1. Imgur
Let’s start with the biggest of them all – Imgur. It has been around since 2009, and at present it has more than 150 million monthly active users. You can upload images to be seen by the whole world, but you also can set a lot of privacy settings to make your images private. You can upload from your mobile or desktop, as well as via email. You can host unlimited number of images, but there is a per-hour upload limit of fifty images per IP address.
2. Flickr
Flickr isn’t solely an image hosting service but you can use it for this as well. If you already have a Flickr account and are not quite enthusiastic about opening yet another new account with another site, you could upload your images to Flickr and use it as an image host. Its free plan comes with lots of ads and limited functionality, but for basic image storing needs, this is more than fine.
3. 500px
500px is another big image hosting site and is more suitable for photographers than for ordinary users. 500px is a good option if you want your photos to be seen by other photo professionals. It is not so good if you are looking for just a place to store your holiday photos or other personal stuff to share with your friends. You can even make money with your photos. The site offers a (very limited) free plan, though most of its plans aren’t free.
4. Google Photos
If you use Google’s services and are happy with a basic image hosting solution, Google Photos could be your first (and last) stop. It doesn’t offer the rich functionality of a dedicated image hosting site, but if you are looking for a place to put your photos to share with your friends, Google Photos will do.
5. Instagram
Again, this service isn’t exactly an image hosting service but more of a pic and video sharing one. It is owned by Facebook and targets mobile users. However, it’s easy to share your Instagram photos on Facebook and the other social networks. In my opinion Instagram is too crowded and doesn’t offer as much as true image hosting services, but for millions of people it’s the preferred place to store images online.
6. TinyPic
I am not a huge fan of TinyPic, but that doesn’t mean it is not good. In fact, it’s a popular site and a lot of people love it. You can upload images and videos for free, but their ads are really pesky. (This is the main reason I don’t like it.) It’s a PhotoBucket company but doesn’t offer as much. If you are looking for more features, you can try the free PhotoBucket plans.
7. OneDrive
OneDrive is another image storage service for you to try. Most of its plans are paid plans, but it also has a free one to meet basic image storage needs. It’s a Microsoft service, so you can expect that it’s here to stay and not go belly up in months, along with all your photos.
8. imgbb
While some of the services on the list offer many things and image hosting and sharing is just one of their functionalities, imgbb is solely an image hosting service. It has a 16MB limit and works with JPG, PNG, BMP, and GIF only. It’s fast and has a drag-and-drop functionality.
9. imgbox
imgbox is another service created specifically for image upload and sharing. It’s very similar to imgbb and other similar services. You can upload JPG, GIF and PNG images of 10MB each. It’s a fairly popular and easy-to-use service.
10. Supload
With hundreds of image hosting and sharing services, you need something more to attract and keep customers. For instance, Supload comes with an interesting concept – Bitcoin profit sharing. It’s not the only service to offer profit sharing, but this certainly isn’t the norm. Instead, you upload your images for free, the site makes money from them and you get nothing. Aside from profit sharing, Supload offers all the standard features to upload and share your images, nothing fancy here.
Conclusion
It’s hard to list ten free image hosting services only because there are so many of them. Honestly, I am not a huge fan of some of the bigger ones, but for many people they are the best. If you don’t like the services on the list, there are dozens more to choose from. You might have to test a bunch before you pick the ones you like most, and occasionally a good service will disappear, leading you to have to search for a replacement, but generally it’s not that hard to find a good free image hosting service to use for years ahead.
