However, Flickr remains a rare social network that isn’t the property of a giant tech firm, while its Creative Commons licensing support and its community developed in topic-specific groups (for instance, “Greater and Lesser Washington” and “EAT Signs”) continue to go unmatched at its larger rivals.ĭisclosure: I’m a Flickr user Flickr user and have paid for Pro membership since 2011.Fort Nelson, near Portsmouth, is home to the Royal Armouries’ national collection of artillery and historic cannon. Last June, Google Photos ended free unlimited storage, leaving users with a 15GB cap across their entire Google account.įacebook-owned Instagram (which bans NSFW content) has drawn criticism for an algorithmic feed that can encourage overuse and inflict body-image anxiety on teenage girls, plus product changes that seem driven by its corporate parent’s desire to crush rival social networks–for instance, the August 2020 addition of TikTok-esque Reels video clips.įlickr may seem like a photo-sharing fossil next to those two services and ranks far below them in app downloads.

Other photo-sharing services have experienced their own issues lately. At the end of 2019, CEO Don MacAskill implored free users to sign up for Pro to keep the service going.

Privately-held, Mountain View, Calif.-based SmugMug bought Flickr from Yahoo in April 2018 for an undisclosed price, ending years of erratic stewardship that veered from neglect of the property Yahoo had bought in 2005 to an ultimately unsustainable offer in 2013 of 1 terabyte of free storage. Under SmugMug, Flickr has dropped the 1TB freebie and raised Pro rates from $50/year. Seville explained that these changes would let the service “preserve and encourage the inspiring public photos free members contribute to Flickr, while also freeing up resources to focus on making our Pro communities stronger than ever.”īoth changes deepen SmugMug’s emphasis on Pro memberships, which run $8.25 a month, $71.99 a year, or $132.99 for two years for unlimited storage and ad-free usage.

Flickr cost