Photos are precious. For many of us, they’re the best way to record the people and places that we love – while for some, they’re an entire livelihood. But they’re also inherently vulnerable, both in print and digital form, as once an image is lost, it’s gone forever. You can’t go back and take the same picture again. Which is why we’ve taken a close look at all of the major backup providers on the market, and figured out which offer the very best photo backup solutions.
To make things simple, we’ve put the top performing services into a quick and easy list – so keep reading to find out where to look for the services and features that are most important to you. Whether you’re looking for file sharing, long-term storage, or just peace of mind that every photo you add or edit will be immediately uploaded to the Cloud, we’ve found the solution for you!
Best Photo Backup Services – Summary
[top5table CrashPlan Acronis IDrive Dropbox ElephantDrive ratings=”5,4.5,4,3.5,3″]
Winner
CrashPlan
[vpnbest value=”5″] 5/5
PROS- Unlimited storage space
Excellent data security
Easy to use
Automatic, manual and scheduled backups
CONS- No file sharing options
CrashPlan is the great all rounder, which is why we think it’s one of the best online photo storage services on the market today. A traditional online backup provider, it offers unlimited storage space, decent file transfer speeds, and excellent security measures (so you can be sure that no unwelcome visitors can access your files).
It’s cheap, too – with unlimited space on offer for just $4.99 per month, and a free account that lets you backup your files to a local device or remotely to another CrashPlan user’s PC.
One thing that’s worth noting is that CrashPlan is very definitely a backup service – so isn’t the best option if you’re looking for archiving or file sharing services. That means that it’s designed to keep a copy of everything that’s on your PC right here, right now – perfect for restoring everything if disaster strikes, but not so much for quick and easy sharing or keeping data that you don’t have space for elsewhere.
That’s no bad thing, however. CrashPlan’s specialism is an extremely useful one, and it does, it does than almost anyone else. So if you’re looking for a full, continuously updated photo backup service is what you’re looking for, you’ll be going to the very best place.
2nd place
Acronis
[vpnbest value=”4.5″] 4.5/5
- PROS
- Unlimited storage space
Integrated local backups
Good security features
File sharing
- CONS
- Lack of security for shared files
Acronis offers a bit of everything – making it an excellent choice if you want guaranteed flexibility when it comes to your photo backup. With file sharing, unlimited storage space, and archiving all on offer, it’s one of the most extensive programs around, and you’ll find good security too – with end-to-end encryption protecting all of your data. On top of these features, Acronis’ online backup service True Image Cloud comes with Acronis True Image as part of the deal – an offline backup management system that makes it simple to backup photos to a local device, as well as online.
Although prices aren’t the lowest, and you won’t be able to password-protect shared files, for versatility and all-round reliability, Acronis is well worth a try – and it’s just a click away. Use the button below to sign up today!
3rd place
IDrive
[vpnbest value=”4″] 4/5
- PROS
- Archiving service
File sharing
User-friendly software
Low price
- CONS
- Price increase in second year
IDrive has many strengths – security, file sharing, and speed amongst them – but what really makes it valuable to photographers is its archiving capacity. If you don’t feel equal to the task of figuring out the distinctly techy (and often inaccessible) world of public Cloud storage services like Amazon Glacier and Microsoft Azure (see more details below!), IDrive offers a much smaller-scale, and significantly more user-friendly, alternative.
Archiving your photos with IDrive works exactly like backing them up, except that it’s optimised for longer-term storage. This means that, unlike many of its competitors, IDrive won’t automatically remove your files from the Cloud when you delete them from your computer’s hard drive. Instead, your online backups can be managed entirely independently of your computer’s files – so if you want to take photos off your laptop and store them exclusively in the Cloud, you can.
As well as their archiving service, IDrive also offers file sharing and an interface that’s simple and easy to use – all for just $3.71 per month for 1TB of storage – increasing to $4.99 /month in your second year.
ThinkIDrive? Just click the button to subscribe now!
4th place
Dropbox
[vpnbest value=”3.5″] 3.5/5
- PROS
- Easy to use software
Excellent file sharing options
Protect shared files
Good free account
- CONS
- Limited security
Whether taking photos is a hobby or a career, there are often reasons to share your pictures with clients, colleagues, friends or family – and while many backup providers do offer file sharing features, they’re not always convenient or easy to use. Which is why Dropbox is the first name that comes to most people’s minds when you say ‘file sharing’.
Dropbox is the perfect solution if you want to give other people access to your files. Simple organisation, a user-friendly interface, a handy desktop sync folder, and the ability to create public links so that non-Dropbox users can view your photos are all useful features – making it easy to reach a broad range of people. On top of that, Pro subscribers can also add password protection and expiry dates to shared links, as well as customise read/write permissions for individual files and folders.
If you’re only planning to share a smallish number of files at a time, Dropbox’s free plan can get you quite a long way. There’s an initial 2GB of storage space available for your photo backup purposes, which can be extended to just under 20GB by successfully inviting friends to join up and completing start-up tasks like downloading the Dropbox mobile app.
If that’s not quite enough, however, then there’s also a 1TB plan on offer for $11 per month. If file sharing is top of your priority list, then, why not follow the link below to find out more and sign up today!
5th place
ElephantDrive
[vpnbest value=”3″] 3/5
- PROS
- Excellent for NAS backups
Compatible with broad range of devices/other programs
Automatic, manual and scheduled backups
- CONS
- High prices of larger storage plans
Software can be confusing in places
If you’re thinking about using network attached storage (NAS) as well as the Cloud for photo backup purposes, then ElephantDrive is well worth considering. With apps integrated into most major NAS devices (including Synology, QNAP and Netgear), it’s perfectly optimised for making the transfer of files from your NAS to the Cloud as seamless as possible.
Automated and scheduled backups will also help to keep your photo backup running with the minimum of hassle – although prolific picture takers might find the high price of larger storage plans a little off-putting. You can get 100GB for a fairly reasonable $9.95 per month, however, and plans go up to 2TB – although you’ll be paying a fairly staggering $169.95 for the privilege.
ElephantDrive may be best for those without plans to store lots of large files, then, but if it’s easy cross-platform file storage that you’re looking for, it’s the perfect fit. Click below to join them now!
Archiving
If you’ve got a huge back catalogue of files that you don’t want to access too often, but want to keep safe all the same, you might want to look into some longer-term archiving solutions to use alongside, or instead of, a standard online photo backup service.
While this is pretty easy to do offline, it’s also possible on the net – either by using a backup provider like IDrive that offers an archiving option, or by opting for a public Cloud storage service like Amazon Glacier or S3, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud.
These providers tend to charge extremely low prices (for example, Glacier charges just $0.007 per GB per month, and will only bill you for the space that you use), and have the capacity to store huge quantities of data – but there is a catch.
The problem is that data stored with these providers can be hard to access, change or customise – not usually a problem for their target audience of developers and organizations, but tricky for personal users to manage. There is a solution, in the form of file management and user interface tools like CloudBerry, S3 Browser, and other Cloud storage management tools which put a more familiar face on things – although often for a price.
Still, although they may not be quite as cheap and easy as they look on first glance, the growing popularity of these services amongst home users is evidence that they’re well worth consideration if you’re looking for an inexpensive mass storage solution.
3-2-1 Backups
If you want to be 100% confident that there’s no way that your photos will be lost, we’d recommend following the 3-2-1 Backup strategy. It’s pretty simple – just save your files to three separate locations; preferably both online and offline. A good approach is to backup photos online, on a local external storage device, and in a third alternative location – either with a second Cloud storage provider, on a network attached storage device, or on another external drive that’s stored in a different geographical location.
Keeping important files in all three places means that, short of widespread destruction, they should be safe from pretty much any disaster that might arise.
Best Photo Backup Services – Summary
[top5table CrashPlan Acronis IDrive Dropbox ElephantDrive ratings=”5,4.5,4,3.5,3″]
My mobile capture delate photo back up
right..
trust all your life’s photos to a no name company that will likely close down or get bought out.