Google Photos vs. Amazon Photos in 2023 | Which is the best deal?

Google Photos vs. Amazon Photos is hotting up with pricing changes

The Google Photos vs. Amazon Photos fight is suddenly a fierce fight. With Google Photos’ free tier being reduced to a mere shared 15GB, it has become a lot harder to recommend. Amazon Photos (also referred to as Amazon Prime Photos) is a competitor that has been around for a while, but people are now starting to pay attention to it now that its primary competitor has effectively counted itself out in the fight to offer the most attractive photo and video storage offer for people.

If you are weighing up Google Photos vs. Amazon Photos, this article is for you, as we examine which one is the best deal, plus the best of the rest of the competition if you’re not satisfied with either Google Photos or Amazon Photos.

To help work out what is the best free cloud storage and photo backup service, we enlisted the help of 5 users to make up their mind as to who wins the Google Photos vs. Amazon Photos fight. These users weren’t paid or incentivised for their reviews and were not informed that we were affiliated with one of the services.

The users scored based on:

  1. Ease of use – what is the best free cloud storage app to use intuitively and without instruction?
  2. Functionality – is it just a storage service or is it a lot more fully fledged?
  3. Value for Money – is there a free or trial version of the best free cloud storage app?
  4. Cross-platform support – can you easily see photos across devices?

Google Photos vs. Amazon Photos comparison

Google Photos vs. Amazon Photos is a debate many are now having

Google Photos

Average score: 7.3

Price: Only 15GB free Google Drive space available

Google Photos vs. Amazon Photos is not a discussion many had before Google Photos announced it was removing its free unlimited upload tier from June 2021. It remains a product with a very clean, intuitive UI, however with monthly fees increasing the more you add photos, it is a difficult recommendation to make now.

Pros

  • AI-powered features such as object search done well
  • Uploading is simple

Cons

  • Pricing is surprisingly expensive
  • The more you upload, the more you pay

“I have used Google Photos for five years, but I’ll now be changing to avoid their fees”

Janie P.
Amazon Photos vs. Google storage photos

Amazon Photos

Average score: 7.8

Price: Free photo storage for Prime members (videos not included)

Amazon Prime’s photo offering on the surface looks rather enticing, but dig a little deeper and you may find that it isn’t the right option for you. Although it offers unlimited photo storage, this is not the case for videos (the limit for those is just 5GB) and crucially you must be a Prime member. If you decide you want to stop your Prime membership though, watch out, as Amazon reserves the right to delete your memories without warning.

Pros

  • Popular Google Photos features like image search done very well
  • For Prime members, photos are free
  • Although there are a lot of strings attached, in the pricing war of Google Photos vs. Amazon Photos, Amazon wins

Cons

  • Not a good deal for non-Prime members
  • Product gets less updates than Google Photos and so feels more dated
  • Amazon reserves the right to delete your photos if you cancel your membership

“Even as a Prime member, I’m unconvinced about Amazon Photos”

Jake P.
Phostow is rated as the best free cloud storage service

The best of the rest: Phostow

Average score: 9.4

Price: Free

If you’re anything like us, the Google Photos vs. Amazon Photos comparison leaves an awful lot of room for a good third party option to provide something better (and crucially, more free). Phostow topped the rankings for the best alternative photo and video storage services thanks to its beautiful UI and unique approach to being able to remain entirely free. It does this by storing your photos on whichever device you have with free space, without you needing to lift a finger.

Pros

  • Very easy to set-up
  • Unique approach to storage means that it will always be totally free
  • Popular Google Photos features like image search done very well
  • Able to access photos remotely on all devices just like Google Photos

Cons

  • Currently waitlist-only
  • Requires you to add two devices to make it work effectively

“Phostow is the app that I’m going to keep using. Its features + price are unparalleled”

Emily S.

Which is better Google Photos or Amazon Photos?

After summing it up, the Google Photos vs. Amazon Photos fight is a fierce one, however Amazon Photos provides the better overall package thanks to its free unlimited photo storage for Prime members. With Google Photos, you’d need to pay Google’s hefty Google Drive unlimited storage price. So if you are looking for free unlimited photo and video storage without any strings attached, you’ll need to look for an alternative.

Can Amazon Photos access Google Photos?

No, Amazon Photos cannot access photos on Google Photos. Both do however offer bulk export options.

What happens to Amazon photos if I cancel Prime?

If you decide you want to stop your Prime membership though, watch out, as Amazon reserves the right to delete your memories without warning.

Is Google’s Google Drive unlimited storage price worth it?

With only 15GB of free storage shared across all your Google services, you’ll need to pay an increasinly large monthly fee for every file and photo you add to Google Drive. So for most users, we can’t recommend to pay Google’s hefty Google Drive unlimited storage price.

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