Other iCloud Photos vs Google Photos

[macher]

Hi anyone care to share the advantages and disadvantages of iCloud Photos vs Google Photos? Was thinking using Google photos over iCloud.

I’m integrated in Google services nothing iPhone related except iMessage which I really like.

Thanks!

 

[carcarano]

I suggest you take a look at this website: https://www.guidingtech.com/google-photos-vs-icloud-photos/

 

[ian87w]

iCloud Photos:
- extremely well integrated with Apple devices
- automatic backups in full quality
- has option to automatically optimize file size and file availability based on the device's storage
- has desktop client on macOS (Photos, previously iPhoto)
- minimal integration with Windows (only sync to a folder)
- no apps on Android
- 5GB free storage, cheapest upgrade is 99c a month for 50GB

Google Photos:
- purely cloud based, thus no desktop client. On your PC/Mac, you access through a web browser.
- available on iOS and Android for mobile viewing
- Has option for unlimited storage at the expense of reduced quality
- No automatic storage management, even on Android. The only option is to delete local photos that are already synced to the cloud
- 15GB free storage, cheapest upgrade is $1.99 a month for 100GB

App wise, I don't really like Google Photos app (on Android). It's actually confusing as it muddles photos you have on the cloud with the ones stored locally (although some people might prefer this). Photos app on iPhone seems more straight forward as it's an all in or nothing, ie. you either have everything in there synced to iCloud Photos, or nothing at all.

I use neither. Since I'm an Office 365 subscriber, I have 1TB OneDrive. I have it back up the photos on my Android, and OneDrive integrates with Windows 10's Photos app as a desktop client. And I prefer the OEM stock gallery app on my phone than Google Photos app.

 

[eyoungren]

Hi anyone care to share the advantages and disadvantages of iCloud Photos vs Google Photos? Was thinking using Google photos over iCloud.

I’m integrated in Google services nothing iPhone related except iMessage which I really like.

Thanks!

There's also one other service that isn't Google, or Apple.

I've used Dropbox for years. Works on both iDevices and Android. Take a pic, automatically backs up at full resolution to the Camera Uploads folder. Since Dropbox works on both Mac and PC you can go into that folder very easily to get photos. No having to be online. Makes it very easy to take a pic with my phone, then turn around and post that pic to this forum from my Mac - because the photo has uploaded to Dropbox and thus appeared on my Mac.

And old versions still work. For instance, I have Drobox on my iPhone 6s+ which is running iOS 9.0.2. Still works, still uploads pics, still sees everything I've done in Dropbox with my other apps.

The advantage for me is not having to figure out iCloud Photos, which does not sync to my Android or PC computers. I also don't have to content with compressed images that Google Photos uses in order to have unlimited storage. Google Photos, also, is always trying to classify my pictures and store them in a way it wants to. Dropbox doesn't do that, it just uploads new pics and that's it.

Of course, you're limited to how much storage you have with Dropbox, but you can always empty out the Camera Uploads folder.

 

[ian87w]

There's also one other service that isn't Google, or Apple.

I've used Dropbox for years. Works on both iDevices and Android. Take a pic, automatically backs up at full resolution to the Camera Uploads folder. Since Dropbox works on both Mac and PC you can go into that folder very easily to get photos. No having to be online. Makes it very easy to take a pic with my phone, then turn around and post that pic to this forum from my Mac - because the photo has uploaded to Dropbox and thus appeared on my Mac.

And old versions still work. For instance, I have Drobox on my iPhone 6s+ which is running iOS 9.0.2. Still works, still uploads pics, still sees everything I've done in Dropbox with my other apps.

The advantage for me is not having to figure out iCloud Photos, which does not sync to my Android or PC computers. I also don't have to content with compressed images that Google Photos uses in order to have unlimited storage. Google Photos, also, is always trying to classify my pictures and store them in a way it wants to. Dropbox doesn't do that, it just uploads new pics and that's it.

Of course, you're limited to how much storage you have with Dropbox, but you can always empty out the Camera Uploads folder.

I liked Dropbox when they had Carousel. But they shut it down. The miniscule free storage (2GB) and the cheapest upgrade being $9.99 a month also didn't help.

 

[eyoungren]

I liked Dropbox when they had Carousel. But they shut it down. The miniscule free storage (2GB) and the cheapest upgrade being $9.99 a month also didn't help.

Yeah, by joining Carousel when I did, I got an additional X amount of GB to my account. I wish they hadn't killed that service.

Anyway, I joined Dropbox some time in 2011 I think. Through various means I scored a total of about 12GB of space. I now pay for a 2TB plan (which they added 1TB to for 3TB), but if I dropped that I'd go back to 12GB.

When the service was new they had a bunch of different ways to add free MBs and GBs. Not so much now.

I also have Box, which by joining through the app sometime in 2013 or so, they added 50GB to. My problem with Box is that it only allows a max of 300mb uploads per file so I hardly use it.

 

[C DM]

Yeah, by joining Carousel when I did, I got an additional X amount of GB to my account. I wish they hadn't killed that service.

Anyway, I joined Dropbox some time in 2011 I think. Through various means I scored a total of about 12GB of space. I now pay for a 2TB plan (which they added 1TB to for 3TB), but if I dropped that I'd go back to 12GB.

When the service was new they had a bunch of different ways to add free MBs and GBs. Not so much now.

I also have Box, which by joining through the app sometime in 2013 or so, they added 50GB to. My problem with Box is that it only allows a max of 300mb uploads per file so I hardly use it.

Yeah, being able to add some extra free space was a nice thing to have. I think I got up to around 15 GB on Dropbox, 40 GB on OneDrive, and 50 GB on Box (however the upload file limit kind of makes that far from all that useful).