office 365 subscription)
  • Support built into Windows 8.1, also available on older versions of Windows, Mac, iOS and Android via OneDrive app
  • OneDrive app has option of uploading photos at good or best resolution
  • Includes sharing options

Best Online Photo Storage: Google Photos

Finally, the challenger: Google Photos.

Google Photos GOOG GOOGL

Google isn’t exactly new to the market — it’s offered online photo storage through Google Drive for years. However, the new Google Photos is packed with user-friendly features, including organization and sharing tools. And, more importantly to many potential customers, Google Photos is free, setting a new low bar for cloud photo services.

  • Free unlimited photo and video storage
  • Photos greater than 16Mp resolution and videos greater than 1080p resolution are compressed
  • Includes automated organization and photo grouping features, auto backup of photos from mobile devices, automatic photo enhancements and advanced sharing features
  • Available for Android, iOS and Mac/PC

Best Online Photo Storage: Is There a Clear Winner?

Each of these companies offers a solid solution for storing your digital photos (and videos) in the cloud.

Google Photos GOOG GOOGL

The capability is great for data backup (no one wants to lose their photos forever if their smartphone is stolen), it helps to free up space on devices with limited local storage, and it’s a step toward getting all those photos and videos that are scattered between all your different mobile devices and computers into a single library.

Is Google Photos the best of the bunch?

At the moment, many of its features are class-leading, and its automatic organizational capabilities are a step forward in trying to tame our growing photo collections.

However, Google Photos does compress content above a certain resolution. Not everyone shoots photos at greater than 16MP or video at 4K, but if you do, the copies stored by Google won’t be true duplicates.

Serenity Caldwell at iMore also points out that Google Photos is doing a lot of analysis of the metadata of uploaded files in order to pull off the impressive organizational and sorting tricks. It’s possible that data could eventually be leveraged by Google for things like targeted advertising.

Many users tend to stick with services offered natively, so iPhone users are more inclined to use iCloud Photo Library and Windows users are more likely to choose OneDrive. But, if simply getting all your photos safely backed up is the key goal, free is tough to beat.

At the end of the day, Google has a very attractive online photo storage product that’s cross-platform compatible and an in-your-face service for Android users. Free unlimited storage is the icing on the cake, and that may be enough to win over a lot of consumers, even those toting iPhones.

As of this writing, Brad Moon did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

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Brad Moon has been writing for InvestorPlace.com since 2012. He also writes about stocks for Kiplinger and has been a senior contributor focusing on consumer technology for Forbes since 2015.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2015/06/google-photos-goog/.

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