With every new smartphone featuring a better camera than the last, it’s never been easier or, quite frankly, more fun to take photos. But what do you do with your pictures after you’ve taken them? How do you share them with friends and family? Well, the answer to that question depends on what’s important to you. Do you only want to send your pictures to specific people, or do you want to upload them for the entire internet to see? Keep reading to see which photo sharing sites and apps are the best and the easiest for sharing your pictures the way you want.
Before you upload your photos to a photo sharing site
Knowing the best ways to share your photos is important. But if you can’t find the specific pictures you want to send to people, then it’s somewhat pointless. That’s why it’s a good idea to declutter your photo library before you start sharing your pics online. Plus, getting rid of duplicate and similar-looking images helps you cut down on how much storage space you actually need.
Thankfully, CleanMy®Phone can scan your library and help you quickly delete the pictures you don’t want anymore. Here’s how to clean up your duplicate photos with the app:
- Download CleanMy®Phone from the App Store.
- Open the app and tap Declutter > Scan.
- Tap Duplicates.
- Then, select each group of photos to choose which copies you want to delete.
- When you’ve selected photos for deletion, tap Clean.
Now, CleanMy®Phone will move all of those duplicates to your Recently Deleted album. So, if you want to free up that storage space immediately, you can open the Photos app and tap Albums > Recently Deleted > Select > ellipsis bottom right > Delete All.
The best private photo sharing sites
Some of the pictures you take are a little more private than others. Maybe you don’t want to share pictures of your kids all over the internet or to publicly post those embarrassing albeit funny pictures of your family trying to pose together. However, you might want to share them with select friends and family members. The following are the best sites to privately share or transfer your pics.
1. Google Photos: Best free photo sharing site
Although it was initially marked as a backup solution for your entire photo library, Google Photos has some pretty impressive sharing functionalities. All of your pics are private when you upload them, but you can share them with friends and family at any time so that they can download or add them to their photo library. And, perhaps best of all, Google offers a free tier that allows you to store an unlimited number of photos. How can you go wrong with that?
2. iCloud Photos: Private photo sharing and backup
If you’re an iPhone or Mac user, then there’s a good chance you’re already familiar with iCloud in some form or another. But if you have iCloud Photos turned on on your iPhone, your pictures are already being automatically uploaded as you take them. You can share your pictures and videos at any time or even create collaborative albums so you and your friends can privately share photos.
3. Amazon Photos: Best way to share photos for Prime members
Offering many features similar to those of Google Photos and iCloud Photos, Amazon may be a better option for sharing your photos with friends and family. It’s free to all Amazon Prime members and is fully integrated with other Amazon products. That means you can view your library on any Fire TV or Alexa-enabled device with a screen. If you’re trying to choose between the first three photo sharing apps, check out the Amazon Photos vs Google Photos vs iCloud comparison we published earlier.
4. Dropbox: Best way to share photos and more
While Dropbox might not be your typical photo library manager, it is a quick and user-friendly way to share your files. So after you upload your pictures and videos, you’ll be able to view them online and share them with anybody. And you can create a shared folder so other users can send their pictures from a trip or event to you.
5. WeTransfer: Quickly send your pictures
If you have a folder or group of pictures you want to share, the quickest and easiest way to send them to friends is with WeTransfer. It lets you send files of all types without requiring you to create an account first. Just like sending an email, all you have to do is type in your email address, type in the email addresses you’re sending to, and attach the pictures you want to share.
Now, that being said, you can create an account with WeTransfer and pay to upgrade so that you can access more features, like raising the transfer limit from 2 GB to 20 GB and password-protecting what you share.
Photo websites to share photos online
Sharing your pictures with family and friends can be a lot of fun, but maybe you’ve taken some pictures that you want to share beyond your social circle. There are plenty of websites that will host your photos for you; it just depends on what specific features you’re hoping to get out of those sites. Here are the five best sites to share your pictures online.
6. Flickr: Best of the photo sharing sites
Flickr is probably one of the most popular sites for hosting pictures on the internet. In addition to hosting, Flickr offers a suite of editing and organizing tools, as well as a handful of social networking features. You can like or comment on pictures or have other people do the same for your pics. And because of its popularity, a lot of other apps integrate with Flickr, automatically uploading or syncing your pictures.
7. SmugMug: Quality photo sharing website
SmugMug has some great features and sleek layout templates to help you showcase and share your pictures. You can also organize your library into albums, so it’s a little easier to navigate through all of your pictures. And you can always update your theme to change the layout of how your images are being displayed.
While it’s a little light on social networking tools, you can connect your other accounts on platforms like Facebook and Twitter to share with your friends.
8. Photobucket: Host your pictures for backup or to share publicly
Something that sets Photobucket apart from the other sites on this list is how well it lets you walk the line between sharing pictures online and backing up your library. With organizational features like captions and titles for your pictures, Photobucket will also let you sort them into public and private albums so that only your public photos appear when other people search for them.
One of the downsides to Photobucket is that not all of their tools are available, depending on which subscription tier you choose. So, before you sign up and start uploading your entire photo library to Photobucket, make sure you’ll be able to use the features you want or need the most.
9. 500px: Showcase and license your pictures
While anyone can upload their pictures to 500px, where the site really excels is with professional and aspiring photographers. 500px focuses on displaying and showcasing your work, as well as networking with other photographers. In fact, they claim that their search algorithm works to highlight the work of new members so that more experienced users can offer feedback and help.
Membership is free, but you can only upload 20 photos per week. You can upgrade to a Pro membership for only $25 per year, which will unlock more features and give you access to unlimited uploads.
10. PhotoBlog: Blog and share your photos online
If you’re looking for more of a blogging platform to share your photos on, you should turn to the aptly named PhotoBlog. With an emphasis on layouts and designs, PhotoBlog gives you greater control over how your photos are displayed. You can organize your pictures into galleries and not only give them titles and captions but also write entire blog posts to go along with your images. And like some of the other websites on the list, PhotoBlog will act as a social network, letting you like and comment on other photographers’ pictures while letting them do the same on your photos.
The best free photo sharing sites
When it comes to sharing your pictures online, maybe you’re just looking for something easy-to-use for one photo or just a handful of images. And more importantly, you may just want something that will host your pictures for free. The following are the top five free places to upload your photos.
11. Imgur: Easiest way to share images online
If you don’t want to worry about storage limits, then Imgur might be the site for you. It’s mostly used to host images for websites like Reddit or other social media sites, so you probably don’t want to store family pictures or vacation photos here.
But that being said, you can upload as many images as you want without even creating an account, but if you do create a free account, you gain access to features like albums and captions to help organize your pictures.
12. Behance: Share and find inspiration on this photo website
More of a social network for all creative professionals, Adobe’s Behance is perfect for photographers uploading their pictures. It’s free to use, and there’s no limit to how many projects you can have on there or how many images you upload. It’s not meant for uploading your entire photo library, however, but for individual projects or collections of photos. And if you’re already using any apps from the Adobe suite, then uploading to Behance from those apps will be a breeze.
13. ImageShack: A well-designed and free photo sharing site
Even though ImageShack doesn’t give you unlimited storage for your pictures, it does give you 10 GB per month for free. If you’re only occasionally uploading a group of pictures, then spacing your 10 GB out shouldn’t be too difficult. You can tag pictures, organize your photos into albums, and share them with friends.
14. PostImage: Upload your photos online
Uploading your pictures is fast and super easy using PostImage. You can upload and resize your photos without even creating an account. If you do create an account, you’ll have access to more features, such as organizing your photos into galleries and generating links to make sharing even easier. The only caveat to using PostImage is that your pictures have to be under 8 MB each to upload them.
15. imgbox: Quick photo sharing site
Another fast, simple-to-use, and completely free photo site is imgbox. Like PostImage, you don’t need an account to get started, but if you do create one, you’ll gain access to more tools. You’ll be able to upload pictures, create galleries, and save your upload settings as presets for next time.
With imgbox, you get unlimited storage for JPG, GIF, and PNG files. The only limitation is that each file must be under 10 MB when you upload it.
The best photo sharing apps for iPhone
You’re probably taking most of your pictures with your iPhone. With every iPhone model, the camera keeps getting better, and it’s always with you in your pocket. It makes sense that you’d want to find an app that makes sharing photos on your iPhone easier.
Many of the sites listed in this article offer an iOS app with most of the same sharing features. But maybe you’ve tried those apps and just don’t like the way they work on your iPhone. If that’s the case, here are five top-notch iPhone apps to make sharing your photos easier.
16. PhotoCircle: Share your photos with a private group
The best way to think about PhotoCircle is as a massive shared photo album. So every time you create a new album, it’s private, and only you can see the pictures you add until you invite other people to be a part of that album. And once other people join your album, you can give them permission to add their own pictures. The best part is that there’s no limit to how many people you can invite or how many photos you can upload.
17. VSCO: Edit pictures and share them online
While VSCO is an app that’s primarily thought of for its powerful photo editing features, it also has robust sharing features. After you import your pictures, you can publish and organize them into collections or share them outside of the VSCO network. VSCO is free to download and use, but you can unlock more features if you upgrade with a paid subscription of $20 per year.
18. Ever: An app to back up and share pictures
Ever does much more than share your photos with your friends and family; it will actually back up your entire photo library for free with unlimited storage.
The downside with the free tier is that it compresses your pictures, but if you want to save your images at full resolution, you can upgrade to the Ever Plus subscription. You can put your pictures into shared albums to send to your close family and friends, or you can connect your other social media accounts to share directly to those platforms.
19. Cluster: Private app for sharing photos
With Cluster, you can privately share all of your photos with friends and family. Where Cluster differs from some of the other apps on this list is that instead of creating a shared album to share with friends, you actually create private groups for everyone to continuously share pics and videos with each other. Within each group, you can even organize your photos into different albums and collections.
20. FamilyAlbum: Best app to share photos with family
As you’d probably guess from the app’s name, FamilyAlbum is meant for sharing pictures among family members. It’s designed mostly for parents who want to keep their family members updated with pictures of their kids without annoying all of their other friends on social media. And since you’re already uploading pics of your family, FamilyAlbum also offers excellent tools to design and print a physical photo book.
21. Foodie: Share photos your way
Foodie is, first and foremost, a photo editor, but its many built-in sharing integrations have earned it a spot on this list. If you want to text a picture, you can. Or you can upload it to your social media app of choice. It only takes a few taps to edit and share photos just the way you want when you’re using the Foodie app.
As far as editing is concerned, not only can you add fun and unique filters to your pics, but you also get a ton of control over the editing process. You can either throw a quick preset on your photos or really dive deep into the edits.
There are a ton of ways to share your pictures, whether you’re looking for a quick way to securely transfer photos, showcase your best photography skills, or share photos from your iPhone. Hopefully, this article has helped you figure out the best way for you to share all of your photos online.
