Should I use iCloud Photos or Google Photos?

The two services have converged a great deal, so the old arguments — free unlimited storage on one, tight system integration on the other — are mostly out of date. What is left is a smaller set of differences that genuinely matter depending on the household.

Step by step

1. Start from what devices are in the house.iCloud Photos is a first-class citizen on iPhone, iPad and Mac, and a distinctly second-class one on Windows and Android. Google Photos is a proper app on every platform including iPhone. A mixed-device household is the strongest single argument for Google.
2. Compare how the library is organised.Google's search and automatic grouping is genuinely better at finding a photograph you cannot date — searching by object, place or person tends to just work. Apple's has improved considerably but is still generally behind. If you have tens of thousands of images and no album discipline, this matters more than anything else.
3. Compare the storage economics honestly.Both charge for tiers above a small free allowance, and both bundle that allowance with other things — Apple with device backups and mail, Google with mail and drive files. Work out what the account already stores before comparing headline prices, because whichever you pick, the photo library will not be the only occupant.
4. Check how easily you can get out.This is the underrated criterion. Google Takeout produces a complete archive with metadata. Apple provides a data-and-privacy download and a direct transfer. Both are usable; test whichever you choose once, early, so you know it works before you depend on it.
5. Consider what else the account controls.Your photo library ends up living wherever your main account lives, which then holds your backups, your purchases and often your email. Concentrating everything in one account is convenient and makes account loss catastrophic. That is an argument for keeping the photo archive somewhere separate regardless of which you pick.
6. Whichever you choose, add the export.The choice is between two mirrors. It does not change the requirement for one copy on a drive you control.

Alternatives

• Both, with one as the live library: Run one as the main synced library and let the other back up as a second copy. It costs two subscriptions and it does give a genuine independent copy under a separate login — but only if the second one is not also mirroring deletions from the first.
• Neither — a computer library and a drive: Import to a computer, keep the library there, back the computer up. No subscription, full control, and it fails entirely if the routine slips. Suits households that already back up a computer.
• A third-party photo service: Several offer photo-focused storage with their own apps. Judge them on how easily you can export everything, and on whether they will still exist in ten years — the second question is the harder one.

Questions people ask