June 1 has arrived. Just over half a year after Google announced that Google Photos would stop offering unlimited free storage for high-quality photos and video, the company has kept its word. From today, everything we upload to the platform will subtract from the capacity we have in Google Drive, which in most cases will be the 15 GB free that Google offers for free to all users with Gmail accounts.
Google surprised everyone when it announced the unlimited storage of Google Photos for quality captures up to 16 MP, as well as free Full HD video. However, the company itself recognized years later that users upload too much content. Specifically, each week 28,000 million new photos and videos were uploaded, and they had 4 billion photos stored, equivalent to 500 photos and videos per inhabitant.
Google forces us to switch to Google One
At the time, we already calculated the cost of this storage for Google, which we estimate at around 0.06% of its quarterly profits , or about 60 cents a year per user, where the company earns much more with our data for ads, and even many users are sure to end up paying for the higher quality storage service.
The worst of the situation is that Google has offered virtually no alternative. They do not give the option to pay, say, 5 euros a month to be able to continue using the service as before, where they would obtain an income more than 15 euros a quarter compared to the 60 cents of cost of storing content.
Instead, Google forces us to switch to Google One , their subscription service for cloud storage. This service has a cost of 1.99 euros per month (19.99 euros per year) for 100 GB of storage. For 2.99 euros (or 29.99 euros per year) per month we have 200 GB , and if we want 2 TB , we have to pay 9.99 euros per month (99.99 euros per year) . Filling those 2 TB of photos is something that can take years, and even decades, but in exchange for paying an exorbitant price. For 100 euros a year we can buy a 4 TB external hard drive every year to store our data, so it is not profitable.
This brings us to the possible alternatives we have now. If we do not want to pay for Google Photos , but we want to maintain the comfort of the service, we have three alternatives, and all of them require paying.
Alternatives: NAS, Amazon Photos or Backblaze
The first is to create our own cloud with a NAS . Synology launched Synology Photos this year, which works similar to Google Photos, automatically uploading photos, recognizing faces, etc.
In the case of wanting a cheaper NAS (those from Terramaster, for example), or reusing an old computer or even a Raspberry Pi as NAS, we can install open operating systems such as OpenMediaVault , and install, through Docker, the PhotoPrism app, with functionalities very similar to those of Google Photos.
Within the payment of storage services, there are other better alternatives than paying for Google One. One of the clearest and that many users will already be using is Amazon Photos . This service, included free with the Prime subscription, allows unlimited photo storage with the same convenience as the Google service, with AI for element recognition, automatic synchronization, or the possibility of sharing them. If you choose this option, you can migrate your photos from Google to Amazon.
Finally, if what we want is storage directly to the beast without limit, there is the Backblaze option. This cloud storage service costs $ 6 a month, or $ 60 a year, allowing unlimited storage of all types of files in return. The price, of course, is per device, so you will have to find a way to automatically synchronize the files between your mobile and the computer with apps like FolderSync , and since they are synchronized with the cloud from the computer.
In short, there are many alternatives to Google Photos. The world does not end today, but it is a bit sadder to use the Internet since June 1 knowing that we no longer have that convenience of unlimited free storage of photos.
