The 5 Best Cloud Storage Apps, According To Consumer Reports

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As we spend our daily lives with capable cameras built right into our smartphones, we are capturing more photos than ever. Some of these photos are shared on social media, whereas others simply reside on our phones. However, most gadgets, including smartphones, aren't impervious to failure caused by physical damage, software issues, or hardware troubles. This makes storing your precious clicks only on your phone a risky endeavor, as you could lose your photos in the blink of an eye. The same goes when you are clicking photos using a mirrorless or a DSLR camera.

This is where cloud storage services come into play. These services allow you to store your photos seamlessly in the cloud, where they are secure and at a significantly lower risk of getting lost. Cloud storage services are also relatively easy to use, have mobile apps with built-in automatic backup options, and typically offer limited or unlimited storage for free. But which cloud storage apps are most suitable? Consumer Reports, which is known for offering trusted and unbiased information about products and services, has shared its recommendations for the best cloud storage services after evaluating some of the most popular options for regular folks. Here are the top five picks.

If you're an Amazon Prime member, one of the hidden Amazon Prime perks is unlimited photo storage at full resolution. This is excellent if you simply want to store all your photos in the cloud, without worrying about paying for storage upgrades, and don't need too many fancy features. Amazon Photos has official apps for Android, iOS, and desktop, giving you a seamless way to automatically upload your photos wherever they are stored. Besides photos, you can also store videos, but you only get 5 GB of storage for that. Moreover, if you're not a Prime member, you'll get 5 GB of total storage for both photos and videos.

Amazon Photos also has a partnership with Shutterfly, allowing you to receive a 45% discount on your regular-priced Shutterfly orders and free shipping on orders worth $35 or more. This gives you access to seamless prints for any of your stored photos. Amazon Photos is available in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Japan. CR highlights the machine-learning-assisted search feature of Amazon Photos, which lets you use even simple search terms, such as tree, sun, and door, to get photos featuring these subjects. The only con to Amazon Photos is that it's most useful when you have a Prime membership, which can cost $139 annually or $15 per month.

According to Consumer Reports, Google Photos is another excellent cloud storage solution for your photos. Although it was known to offer unlimited storage for photos at a slightly lower resolution until 2021, any photos now stored in it are counted toward your 15 GB of free Google account storage – regardless of the resolution. The 15 GB storage is also shared with Gmail and Google Drive, so the storage you get for your photos will depend on how much data is stored in other Google services. That said, Google offers relatively affordable storage upgrades that can be purchased to boost your storage quota.

Besides the ability to store your photos, Google Photos packs several helpful features, including Gemini AI integration for conversational search, face grouping, and more. You also get advanced editing support, including features like Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur, a locked folder to keep certain photos out of the main library, and organization abilities to sort your library seamlessly. Google Photos is available for both Android and iOS, and allows for automatic uploading of your photos. You can also access it via a web browser.

If you are a Windows user, CR suggests considering Microsoft OneDrive, which is often considered an excellent alternative to Google Photos. While it lacks various AI-assisted features present in the Google Photos app, it works seamlessly as part of Windows and has proper apps for Android and iOS to automatically upload your phone's photo libraries. If you already pay for Microsoft 365 Personal or are part of the 365 Family plan, you get access to 1TB of storage space that you can use to store photos and videos, among other files and folders.

If you don't pay for Microsoft Office, you will get 5 GB of free storage space, with paid options, including a $2 per month plan that includes 100GB of cloud storage, to upgrade the available storage. In terms of photo-related features, OneDrive supports automatic tagging, sharing, basic editing, and photo search. Besides Windows, OneDrive works seamlessly on Samsung phones, and your photo library is backed up to OneDrive without needing a separate app, something you need on other phones.

Shutterfly is another app that's a part of CR's best cloud storage apps for photos recommendations. Although it's primarily known for its photo-printing services, it offers free, unlimited photo storage to its active customers. If you're someone who occasionally uses Shutterfly to order prints or other items, this can be a good solution to keep a backup of your photos. You only need to make an order of any value every 18 months to be called an active customer of Shutterfly. The service will also remind you when you are nearing the 18-month timeline without having placed an order.

There are official Shutterfly apps for both Android and iOS that come with built-in auto-upload support for your photo libraries. However, its app isn't the most seamless to use compared to other CR recommendations, as it's geared more towards selling your stuff. You also don't get advanced features or an AI-assisted search function.

According to Consumer Reports, iCloud Photos is a super convenient way to store photos and videos for Apple users. Rather than functioning as a separate app, it's integrated into all of Apple's operating systems and works with the Photos app directly. Although you only get 5 GB of storage in the free plan, you can upgrade by opting for an iCloud or Apple One subscription, which will allow you to keep all your photos in iCloud without worrying about a constant "storage full" prompt. However, it's important to remember that iCloud Photos works on a single-copy philosophy. Basically, all your iCloud-stored photos have only one version, unlike Google Photos and other cloud storage apps that essentially make a copy of your locally-stored photo. So, it's a good idea to clone your photo library from your Apple devices to another service for safekeeping. This is because anything deleted from iCloud disappears from all your linked devices.

That said, it has a few helpful features, such as a shared photo library, which enables you to create a separate photo library to which up to five of your family members or friends can contribute. You can also use iCloud Photos to get the most out of your iPhone storage by using the "Optimize Storage" feature, which strips your local photos and videos to their space-saving versions, and all the full-resolution photos and videos are kept in iCloud. Unfortunately, iCloud Photos is not a good option for Android users, as there is no native iCloud app for Android, which makes it pretty cumbersome if you want to back up photos and videos to your iCloud account.

While choosing the best cloud storage apps, we referred to the "best cloud storage services for photos" guide from Consumer Reports. We filtered the recommendations to services that are currently functional and can be used by anyone. We also refined the apps list to focus on cloud storage services that offer modern features, have easy-to-use features, and offer at least 5 GB of cloud storage as part of their free plan.