Free online photo albums: a comparison

Free online photo albums are a way to share your photos with others. There are now numerous websites where you can post your photos. We have compared three free online photo albums for you.

Use Flickr as an online photo album

Flickr originally started as a photo community and was then taken over by Yahoo. In this "veteran" among the online photo albums Flickr you can divide pictures into different categories, share with other members, comment on photos of other members and add them to your favorites.

• You decide who can see your photos. If you make your photos available to everyone, it is not necessary for visitors to set up a Flickr account. However, if you only make your photo albums available to certain user groups within Flickr, the person who is to see your photos must also be a Flickr member.
• An extra registration is not necessary, you can connect directly to your Google, Yahoo or Facebook account.
• The free version offers space for 1000 pictures or videos. Unlimited, ad-free storage space is available for € 5.99 per month.
• Flickr is suitable for amateur photographers who would like to edit, organize and share their photos with powerful tools. Thanks to the app for iOS and Android, you can also upload photos that you take with your smartphone.

Instagram photo community

On Instagram, you can share your photos and videos with a billion people worldwide. There are now 500 million active users in Germany.

• Download Instagram for your iPhone or Android smartphone for free. After you have registered, you can start right away.
• Take a photo or shoot a short video, add a filter and upload it to your Instagram story or as a post on your feed. You can also share the snapshot with your friends on Facebook at the same time.
• Decide whether your profile is public, visible to everyone or only displayed privately. Follow other Instagram users yourself, tag them in your photos, save your favorite videos and comment on them. Users who see your photos can also comment and like your photos.
• You can log in to your account at www.instagram.com. You cannot upload pictures here, but you can use the "Like" function and also comment.
• You can chat and share with your followers via Instagram Direct.
• With IGTV you can upload videos of ten minutes in length. Instagram stars publish video clips of their lives up to 60 minutes long.

Picasa web album with Google account

To use Picasa Web Album, you can log in with your Google account.

• The Picasa software allows you to sort photos in folders by categories. Photos can also be edited; In addition to simple filter options, you can, for example, fight red eyes, make automatic color corrections or resharpen photos.
• Effects such as "vampire teeth", "pixel focus" and "false beard" can also be applied to your photos with the PC software. Speech bubbles and decorations with text in different fonts are also available.
• If you have edited the photos according to your wishes, you can also publish them in a web album - provided you have a Google account. You can also share with friends on Google+. You can read how to create a Picasa web album in this practical tip.
• Alternatively, you can download the paid app for iOS or Android onto your smartphone. Free alternatives are "Picasa Photo Albums Lite" for iOS and "Tool for Picasa, Google+ Foto".

More photo albums in the cloud

You no longer have to host a slide evening to show photos or share them with others. Simply share your photos online for free and decide for yourself whether you want to share the photos with the whole world or only with your closest friends.

• You can get additional free storage space for your photos with the Photobucket service or the Telekom media center.
• Customers of some freemail providers, such as gmx.de and web.de, can also create free online photo albums and then share them with friends.
• Pinterest is a free "online photo album" of the new generation, whereby it is not or only superficially about sharing pictures.

If you want to grab a good old photo book, you will find a provider comparison here.