For a while now, Photobucket has been the go-to site for storing and presenting images on the internet. It was fast, dependable, provided hotlinks, and it was totally free to use. But, Photobucket stopped offering free image hosting services in 2017 and requested users to pay $399 to continue using the service. Now you can get 2500 images or 25GB of storage for $5.99 a month. Users are not satisfied with the abrupt changeover to their paying service and shift to a subscription pricing model, and also, Photobucket pressured its users to either pay or have their embedded photos replaced with ads. Users had no choice but to look for an alternative. If you’re one of those users, we’ve compiled a list of the best Photobucket alternatives that are totally free.
List of 8 Best Free Photobucket Alternatives
① Imgur
In general, Imgur is an awesome image hosting site aside from being a good replacement for Photobucket. Imgur is highly recommended if you want to host photos and GIFs for free.
You can post images both privately and publicly using the app, which is totally free. The best thing is that there are no limitations on image quality or image quantity. You have the option of uploading as many images as you want.
Also, you don’t need to create an account to use Imgur. You will have access to all of Photobucket’s tools such as embedding, captioning, simple editing, and much more. You can get hotlinks and insert the picture on any website, journal, or forum in a matter of seconds. So, go ahead and substitute Imgur for Photobucket without hesitation. Image sharing is now made free and open to all, thanks to services like Imgur.
② Postimage
Postimage is another reliable website like Photobucket. Users like it because of its no-frills website. It’s almost the same as Photobucket and also lets you upload unlimited images on the website.
The service is totally free, and there is no need to register on the website to upload photos. Simply upload the image and the hotlinks will appear for you to embed in your forum, blog, or anywhere else you want.
Postimage also has a separate extension that allows you to upload images from your computer and instantly generates shareable URLs.
Overall, I highly suggest Postimage as a free and dependable image hosting service. It’s almost on par with Imgur.
③ Flickr
Another excellent site similar to Photobucket is Flickr. Here, you are allowed to upload up to 1000 images for free. The “img” tag can also be used to post images and embed them in forums and websites.
Though Flickr is mostly for personal use, the free plan can be used to share photos in both public and private forums. But, keep in mind that Flickr only offers a small amount of bandwidth to images that are publicly hosted. If you insert the same image in many places and it becomes popular, you can reach the limit and the image will become unavailable. Keep this in mind if you are going to use the free plan.
④ SmugMug
SmugMug is a great place to store your images online. For an affordable price, you can upload not only images but also videos to the service. All of your uploads are stored in full resolution and accessible from any device with an internet connection. Smugmug takes pride in being a place where your images are not only kept but also preserved.
Smugmug’s Android and iOS apps have a fantastic mobile experience, which I appreciate. This is one of the best paying services available if you can afford it.
⑤ imgbox
imgbox is one of the best image hosting sites available and a worthy Photobucket alternative. It is fully free and does not impose any limitations on the number of files or image size. You’re not required to register on the website in order to upload photos.
You can automatically receive the hotlinks, which you can use on your websites, and pretty much everywhere else. However, imgbox does not allow any editing or captioning, all you have to do is upload a picture and post it easily, which I assume is what everyone wants.
imgbox is a fantastic website for hosting and sharing photos, and a free alternative to Photobucket.
⑥ Free Image Hosting
Free Image Hosting is a free website that allows you to upload images without any limitations. Using the hotlinks, you can further embed the photos on blogs and forums.
If you want to share images easily and without having to register, Free Image Hosting also provides direct links. Its service is fantastic, but its image size is restricted, as you can’t upload anything larger than 3 MB.
It uses ad banners to provide free image hosting. In any case, if you’re looking for a quick Photobucket replacement, Free Image Hosting will suffice. So take a look at this free image hosting site and see if you can make it work.
⑦ 500px
500px has proven to be a viable Photobucket alternative. It can be used as an image hosting site as well as a forum for photographers and graphic designers to showcase their work.
Bear in mind, 500px only allows you to upload seven images a week for free. In general, you can’t use it as openly as Imgur, but it’s a great forum for hosting images. There are no restrictions on where you can post and insert files, and hotlinking is not limited. You can also use advanced tools to edit your photos and post them directly on the website. Overall, 500px is a fantastic platform for uploading photos and a good alternative to Photobucket.
⑧ Google Photos
Let me introduce you to Google Photos if you were previously using Photobucket to store your private photos in the cloud. It’s a much better choice for personal photos and videos than any other cloud storage service. However, you have to pay for storage above the 15 gigabytes Google gives everyone for free. Google Photos decreases the resolution to minimize the overall size, but the difference in quality is insignificant.
Additionally, albums make it simple to share images both privately and publicly. However, since the service is just for personal use, you won’t be able to insert images in forums using Google Photos URLs.
Nonetheless, Google Photos is a fantastic Photobucket substitute, and you should seriously consider migrating all of your photos and videos to it.
