Google Photos

Google Photos is ideal for iPhone users who don’t want their photo library locked too tightly inside one ecosystem, and it’s perfect if you don’t want to pay for more iCloud storage.

If you use Windows PCs, Android devices, Chromebooks, or the web regularly, Google Photos gives you a much more flexible way to keep your pictures available everywhere. That matters a lot if your digital life is mixed and you don’t want to have all your photos on one platform.

Because Google offers up to 15 GB of cloud storage for free, Google Photos is also a perfect alternative for those of us who don’t want to fill up our iCloud storage space with all our photos. Granted, 15 GB might not sound like much, but it’s better than the 5 GB Apple offers for free. Plus, it’s significantly more affordable to upgrade your Google One storage than it is to scale up your iCloud plan once you hit that 5 GB ceiling, as Google offers discounted annual plans and even some attractive deals for new users.

It also helps that Google Photos continues to offer practical extras that make it more than just a backup app. AI-powered editing tools, automatic backup, search, and space-saving tools all make the app more useful. 

If your iPhone storage fills up too quickly or you simply want a second photo system that works well outside Apple devices, Google Photos is still one of the best alternatives.