In the age of smartphones and digital cameras, it is not hard to get lost in the experience of capturing every moment of our adventures, no matter how simple it is. Thus, it is relatively easy for any gadgets to quickly be filled with images and videos. We have become trigger-happy snappers. Something as simple as a good and appetizing meal served before us can trigger our happiness and our desire to take a picture and quickly share it with all our friends, family, and followers. We even try to get the best angle possible to look good when we post it online. This is what we will be talking about today: image hosting and all the photo hosting sites you can use for free.
What is Image Hosting?
Image hosting refers to our sharing images for free on any single platform. When an image host is being talked about, this refers to the platform in which your photos are posted. In simple terms, your images are “hosted” on any of these free image hosting sites as soon as you upload them. Upon doing so, your image hosting sites will allow other platform users to access, download, and share (depending on the settings you set) what you personally posted. Besides the t social media platforms, there are many image hosting sites that cater to the needs of those who want to really focus on the photography side of things. These sites are often dedicated to both amateur and professional (and sometimes brave beginners). Here, they are given the avenue to upload their work on a website that will maintain the high quality of their photos. They can gain more followers this way and even earn some clients. Some of these photo hosting sites even help them make serious money from their uploads and content.
An advanced feature called Content Distribution Network (CDN) is used by these image hosting sites. With this feature, the loading time of the pictures uploaded is sped up so site visitors can easily see the uploaded content. It also provides additional bandwidth so that the images are properly and quickly uploaded and distributed online without sacrificing the site’s performance. The heavy amount of images and media content being “hosted” and moved without this advanced feature might compromise the website holistically.
Image Hosting Sites
Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website
The primary target users of image hosting sites are professional photographers and their respective professional websites. If you are one of those people, then you have come to the right place. You may (or not) already know this; let us tell you again that your professional websites might not be all that professional if you do not have reliable backup and storage services for your images and files. You worked hard on each of the images and files that you produced. You allotted time and energy and captured irreplaceable memories and moments. You wouldn’t want to risk losing all those because of a broken laptop or a hard drive crash. Thus, an image hosting site is genuinely a good way to go.
On the other hand, if you are just starting out or an amateur photographer who is only taking photos as a hobby, using a free image hosting site won’t really hurt. Besides helping you easily share your work with your family, friends, a few clients, and other acquaintances, free image hosting means having another safe place to store all that you worked on as well. It can also save up memory for your phones and computer since you can delete some of the files you have uploaded online.
Best Free Image Hosting Sites
To jumpstart your journey of free image hosting, here are four of the best photo hosting sites that you don’t even have to pay for.
1. Google Photos
Google has introduced different platforms to help us in various tasks and activities that we have to accomplish. One of these platforms is Google Photos. This is one of the most used and most popular free image hosting sites. It accommodates aspiring photographers and ordinary people alike. It is one of the best free image hosting sites because it offers up to 15GB of free storage (shared with Google Drive and Gmail). This image hosting site is reliable also because you can easily and automatically sync or share your photos and files with other Google accounts. You can also easily search the file name and retrieve the file you need at any moment in time. It also allows you to efficiently use these images to create slide presentations, collages, and animations. Another advantage of this free image hosting site is that you can easily group your photos according to the date you added them, the location you tagged your photos to, and the people you tagged or shared it with. The image hosting site is also intuitive as it learns about and adapts to how you work with and sort of your files. So using it more frequently actually helps them help you more.
2. Strikingly
Whether you are building an online store, starting your own blog, or showcasing your work, Strikingly has all the useful tools you will need to achieve whatever you want to achieve. With hundreds of different templates that you can use to bring your ideas to life, Strikingly lets you create the best free image hosting site for all your photos. At no cost, you can easily get a portfolio of your own captured and edited images. Whether that will just be part of your website or make up your whole website, Strikingly has your back. Numerous customization options are laid down for you to choose from. You can create your own brand and build your own online space. Whether that means showcasing your products or exhibiting images you shot for your portfolio, using Strikingly as your image hosting site will help you strengthen your website presence. It will help you stand out from the crowd. By maximizing the free image hosting site and all the other Strikingly features, you can effectively make a professional and compelling website that will attract customers and clients.
Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website
3. Flickr
Flickr is known for connecting people, particularly photographers like you. While there are numerous other social media platforms that you can use, Flickr can be used more to socialize because it actually gives home to a network of photographers. This is one of the free image hosting sites existing even before all of the other popular ones today. It is thus home to billions of images, and different communities have found a platform to share and interact with each other. It is one of the simplest but best free image hosting sites because there are relatively few opportunities for you to connect with a community of photographers, especially if you are just starting out. You can learn a lot from these people who freely share their online portfolio to this free image hosting site. Also, if you are not yet in that space of self-confidence to make your amazing work public and available to the whole world, Flickr allows you to only share with an intimate group of people. You can even set it up in a way that only you will see and have access to it.
4. Imgur
Imgur is a bit unique from those mentioned above best free image hosting sites. Because this image hosting site is more commonly used for photos and GIFs. If you are one of the people who not just enjoy reading and seeing funny memes, GIFS, and/or other similar content but also making them yourselves, then Imgur is one of the best free image hosting sites you can use to share your work with the world. In today’s age and the current circumstances brought upon by COVID19, people spend more time browsing through the internet than actually meeting in person. Thus, many people have expressed their openness to their newfound friends or acquaintances by sharing photos. You might never have considered publishing your personal photos or personal snapshots or your handmade memes and GIFS before, but the digital age can be very encouraging in doing so. And with photo hosting sites like Imgur, you can easily share your photos, write up witty captions, and store your memories safely all at the same time.
Strikingly As The Best Free Image Hosting Site
Strikingly offers you many other features, but let’s focus on how you can add images and utilize Strikingly as a free image hosting site. Upon opening your site editor and adding a gallery section, you can change how your images would be displayed on your website. You can choose whether they would have visible descriptions or titles or not. Just click the “Layout” at the right top side of your gallery section and choose from six different layouts.
In addition to this, you can also manage your gallery by hovering over the section and clicking on it. This would open another menu, as seen below. Here, you can upload additional images (or videos) that you would like to be displayed on your website. You can also add a title, a description, and link to the images you have.
If you choose the layout that would display titles and descriptions, this is how your gallery will look like.
Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website
Image hosting sites can really make a difference in your life as a photographer or someone who has a passion for taking and editing photos. And with all the best free image hosting sites, you have much to explore and enjoy. Let Strikingly be your top choice with its all cool features backing up image hosting. Sign up with Strikingly now and create a website with the best free image hosting feature there is!
