15 Best Image Hosting Platforms [Most are Free]
Remember those old days when you were writing on Word, forget to save and close the file? The pain of losing all that work? Luckily, that’s long in the past now.
We have technologies that autosave and backup your files like Google Drive. But we also have the same for images.
Today I’ll be covering 15 image hosting platforms to store your images while saving space so you stop suffering.
But first, you might wonder:
Why use an image hosting platform?
Image hosting platforms host your images in the cloud. That means images are available anytime, from any device. Does your computer no longer work? No problem! Access from your phone, your tablet, or any other desktop.
Some other benefits of this service are:
- It saves storage space.
- It’s a backup. Never lose your images!
- It has collaboration features.
- Usually includes image statistics.
- It speeds up your site.
If you are a business, this last point is key. For every second your page takes to load, you’ll lose revenue.
Image hosting platforms use CDN to speed up image loading. CDN stands for content delivery network. They replicate your site and put it in all major regions so people from, let’s say, Colombia can see your website right away.
In case you aren’t aware of your speed, use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to find out your page speed and what things might be slowing you down. Or read this post for WordPress page speed.
15 Best Image Hosting Platforms
1. Google Photos
A classic. Individuals and businesses love Google Photos. Is there anyone that can resist the beauty of Google products? I can’t.
As we recently pointed out in our “Google Apps worth checking out” post, Google apps are super convenient because they give you easy access to Docs, Gmail, etc. However, this can also be a setback regarding storage, since Google Photos shares it with Drive and Gmail.
As to Google Photos’ features, well, there’s plenty. Print your images anywhere without using any memory card. Edit your photos, collab with your team, and create animations. Organize your pics by location, people appearing, or date. And more.
Pricing
It’s free unless you want extra storage. Google gives you 15 GB for free and 100 GB for $1.99 per month.
2. SmugMug
SmugMug is especially appealing to photographers for its image resolution. Plus, it offers unlimited photo and video uploads. Store your images or put them on display like a virtual gallery or portfolio. Even sell them!
The platform also gives you templates to create your site and powerful SEO tools such as site maps and meta tags. Integrate with Lightroom, Luminar, or On1 to quickly edit your images and save time.
Pricing
They have a 14-day free trial and 4 different plans. For $7 per month, you get unlimited full-resolution storage. The highest tier costs $42 per month and includes advanced privacy and security controls, watermark protection, and marketing promotions.
3. Dropbox
Another popular option is Dropbox. With Dropbox, your images are completely secure. They have a powerful password manager and a PIN-protected file vault.
Dropbox mobile app lets you sync your camera roll with your account so your photos are automatically saved. You can store files as well as images.
Finally, it’s great for enterprises because team members can comment and share images instantly.
Pricing
Dropbox offers a free plan for 2GB and a 14-day trial for its paid plans. However, as images continue to grow in resolution and size, it’s most likely you’ll need more than 2GB. Plans start at $9.99 per month with 2TB of encrypted storage.
4. Imgur
For using Imgur, you don’t need to register. Unless that is, you want to add captions to your images or upload albums. Imgur is kind of a social media so besides storing your images, you can share them with the community.
It works with any photo format and supports both animated and not animated files. I’m looking at you, my friend who loves gifs.
Pricing
It’s free!
5. Wix
Wix is famous for being a website builder. However, the Wix Pro Gallery also lets you store and share your images. It lets you upload a wide variety of files and it has automatic image optimization. Wix helps you protect your images with its watermarks features. And if people try to download them, Wix will stop them.
Also, you can sell your photos with no commission!
Pricing
The Wix Pro Gallery is included in the Wix Editor, so it’s completely free.
6. Imgbox
Imgbox has a very simple, minimalistic design. Anyone can easily use it without even register. It hosts an unlimited number of images for as long as you need them. Each image can be up to 10MB. Upload JPG, PNG, and GIF. Other formats get rejected.
Keep in mind Imbox works exclusively with images. If you want to upload videos, it will redirect you to Sendvid, which it’s free anyway.
Pricing
It’s a free service.
7. Flickr
The Flickr community sure knows how to take good pics. Besides their free image hosting feature, Flickr offers social networking. Share your photos with the community and join groups of genres of photography.
Use image externally with proper recognition thanks to Creative Commons. Organize your images into albums and use its editor to help you fine-tune your images before publishing.
Pricing
Store 1000 images or videos for free. If you want advanced statistics and ads-free browsing, get Flickr Pro for $5.99 per month.
8. Pasteboard
With Pasteboard, you can easily upload images via three options:
- Drag and drop
- Copy and paste from the clipboard
- Select an image over its interface
The storage limit is 10MB and it supports JPEG, PNG, GIF, APNG, and TIF.
Capture an image from your mobile and upload it without leaving the site. Or crop images and add a title and description to provide more context.
Pasteboard also has analytics to see how many people view your images.
Pricing
Pasteboard is free. But if you want to hide its ads and access exclusive features, you’ll need to subscribe to a plan. For $3 per month, you can increase the file size limit and add text on images.
9. Amazon Photos
Amazon offers photo and video storage to all its customers. Anything that’s in there is encrypted so no one else can see your photos. If you have an Echo Show or Fire TV, you can view your Amazon Photos on your device and even ask Alexa to help you.
To automatically save your pictures in Amazon, just turn on the Auto-Save on Settings. They store your photos in the original size and your raw photos too.
One feature that I personally like is “This day” which makes you revisit moments from the past years. Very touching.
Pricing
Amazon gives a 5 GB combined photos and video storage to anyone with an Amazon account. Plans start at $1.99 per month for 100 GB. For un unlimited full-resolution storage, get an Amazon Prime membership. After the 30-day free trial, Prime is $12 per month.
10. A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting is a website and image hosting platform. If you care about the planet, you’ll love to hear that it’s been 100% carbon neutral since 2007!
The platform also offers 24/7 support and a wide variety of data center locations.
You can share your images on social media and visitors can see the image as a thumbnail.
Pricing
A2 Hosting offers 4 plans according to your needs:
- Startup: $1.99 per month. It has 100 GB SSD storage.
- Drive: $3.99 per month. Unlimited storage and automatic backups.
- Turbo boost: $5.99 per month.
- Turbo max: $12.99 per month.
11. ImageShack
Upload images and keep them private or share them with the community, you choose. ImageShack gives you unlimited space and uploads. It has a mobile app, image statistics, and privacy control, everything to have a great hosting experience.
The platform also lets you watermark your photos and does automatic backups so your images are secure.
Pricing
Image Shack offers a 30-day free trial on all its plans. Pay $3.99 per month for a basic plan, $29.99 for API access, or $99.99 for bandwidth between 1TB and 4TB.
12. Photobucket
Meet Photobucket, an image hosting platform trusted by over 90 million members across the globe. It lets you upload your images across different platforms.
Some key features are:
- Easy-to-copy embed link.
- Intuitive image editor: filters, annotations, stickers.
- Smart privacy settings.
Pricing
Free plan: up to 250 images. Then you have 3 paid plans:
- Beginner: up to 2500 images. Cost $6 per month.
- Intermediate: up to 25000 images for $8 per month.
- Expert: unlimited storage. Cost $13 per month.
13. Free Image Hosting
Free Image Hosting it’s mainly a family service. Add your photos, share them with your loved ones, and put them on social media. The platform supports GIF, JPG, BMP, and PNG images. The file size limit is 3MB.
Pricing
As the name clearly says, it’s free. The site is supported by its advertisers so it doesn’t cost a thing.
14. DeviantArt
Deviant Art claims to be the largest online art gallery and community. Home of weird kids in high school, DeviantArt sounds like an equally strange option to host your images. However, the platform is very similar to Imgur and it works!
Each image can’t exceed 30MB in size but there’s no storage limit. DeviantArt is an interesting option whether you want to sell your photos or just store them privately.
Pricing
It’s free.
15. ImgShare
This site lets you upload and share up to 32MB of images as a guest. If you want to create public and private albums, you’ll need to register. Registered users also get more storage with a 512MB. If you just use it as a guest, your images will be removed after one year.
It also has great sharing options such as a direct link to your images, BBCode, or HTML thumbnails.
Pricing
It’s free!
Conclusion
There are plenty of amazing image hosting platforms out there. Today we mentioned the top 15, all of them with different features according to your needs.
Have you tried any of them? I’d love to know.