7 Best Cloud Storage Services for Photographers

These cloud storage platforms all offer users an initial free trial with at least 5GB of storage. 

After a long year of "hunting" photos, one thing photographers definitely face is the need to store thousands of pictures and videos accumulated over many days of effort. This "sweat and tears" treasure trove from their passion needs a good storage place.

Having enough storage to hold thousands of images becomes an important task on every photographer's to-do list. Using a hard drive is risky since it might fail, leading to potential data loss. Relying on numerous hard drives isn't a great solution either, especially if you want access to your photos anytime, anywhere. Cloud storage is the optimal choice.

Thanks to cloud technology, we can have a secure way to enjoy the convenience of accessing our photos from anywhere with an Internet connection. 

Currently, those who regularly use free cloud storage platforms as a supplementary backup source may know that Google Photos will end its unlimited free photo backup feature on June 21. After 15 GB, you will need to pay for Google One starting at $1.99/month for 100 GB. If you need more space, you can get 200 GB for $2.99/month, 2 TB for $9.99/month, and 30 TB for $149/month.

While determining the ideal cloud storage service depends on the user's main needs, we will break down the 7 best cloud services according to the needs of the majority as follows:

• Best Overall Cloud Storage Service: Dropbox
• Best Lesser-Known Cloud Storage Service: IDrive
• Best Cloud Storage Service under $10: Apple iCloud
• Best Cloud Storage Service under $5: pCloud
• Best Free Cloud Storage Service: Box
• Best Value Cloud Storage Service: Microsoft OneDrive
• Best Cloud Storage Service with Software Integration: Adobe Creative Cloud

1. Best Overall Cloud Storage Service

• Our Choice: Dropbox
• Allocation: 2GB free, up to 3TB
• Price: $19.99/month (or $199/year).

Dropbox remains a popular choice among photographers, even though their free plan only offers 2GB of storage. The main advantage of this app is its simple drag-and-drop folder interface, mirroring what you see on your computer or device. It’s also easy to share and collaborate with other users on this platform.

Thanks to integration partnerships with various apps and media companies, these utilities make Dropbox a flexible choice to store different types of files and streamline remote work between photographers and their clients. You also have the option to set up to delete files from the cloud after they are deleted from your computer.

If you need to upgrade, you can get 3TB plus additional features with the Professional plan for one user at $19.99/month or $199/year.

2. Best Lesser-Known Cloud Storage Service

• Our Choice: IDrive
• Allocation: 5GB free, 5TB, 10TB
• Price: $69.50 / $99.50/year

This option might be new to many but is gaining popularity due to its utility and convenience in quickly and easily syncing data across computers and devices, including NAS (Network Attached Storage) drives. This comprehensive cloud storage solution offers 5GB of free storage, but if you need more, you can subscribe to the IDrive Personal plan at $69.50/year for 5TB or $99.50/year for 10TB.

Notable features include easy file sharing via email or social media, retaining up to 30 versions of all files, and facial recognition technology that can be particularly useful for organizing your photos. Also, if you decide to delete files from your local hard drive, continuous file sync support will not automatically delete the versions uploaded to the cloud.

3. Best Free Cloud Storage Service

• Our Choice: Box
• Allocation: 10GB free for Individual accounts, 100GB for Personal Pro accounts
• Price: $11.50/month

While most free options offer up to 5GB of storage, Box provides up to 10GB for free personal accounts. You can only upload one version of data and upload files up to 250MB, but you also get secure file sharing with two-factor authentication.

In addition to the integrated desktop experience with shared folders and links, you can also collaborate via the Box mobile app and take advantage of integrations with G Suite and Office 365.

If you decide to upgrade to a paid account, the $11.50/month Personal Pro plan gives you 100GB of storage, 5GB uploads, and 10 file versions, along with all the features of the free account.

4. Best Value Cloud Storage Service

• Our Choice: Microsoft OneDrive
• Allocation: 5GB for free account, 1TB for Microsoft 365 Personal account
• Price: $5.99/month ($59.99/year)

OneDrive is Microsoft’s answer to Apple iCloud, but it also supports Mac, iOS, and Android devices. Since it is widely integrated into Windows 10, this is a versatile multi-purpose cloud solution that can be accessed like a physical hard drive or SSD. It comes with some smart features; particularly for photos, it has excellent RAW file support and automatically recognizes image content and tags them accordingly, so you can easily search for photos by theme, tag, or content.

If 5GB of free storage isn’t enough, you can get 1TB with the Microsoft 365 Personal plan at $5.99/month or $59.99/year.

If you need even more, you will have to look elsewhere. However, if you are also a professional Microsoft Office user, this subscription will give you the most bang for your buck. You will be able to install Office apps on up to 5 PCs or Macs, as well as enjoy additional features like 60 minutes/month of free Skype calls, advanced security, increased sharing limits, PC folder backup, and productivity tools.

5. Best Cloud Storage Service with Software Integration

• Our Choice: Adobe Creative Cloud
• Allocation: 20GB, 1TB
• Price: $9.99/$19.99/month

Since Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop remain the popular image editing software in the photography community, most of us still pay for them even though they are expensive. However, to bring comfort and attachment to users, Adobe has added many useful features in the cloud photo storage allocation in Adobe Creative Cloud.

For $9.99/month, you can opt for the Photography plan, which comes with Lightroom and Photoshop plus 20GB of storage. But for the same price, you can choose the Lightroom plan instead if you use it more often and need the 1TB storage more than Photoshop. If you need both software and 1TB storage, you’ll have to pay $19.99/month.

Creative Cloud allows you to create beautiful image libraries, invite collaborators to add photos to shared folders in Team Libraries, and upload files seamlessly across any device or operating system you are using. Because the two popular photo editing software comes with it, RAW files are fully compatible with this cloud storage option.

6. Best Cloud Storage Service under $5

• Our Choice: pCloud
• Allocation: 500GB
• Price: $3.99/month and $47.88/year

Although pCloud is still relatively new to the cloud storage landscape, it is starting to gain attention as one of the few options that offer a lifetime payment option. It costs $175 for 500GB or $350 for 2TB, but there are cheaper options if committing to a lifetime service is not your primary requirement. If you are on a budget, the cheapest annual plan is $47.88 – or about $3.99 a month, which will store 500GB, suitable for those who prefer simple cloud storage for emergency backup.

pCloud provides access to your files from your Mac or PC as a local drive, as well as mobile and web devices, so you have plenty of options to back up and access. You can also share links and file requests as well as invite users to shared folders. Besides the usual security measures, there is an optional upgrade for pCloud Crypto, allowing for encryption and password protection for each file stored with an additional monthly fee of $3.99. Other attractive features include unlimited file size and speed, backup from other cloud platforms like Google Drive and Dropbox, and file version recovery for up to 30 days.

7. Best Cloud Storage Service under $10

• Our Choice: Apple iCloud
• Allocation: 5GB free, 50GB, 200GB, 2TB
• Price: $0.99/$2.99/$9.99/month

Do you have Apple devices? You already have iCloud. If you are using Apple’s ecosystem – then the exclusive iCloud storage is good enough for temporary storage. It allows access across your devices everywhere and is integrated into the Photos app, making it easy to store, organize, and share photos. The original full-resolution photos will automatically upload to iCloud to save space on your device. You can easily download them whenever needed. If you need more allocation – which is likely because the storage includes videos, files, and app data – annual paid plans start at $0.99 for 50GB, up to $9.99 for 2TB.