Top Cloud Services for Storing and Sharing Photos

Digital photography has made it possible to document nearly every event without spending a fortune on film. But this surfeit of photos presents a challenge, too: What’s the best way to share them all?

Flickr

You’ll find a strong community on Yahoo’s Flickr, which is home to more than 50 million members. The user-friendly interface is easy for anyone to use, and the basic service is free, albeit with limitations: You can upload 300MB worth of photos a month, with no photo exceeding 30MB; and you can upload two videos a month, each no longer than 90 seconds and no larger than 150MB. (The Pro version of Flickr has no storage limits.) Flickr will compress photos only if they exceed the file-size limits; otherwise, it leaves them alone. Where Flickr feels light is in advanced controls. It lacks a watermarking option, for instance, and you can’t specify who can download your photos.

Photobucket

Like Flickr, Photobucket is available in free (ad-supported) and paid (no-ad) versions. The free version of Photobucket lets you upload many more images than the free Flickr does—10GB per month. However, you’ll also see many more ads here than on Flickr. In addition to a persistent banner ad, most pages have at least one pop-up ad. Meanwhile, Photobucket’s Java-based bulk uploader tool conveniently re-creates your system’s file structure in your browser and displays only up­­loadable photos, but its omission of drag-and-drop support is, well, a drag.

SmugMug

SmugMug also assists you in sprucing up your photos with color effects, watermarks, and basic editing tools. You can display your photostream in many different ways, and exert fine control over who can download your snapshots and which image sizes are available to viewers. The catch? SmugMug is a subscription-only service (starting at $40 per year).

The Winner

SmugMug’s passion for photography shows in its wealth of options, including tools for selling images. But Photobucket reigns as the most intuitive iPad tool.