Picasa v Flickr v iPhoto v anything else?

For the past few years I've been creating photo albums in Picasa for private sharing with family & friends. Now Google have gone to Google+ and lost all my albums in the process. I'm not alone in this. Am thinking of starting again in Flickr but it seems you have to set up a Yahoo account to sign in. I've found Yahoo a bit poor plus it seems open to hacking, so I've never used it except once or twice a while ago. Is there another photo album sharing facility with the functionality of the old Picasa but without the Google+ dross and apparent bugginess that now comes with it - or the Yahoo sign-up of Flickr? Have never tried iPhoto so not sure if that's a direct equivalent.

iPhoto doesn't exactly translate to sharing photos in a web based environment, so that may not be what you are looking for. Granted, you can use iCloud to share photos on the web via events... but I've found that to be less than a straight forward way to do things.

I do have a G+ account, and I guess lucky for me, when the transition happened, all of my photo albums stayed intact and are now part of the G+ ecosystem. I find it easy to use and good enough for basic sharing private albums with family and friends or other G+ members if I want to go that route.

There's also Photobucket, which I have been using for years and years with no issues whatsoever. They even host videos which is really nice. It's a free service, with options to upgrade server space etc.

Now, if you want to go a bit further, there are pay services such as Smugmug or Zenfolio. I currently subscribe to Zenfolio's services and used a discount code which brought my sub price to about $48 I think... Unlimited storage, including video hosting, and you get some really nice options. I'll eventually move up to a better plan, but haven't been shooting professionally for a while so have no need, right now.

I used to use Smugmug, but find their interface a bit too complicated to mess with (if you want professional results) and they also just raised their prices out of nowhere and for very poor reasons, so I jumped ship and went to Zen. I'm happy with the move thus far. Here are the pricing schemes for Zen:

Zenfolio Pricing

And even though it would benefit me to give you a personal discount code, here's a better one for more $ off BAREFOOT-20 (type it just like that) and it's $24 off

Let me know if you have any specific questions about Smug or Zen

Doug

Thankyou, Doug. This very helpful. I had heard mention of Photobucket but you're the first person I've come across who has used it. I don't need a professional level system just a clean, straightforward one for leisure use, so I'll give Photobucket a look. Anyone else tried this one? To be honest I'm thinking of weaning myself off Google where possible eg Vimeo for making videos instead of Youtube. Some corporates just get too big and market dominant for my liking. I'll also look at the other alternatives you mention and come back to you if any Qs. With thanks again for your help - Wyldes

wyldes said:

Thankyou, Doug. This very helpful. I had heard mention of Photobucket but you're the first person I've come across who has used it. I don't need a professional level system just a clean, straightforward one for leisure use, so I'll give Photobucket a look. Anyone else tried this one? To be honest I'm thinking of weaning myself off Google where possible eg Vimeo for making videos instead of Youtube. Some corporates just get too big and market dominant for my liking. I'll also look at the other alternatives you mention and come back to you if any Qs. With thanks again for your help - Wyldes

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I use Photobucket quite a bit. It's fun and interactive. Not as straight forward as Flickr.

Just looked at one or two review sites talking about Photobucket: Photobucket.com - A Review of www.PhotoBucket.com and Photobucket user reviews and ratings - CNET Download.com Not very encouraging, although some comments a go back to 2008/9 so maybe the drawbacks have been put right by now. Don't like the idea of poor security and unexpected pornographic images. Will carry on investigating and keep an open mind on other photosharing sites too. Any other recent experiences wd be useful to hear about

I use and like iPhoto, and it has some websharing features (Facebook and Flickr mostly, but many third-party uploaders can read from the iPhoto library so essentially all photo services are compatible with it).

For a *purely* web-based photo-storage/sharing service, Flickr Pro ($25/year) is hard to beat. SmugMug is pricer but also nice. If you are a pro photographer, you might look at 500px or Zenfolio. For a super-cheap but limited solution, Dropbox is apparently getting into the photo-sharing/gallery business. Just a few more options for you.

Thanks Chas m. Well, lots to decide! Doug b also mentions Zenfolio and Smugmug so those are worth investigating. Hadn't realised Dropbox were getting into photo alums too, so will also look into that. Plus rethink my Yahoo aversion re signing on to Flickr. (I avoid Facebook, I'm afraid, so that's not on my list) Thankyou all for your thoughts!

Flickr was a company before Yahoo bought them, and they appear to have left the Flickr people alone to do their thing.

Thanks, Chas m. Hope others have found this thread useful too