Photo sharing
Which photo app is 100% free?
None of the mainstream photo sharing apps is 100% free without a limit; each one is free up to a line and paid past it. Google Photos is free to 15 GB. iCloud is free to 5 GB, though Shared Albums do not count against that. Dropbox Basic is free to 2 GB. Gathmo is free for 60 items and 30 days per event, with unlimited uploaders. The apps that are free with no storage line — Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp — pay for themselves with your data and compress your photos on the way in. So the honest answer is: pick the free tier whose limit you will not reach for the thing you are doing, and download the originals before it runs out.
Free with a storage line
Google Photos gives 15 GB, but that quota is shared with Gmail and Google Drive, so a full inbox eats into it. At 3 to 5 MB per phone photo and far more per video, a heavy user reaches the line within a year or two.
iCloud gives 5 GB, which a single iPhone fills with backups alone. Shared Albums are the loophole: photos you add to one are stored by Apple outside your quota, at a reduced resolution of 2048 pixels on the long edge.
Dropbox Basic gives 2 GB, and a file request lets people upload without a Dropbox account. It is a folder rather than an album, so there is no gallery, no moderation, and nothing to show on a screen.
Free with no storage line, and what that costs
Instagram and Facebook never charge and never fill up. In exchange your photos are recompressed, cropped to the platform’s formats, and locked inside an account that exports badly. They are free to use and expensive to leave.
WhatsApp is free and sends to everyone, but by default it compresses every photo it forwards. The HD option keeps more, and the photos still land as a scattered set in every recipient’s chat rather than in one place.
Gathmo’s free plan draws its line at 60 items and 30 days per event rather than at gigabytes, so the free tier is sized for a small gathering rather than a lifetime library. Paid plans are a single payment per event with unlimited items and 90 to 365 days of retention, and they include the ZIP download of originals that the free plan does not.
Common follow-ups
Is there a photo sharing app with unlimited free storage?
Not at full quality. Google Photos ended unlimited "high quality" storage in June 2021. The social networks are unlimited because they recompress everything.
Does the Gathmo free plan expire?
The album stays online for 30 days after the event. Download what you want to keep before then, or move to a paid plan for 90, 183, or 365 days.
Do I need a credit card for the free plan?
No. Create the event, print the QR code, and the free plan is live with no card on file.
Where to go next
- Pricing and plan limitsWhat each plan costs and where its item cap, retention window and video length sit. One payment per event, no subscription.
- Gathmo compared with Google PhotosA shared Google album is free and never expires. What it has no notion of is an evening — where each one stops.
- Gathmo compared with a Dropbox file requestA file request takes uploads without an account, into a folder. What a folder cannot do that an album can.
Related questions
- What photo app is completely free?For a one-off event, several photo apps are completely free if you stay inside their tier. Which one to use depends on how many people are uploading.
- What is the photo app everyone is using?Instagram for posting, Google Photos and iCloud for storing, WhatsApp for sending. None of them is what a group uses to pool photos from one event.
- What is the best app for sharing photos?The best app for sharing photos with one person is a messenger; with a family, a shared cloud album; with a crowd at an event, a QR album. The trade-offs.