Here’s the Deal

Google Photos vs Shutterfly

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When comparing Google Photos vs Shutterfly, the Slant community recommends Google Photos for most people. In the question“What is the best cross-platform photo backup and viewer service?” Google Photos is ranked 1st while Shutterfly is ranked 10th. The most important reason people chose Google Photos is:

Any images taken with your phone can automatically be backed up to Google Photos. And the first time you run the mobile app it will also help you back up any existing images and videos you might have on your phone.

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Common Questions

What is the best cross-platform photo backup and viewer service?

What are the best cloud photo storage and portfolio services?

Pros

Pro
Can automatically back up phone's photos

Pro
Can search photos

Text in photos, the content of the photo, and so on can be automatically searched. So one doesn't need to categorize to later find photos. Manual categorization is still possible.

Pro
Simple sharing

Any picture or selection of pictures can be sent to anyone, even if they don't have a Google account. Photos will also give you a list of recommended photos to share.

Pro
Free unlimited storage

Google Photos comes with free storage for images up to 16Mp and videos up to 1080p which means that most users need no longer worry about storage space.

Pro
Can manually classify photos

Can create albums from photos or even manage the whole folders tree manually via Drive.

Pro
Non-destructive built-in photo editor

Any photos that you edited can be undone to original copy.

Pro
Smart shared libraries

Google Photos allows inviting other users to shared libraries. It has a feature that allows auto-adding all photos and videos or only of specific people to the shared library which is really useful for sharing with families or a close group of friends. It also allows the invitee to save those photos straight to their device automatically as if they took it.

Pro
Send images and videos to Gmail and YouTube

If you linked your Google drive with google photos, then you can easily attach any of your Google Photos in an email message.

Pro
Uses AI to create fun content

Google's AI automatically generates fun animations, collages, styled photos and stories every now and then which can be shared saved and shared to your device very easily.

Pro
iOS app is easy and fun to use

The app is easy to use and has amusing features like reminders, where it pops up photos from many years ago.

Pro
Used by a lot of sports teams for free photo gathering

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Cons

Con
Might be removed anytime

Google has a tendency to quickly shut down or abandon services that don't perform well. Google Photos might run the risk of being discontinued if the user base of the app doesn't meet certain criteria.

Con
Taking ownership of your backups is laborious

Major issue with this is getting access to your backups. Gotta wait for massive downloads. With OneDrive they are just files which you can move around.

Con
The website has performance issues

The site tends to lag and file uploads can sometimes fail.

Con
The web version lacks certain features available on mobile apps

Con
Doesn't backup in the background

For iOS devices.

Con
Not a lot of free storage space for high-res content

While there's a free unlimited storage plan, it's limited to 16 megapixel images and 1080p videos. Uploading full-resolution content, if you opt out of free unlimited storage plan, is limited to 15GB that comes with a Google account which is shared across all Google services. Increasing that storage space costs about $10/mo per 1TB of storage.

Con
Files may be compressed if you're using the unlimited storage option

All images exceeding 16MP and videos exceeding 1080p will automatically be compressed to that size or lower. Meaning high-res images and videos won't work with the unlimited storage option.

Con
Hard to download photos

Downloads are limited to single photos, not full albums.

Con
No Lightroom integration

Shutterfly apparently has or had an API for uploading photos, but the only Lightroom plugin to do so is outdated and crashes while trying to upload.

Con
Poor site design

There are multiple "silos" in the site with different user interfaces for the same function, and with different bugs in each. For instance, trying to import from Flickr the support person had me navigate to the Flickr connection UI via Create Photo Book (which actually worked, but didn't give me an easy way for others to draw from my Flickr-hosted photos), because the "Connect to Flickr" function in the main upload screen was broken. Albums in "My Photos" have drastically different capabilities compared to albums in "Shared Sites". This leads to confusion and completely unhelpful support/help documentation.