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Free Google Photos Ending TODAY! 😭 My top 5 favorite alternative... but should you even switch? 🤔
Google Photos is ending it’s free unlimited upload plan today, June 1st 2021. What does it mean for you? How are Google Pixel “original backup” offer affected? What are the best alternatives? Should you really switch or stick to Google Photos? These are all the question I am going to answer in this video!
🎥 Why I switched to a NAS https://youtu.be/4JAZyyUrHsU
📸 My Lightroom Edits https://loicba.me/lightroom
🔗 Amazon Photos https://geni.us/lba-amazon-photos
🔗 Jottacloud https://geni.us/jottacloud
🔗 Lightroom https://geni.us/lba-lightroom
🔗 Flickr https://geni.us/lba-flickr
✨ WATCH NEXT ✨
- New Google Photos Features https://youtu.be/9WcO6w87br4
- Photo Critique & Editing Breakdown https://youtu.be/Rbv_OD3_t4E
- New Features for Pixel Phone https://youtu.be/m-ZZQoDHaoo
✋ COME SAY HI!! ✋
- Instagram: @loic.bellemare.alford (http://bit.ly/lba_instagram)
- TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@loic.bellemare.alford
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/loic294
- Facebook: https://fb.com/lbaphotographie
📖 CHAPTERS 📖
00:00 - Introduction
00:32 - How will it affect you?
01:13 - Alternative #1: Amazon Photos
01:59 - Alternative #2: Jottacloud
02:35 - Alternative #3: Lightroom CC
03:29 - Alternative #4: NAS
04:34 - Alternative #5: Flickr
05:07 - Why stick with Google Photos?
06:00 - Conclusion
🖼 SHOP FOR PRINTS 🖼
- My online store: https://store.lbaphotographie.ca
🎶 MY MUSIC 🎶
- Affiliate link for Epidemic Sound: https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/iu5gau/
📸 GEAR I USE ON YOUTUBE 📸
https://kit.co/loic.bellemare.alford/youtube-gear
- DJI Pocket 2 Creator Combo https://geni.us/dji-pocket-2-combo
- 128 gb MicroSD card https://geni.us/sandisk-extreme-128gb
- Canon 6D Mk https://geni.us/canon-6d-mkii
- Google Pixel 4a https://geni.us/google-pixel-4a
- Canon ZOOM LENS EF24-105mm F4L IS II USM https://geni.us/canon-lens-24-105
- Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 Lens https://geni.us/canon-lens-16-35
- Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L-IS II USM Lens https://geni.us/canon-lens-70-200
- VANGUARD VEO 2 265CB CARBON FIBER TRIPOD https://geni.us/vanguard-veo-265cb
- DJI MAVIC AIR https://geni.us/lba-dji-mavic-air
- Best Final Cut Pro Plugins https://geni.us/Jdexw
🌍 MY PERSONAL WEBSITE 🌍
if you're unaware starting today june 1st 2021 google photos is ending it's free unlimited uploads this will affect everybody including pixel users so here are my top five alternatives to google photos for those of you who are new to this channel i'm like ben mahalford a young photographer and filmmaker on a journey to become better at this art if you're like me you've been using google photos for the last few years to back up securely all your photos from your phone so learning that you are going to have to pay for it is a pretty bad news right now now let's talk about how this affects you everything you uploaded before today is going to be still completely free instead of google photos but everything that you start uploading starting today it's gonna start counting towards your storage account if you're google pixel users depending on when you bought your phone you might have an option to get free unlimited uploads for about three years uh but people like me with the google pixel 4 actually have a pretty big change today they're downgrading from free original uploads to compressed uploads and that means that if you want to edit your image afterwards the compressed file won't be as good anymore so this is a pretty big bummer for people like me that really like having the free uploads to google photos if you have an amazon prime subscription your best option is to use amazon photos amazon photos include unlimited photo uploads and that includes raw file which is a really great thing they have most of the options like google photos has so they have face detection memories location editing on mobile apps and also sharing with links and also upload from your phone so it's really a complete option overall there's one catch and it's that you don't get unlimited video uploads so for that you're gonna either have to use your five gigabyte free option or pay for some storage and the prices are pretty reasonable at 278 per month for 100 gigabyte just like google photos or fourteen dollars per month for one terabyte which is a little bit much for a one terabyte plan my second option is part one that you never heard about and it's called jota cloud it's a nowhere based company that does cloud storage and what is very interesting with them is that for only 6 and 49 euro per month you actually get unlimited uploads of any types of files so this is a really great option if you have a lot more things to store inside of the cloud it has pretty nice features to view your pictures upload them using your phone and things like that and also album sharing and all these basic features but it has nothing more advanced like editing your photos or things like that but if you just want a cheap option to upload a lot of photos this is a very great option my next option is the most expensive one on the list but it's the one that i personally use which is lightroom cc so light zoom cc is ten dollars per month for one terabyte plan so that's quite a lot of storage but what is really great with lightroom cc it's a very advanced editor that allows you to sync your files for all your devices in my opinion it's one of the best and most advanced editors on mobile devices that is available out there and also has a lot of features that are very important for somebody like me that takes so many photos that allow you to organize your files and make sure that you easily find whatever you need and can always edit your photos on the go wherever you are they support pretty much any camera that exists so that's another benefit from using lightroom cc so it is a little bit expensive but i personally think that it's really worth it if you're a little bit more of a pro photographer or you want to step up your editing game and get more advanced features that are not available in most of the other cheaper alternatives my next option is for people like me to have terabytes and terabytes of file and this is to buy a nas which stands for network attached storage you can think of it as being your personal cloud that lives inside of your house it might be a bit more expensive to buy at the beginning but it's definitely worth the investment because on the long term it's much cheaper than buying terabytes and terabytes of storage i have 24 terabytes of storage with redundancy so that means that if one of my drives fail i'm still gonna be able to recreate my files so it's a really great option for a lot of storage other great things about the nas is that you can use apps just like google photos to upload all of your photos from your phone to the nas and then on your computer you can access them via the web or you can access them directly as a network drive which works a little bit like if you had a hard drive or something like that plug into your computer so you can directly edit your files without even having to copy them locally first which is a really great options you don't want to have to copy everything locally before being able to edit them first i have a full view that talks about why i decided to upgrade to a naz so i'm going to link in the description down below if you want to learn more about that my last option is a place where all photographers used to go before instagram existed and this is flickr flickr is more social media than a cloud storage solution but it still has great options for photographers allowing you to share your pictures with other very talented photographers get some feedback and just join a large community of really high-end photographers at 649 us dollar per month it has unlimited uploads of your photos that's another pretty great option if you want to store securely all of your files in the original format now even though this video was all about alternatives google photos i think that for most people you're still better off just staying with them just like you i'm pretty mad that google used their free unlimited upload option as a marketing tactic to kill other competitors and get you hooked inside of their service but it's still one of the best options out there when it comes to store your photos online it's also not that bad if you decide to upgrade so it's only 2.79 canadian dollars for 100 gigabytes which should be more than enough more for most people they also said that 80 of their users are going to be good enough with 15 gigabyte of the free plan so you might not even have a problem at all if you want to check this they actually have a tool that is built in that allows you to predict how much time you're gonna have before you need to upgrade to one of their paid plans so definitely think you should go check that one out before making a decision if you enjoyed this quick little video definitely let me know by hitting the like button below and also consider subscribing to the channel for more content on photography and filmmaking see you in the next one bye you
Video Links
- 🎥 Why I switched to a NAS
- 📸 My Lightroom Edits
- 🔗 Amazon Photos
- 🔗 Jottacloud
- 🔗 Lightroom
- 🔗 Flickr
- New Google Photos Features
- Photo Critique & Editing Breakdown
- New Features for Pixel Phone
- Instagram: @loic.bellemare.alford ()
- TikTok
- My online store
- Affiliate link for Epidemic Sound
- https://kit.co/loic.bellemare.alford/youtube-gear
- DJI Pocket 2 Creator Combo
- 128 gb MicroSD card
- Canon 6D Mk
- Google Pixel 4a
- Canon ZOOM LENS EF24-105mm F4L IS II USM
- Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 Lens
- Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L-IS II USM Lens
- VANGUARD VEO 2 265CB CARBON FIBER TRIPOD
- DJI MAVIC AIR
- Best Final Cut Pro Plugins
- http://bit.ly/loicba
What is this video about?
Today marks the end of Google Photos' free unlimited backup policy. Starting June 1st, 2021, everything you upload is going to count against your storage quota—and if you're a Pixel user, you might get hit harder than most. I wanted to walk through what this actually means for you and explore some genuine alternatives I've tested.
First, let's talk impact. All your existing photos remain free forever, which is a nice relief. But here's what stings: Pixel users with newer phones (like my Pixel 4) are getting downgraded from "original quality" to "compressed" uploads. That's a real problem if you care about image fidelity for editing later.
So I've got five alternatives worth considering. Amazon Photos is solid if you have Prime—unlimited photo uploads including raw files, face detection, memories, and sharing. The catch is video uploads are limited unless you pay. Jottacloud is a sleeper pick from a Norway-based company: just €6.49 per month gets you unlimited uploads of any file type. It's cheap and simple, though light on editing features.
Then there's Lightroom CC, which I actually use myself. At $10 a month for one terabyte, it's the priciest option here—but it's also one of the best mobile editors out there, with powerful organization tools and support for virtually every camera format. If you're serious about photography, it's worth it.
For people drowning in files like me, a NAS (network attached storage) is a game-changer. It's a personal cloud server that lives in your house. The upfront cost is higher, but over time it's far cheaper than renting terabytes forever. I've got 24TB with redundancy so a drive failure won't kill my files. You can upload from your phone just like Google Photos, then access everything locally on your computer without copying files around.
Finally, Flickr at $6.49 a month offers unlimited photo uploads in original format, plus a vibrant community of serious photographers. It's more social than utilitarian, but it works.
Here's my honest take though: for most people, Google Photos is still the right call. Yes, I'm frustrated that Google used free uploads as a predatory tactic to lock everyone in. But the platform is genuinely good, and the paid tiers are reasonable—$2.79 CAD for 100GB should cover 80% of casual users. Before you panic, use Google's built-in tool to estimate when you'll actually need to upgrade. You might not need to at all.