by Every picture tells a story, which makes them memorable and timeless. It can have a dramatic effect on viewers and help them to catch the events in a matter of seconds.
Photos are not only important in our digital age but also a key part of any business’s marketing strategy. Online photo sharing is a popular and effective way to communicate.
You need a large gallery of high-quality images you can access at any time. Image hosting is a great way to upload, share, and store photos.
Let’s get started to learn more about image hosting.
What is online image hosting?
You can upload images to this platform. Once the images have been uploaded, they are “hosted” and can be accessed online. The images are yours to keep. You can organize them in one place, and share them with anyone.
This specialized platform allows you to deliver images to your worldwide audience. You can use advanced features such as the content distribution network (CDN) which speeds up image loading. They also offer large bandwidth for images to be distributed online without having to limit their services like photo-sharing sites do.
The image hosting companies offer a variety of types of IT services making them a perfect fit for professionals.
It’s ideal for photographers, graphic designers, wallpaper artists, artists, and modelers, and gives them a boost in their work.
Image hosting vs. Photo-sharing
Many people are confused about the difference between photo hosting and photo sharing sites.
Are you one of them too?
Let’s see the big picture.
It is easy to share photos. You already have photos on your device. Now you can share them with the world via Instagram, Facebook Flickr, Flickr, Google Photos.
It differs from image sharing in that you can only upload photos to the platform where they were uploaded. You cannot embed photos from one platform onto another platform or on a blog or website. This is a simple way to share images, and not banners, illustrations, or avatars.
Image hosting allows you to upload images to a wider audience and embed them in another website, such as your blog. These services allow you to quickly identify the image’s link via an easy-to recognize button.
What makes it different from traditional hosting?
Traditional hosting services allow you to host your site on one server and one data center. The service you choose will depend on the size of your business, traffic volume, and technical knowledge. The service is limited in terms of resources. This could cause problems when scaling up or down.
Image hosting services allow you to host your images on the cloud. Your images will not be stored on one server. It is instead spread across multiple servers at different locations, and connected via the internet. Hosting with the internet offers more flexibility, reliability, and scalability than traditional hosting.
What is the difference?
Let’s understand.
Why choose a niche image hosting platform?
Image hosting can be a great tool for photographers, bloggers, and hobbyists alike. You never know when your hard drive will crash or fail.
It can cause a massive data loss that is both frustrating and painful. Your entire work or precious memories will disappear in a flash.
Are you willing to take the risk?
If I was you, I wouldn’t.
Reliable hosting could be the best solution for such a situation. You can be sure that your work and memories are safe with the cloud.
Let’s now look at some other benefits to choosing a specialized photo hosting service.
Storage space is saved
You are given a storage space according to your web hosting plan. However, if you use this space more than you need, it makes sense to free up space.
It’s possible to host your images, which is a good news.
It helps you save storage space on your website and your phone or other devices, so you can keep new memories safe while also protecting the old ones.
Robust features with flexibility
If you have too many images on your website, it can cause page loading speeds problems. This not only makes visitors unhappy, but it also lowers your SEO rankings. You can simplify things if you separate image hosting.
Your page loading speed will increase by a significant amount, which promotes a better user experience.
It also offers features like a sharing option, backups and quick uploading. Many hosting services offer statistical analysis of images, such as page loading times, failed loading attempts, views, and more. These features can make your experience even more enjoyable and provide new direction for your management.
Here are the top image hosting websites that will meet your needs.
Imgbb
Imgbb, a minimalistic free image hosting service, is difficult to find. This could be why it is so popular. Drag and drop images onto its homepage. You can continue uploading photos to blogs, websites, forums, and more with just one click.
Uploading files larger than 32 MB is prohibited. This includes all major file formats. You are not limited in the number of images that you can upload or the time they can remain online. You don’t need to register in order to use Imgbb.
It does not support copyrighted photos. Its human editors will examine the photos and verify that they are compliant with regulations. Imgbb is easy to use. You will need to copy the embed code and place it on your website.
The plugin automatically places the upload button in your editor toolbar. It also has features such as image resizing and remote upload.
It is also free!
Photobucket
Photobucket is the trusted image-sharing and hosting platform. It has over 90 million users worldwide. You can upload the same image multiple times to different blogs or websites, online marketplaces or forums.
It’s easy to copy and use the embed link to share images anywhere you like. This will save you time and effort on repetitive tasks. You can rest assured that your entire gallery will be secure. With their smart privacy settings, you can also view and control the photos.
You can, for example, adjust the photos to allow you to share your birthday party photos with just your family members.
While you can take photos at any time and with the same people, you cannot recreate the same emotions and memories. Photobucket lets you keep your original photos in their best quality and doesn’t let you compromise.
You can let your imagination run wild with their intuitive image editor. With the help of filters, annotations and stickers, you can make images look exactly how you want. You can also crop them and upload them quickly. Photobucket gives you a button to share your photos on social media. This makes it easy to upload images from different platforms.
You can choose between paid and free plans. The free plan allows you to store 250 images, while the paid plans allow for 3 types of images.
- $5.99/month for 2,500 photos
- $7.99/month for 25,000 photos
- Unlimited images at $12.99 per month
Imgur
Imgur is currently the king of free image hosting sites. You can find a wide variety of photos, from funny memes to famous GIFs. It is home to a supportive and passionate online community, and it can be the best place to host your photos.
Imgur can work with all photo formats, including JPEG, JPG and APNG. This level of flexibility is difficult to match with many providers. It supports animated files up to 20 MB in size, and GIFs up to 200 MB.
Imgur allows you to add captions to your images and then upload them via email. Imgur allows for the direct linking of images, where each link can embedded in HTML. You don’t have to create an account in order to use Imgur. A username is required if you wish to upload photos or add captions.
Imgur is different than other services in that uploaded images can be upvoted and even downvoted by other account holders. Thus, the site’s top pages will display the most popular photos. Emerging photographers can get exposure this way.
Imgur’s intuitive interface makes it simple to upload and share images to social media. This will make your portfolio more accessible.
These amazing features are all free; isn’t that amazing?
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Img.vision
Img.vision lets you host your videos and images and allow you to embed them on your website, online shop, or anywhere else online. It is a simple platform you can trust for both personal and professional photos.
Drag and drop files to your Mac, Android, iOS or OneDrive. You can use it to open file formats such as PNG, JPG and GIF. They use quality content distribution networks (CDNs), which are spread over 90 countries, including 200 worldwide cities, and invest in high-speed optimizations.
You can embed the HTML5 code to create a video player on your website, and continue uploading videos. Your images are protected and secured with their cloud storage, which is compliant with industry standards. An image gallery is available for eCommerce websites that you can use to highlight your best services and products.
They provide next-generation video marketing services, including storage and encryption. Img.vision lets you share images on 18 social media platforms as well as through email using an integrated sharing button. Responsive images are great for sharing photos to multiple social media platforms.
Img.vision guarantees a 100% uptime of their image CDN. This ensures that you can provide consistent services to your visitors without causing any inconvenience. Pricing starts at $9/month for 5k images or 5 videos, billed annually.
You can choose to go for:
- $25/month for 9k photos, 40 videos
- $50/month for 500 videos and 50k images
Flickr
One of the most well-known and longest-running photo-sharing sites Flickr is your next destination for image hosting. You can publish images under Creative Commons license, which allows you to use images outside of the country with proper recognition.
It has an excellent editor that allows you to edit your images before publishing. You can organize all your uploaded photos into an album so that you won’t have to search for them. Photos can be seamlessly backed up from your computer, Dropbox, Apple iPhoto and other sources.
You can add geolocation tags, license information, and other metadata to your images. Flickr’s base offering includes 1000 images or videos, and smart management tools.
Flickr Pro, the paid version, includes advanced stats, automatic uploads of images, ad-free browsing and many other features in addition to the standard ones. Advanced statistics such as how many people discovered your Flickr images, which photos are most popular, the best-performing images and others, are available.
You can upload unlimited photos in full resolution with the paid plan. You get the following benefits when you purchase their annual subscription:
- SmugMug: 50% off
- 2 months Adobe Creative Cloud for $20
- $35 Discount on Blurb and Phlearn.
- Peak Design and Priime: 20% off
- And, Pixy to Flight Photo Theft
PostImage
PostImage allows you to upload photos from many different file types. Uploading images up to 8 MB is allowed. You don’t have to create an account.
You can create a large gallery with all your favourite photos. Each one will have a unique link that allows you to share them immediately with others. PostImage lets you choose the size of the final image, as well as the expiry date. Images meant to be shared once can have expiry dates such as one month, one weeks, or one day.
PostImage is a popular message board and forum tool because it allows users to easily modify images to share them with others, as well as resize images for use in avatars.
It’s also free to use.
Google Photos
Individuals and businesses love Google Photos. It is one of the most popular hosting services. It is unmatched in performance, simplicity, and usability that almost no one can refuse.
You can store high-quality images up to 16MP in unlimited storage. It also creates automatic backups. Google Photos allows you to easily organize and modify your images. You can choose from JPG, GIF and PNG file types. It can take images up to 75 MB and videos up to 10GB.
It also offers convenience, which is another great feature. All the photos you’ve uploaded to Google Photos can be easily accessed and shared with other Google accounts such as Docs or Gmail.
You can also upload full HD 1080p videos to the platform. You can also display your older videos and photos at top. You can backup your images via Wi-Fi, and sync them from PCs, Macs, or mobile devices.
You can print your images from anywhere, without the need for a memory card or drive. You can integrate with third-party applications and services such as Chatbooks, Fujifilm and Popsa.
ImageShack
You will be familiar with ImageShack if you’ve used Pinterest. It has a similar layout. You will need to create an account before you can upload images. It also has amazing features that are useful for users with different skill sets.
To organize your photos into albums, you can add tags to make it easy to track them. You can access your photos from anywhere with dedicated mobile and web applications such as ImageShack Resize or ShackIt. ImageShack Resize allows you to edit, resize and crop images before they are published.
The platform protects your images in total privacy and automatically syncs them for easy sharing and uploading. You get 10GB maximum storage space per month with a free account. The premium version offers additional benefits such as direct linking, watermarking and unlimited uploading.
You don’t have to worry, you can test the service for free for 30 days before making a decision.
Pasteboard
Do you like minimalist services that are easy to use?
Pasteboard for you!
Three options are available for uploading images to the image hosting provider:
- Drag and drop files directly from the system
- You can copy and paste images from the clipboard or
- Click on an image to open the simple-to-use interface
It allows you to easily store and share images and screenshots online. It supports file formats such as PNG, JPEG and TIFF. You can upload an image directly from your phone to Pasteboard without leaving the site.
After taking a picture with the webcam, you can insert images. Uploads are saved permanently to the webcam without expiry. To give the photos a better context, you can add a description or title to them.
Pasteboard offers advanced analytics that allow you to see how many people have viewed your photos.
Dropbox
Dropbox is a great tool for freelancers and tool businesses alike. It offers a reliable image hosting solution. It offers more than secure storage. It is also smart and seamless, allowing you to optimize your workflow.
You can create and store images, then share them with various tools like Docs, Sheets and Microsoft Office. Drag & Drop allows you to arrange your files in a handy, interconnected icon at the corner of your screen.
Dropbox automatically backs up all images stored without any manipulation, changing, sizing or editing. Dropbox makes it easy to organize sub-galleries or folders. Invite your contacts to work together and let them download the images.
Dropbox has many great perks. Your images are secure and you can share them only with the people you choose. It’s available for Windows, Linux and macOS. Dropbox’s free plan offers storage space up to 3GB. For $19.99/month, 1 user can have 3 TB storage space. The 14-day free trial is also included in the paid plans.
SmugMug
Do you take visuals seriously on your website or blog?
I believe everyone should. SmugMug is one of the best. You can create your website with a variety of themes, and you have the option to customize the templates.
SmugMug allows you to set up an eCommerce store for selling prints from your uploaded photos. Image hosting services offer a responsive design that adapts to mobiles, tablets, and monitors.
Powerful SEO tools, including site maps and meta tags, are available. You can store unlimited high-resolution photos and videos, upload them, manage your viewers and gain access. You can easily build your website and portfolio with HTML and CSS integration, drag-and-drop customization and beautiful templates.
SmugMug does not sell, share, or mine your photos or videos. You can print high quality photos from trusted brands and get a 100 percent guarantee on printing. To simplify your workflow and save time, you can use it with Lightroom or On1 to edit images.
The basic plan costs $7/month, or $55/year (annual bill).
Conclusion
It is a crushing feeling to lose images you cannot capture again. You would never want them to go, whether they are personal or professional images. You can store your images on a high-quality image hosting service, share them with anyone you wish, or upload them to your blog, website, and online store whenever it suits you.
