Google Photos alternative
Google Photos is where your pictures live. Link in Seconds is for the moment you hand a set of them to someone else, including people who never use Google. Here is an honest comparison of the two.
Drop your file here
Drop several at once and they become one album link
Files up to 100 MB free
Free: 20 links, up to 100 MB · Pro: unlimited links, bigger uploads
Drag in your event photos
From your desktop or phone, any file works
proof-set-01.jpg
8.2 MB
Drop to upload
3,100+
links shared
12,000+
views delivered
40+
file types open in the browser
Keep Google Photos as your library and backup: nothing here replaces automatic phone backup, search or face grouping. Use Link in Seconds when you want to send a set of photos, plus the PDF or video that belongs with them, as one link that opens in any browser, keeps the files you uploaded, shows a view count and does not use your Google storage.
Select the set in Google Photos and download it, or save the pictures from your phone's camera roll. Only the ones you pick leave your library; everything else stays exactly where it is.
Drop the files on the upload card in one go and they become one album link, with each photo also getting its own link inside it. iPhone HEIC photos are converted to JPEG in your browser before upload. The free plan covers 3 albums and 100 MB of storage in total; Pro ($9/month) raises that to 15 GB, with up to 500 MB per album.
Paste the link into WhatsApp, email or a text, or download the QR code for a card or a slide. Your dashboard shows how many times it has been opened.
Google Photos is a library. It backs up your phone automatically, lets you search your pictures by what is in them, groups faces, edits, and resurfaces old memories. Every Google Account also comes with 15 GB of storage shared across Gmail, Drive and Photos. Link in Seconds does none of that library work: there is no phone backup, no search, no face grouping. It is a sharing tool, and it is not trying to be where your photos live.
Google Photos can share an album by link, and according to Google's own help pages anyone with that link can view the album, and while link sharing is on they can also add photos to it unless the owner switches off the Collaborate setting. That is handy between friends who all want to contribute, and awkward when you are sending a curated set to a client, a landlord or a school. A Link in Seconds album is read-only for visitors: they can open, scroll and download, but nothing they do changes what you sent.
Both let you pull a link back. In Google Photos you turn link sharing off, which also resets the link. Here you disable the link from your dashboard and it stops working at once.
Google Photos is built around photos and videos. Real sharing jobs often come with paperwork attached: a trip itinerary as a PDF, a floor plan, a menu, a price list. On Link in Seconds one album can hold photos, video and PDFs side by side. Photos open full size, PDFs render in a real viewer instead of downloading, and video streams with seeking, so the recipient gets the whole story from a single address.
Google Photos offers two backup qualities. Google's help explains that Storage saver keeps photos and videos at slightly reduced quality: photos above 16 MP are resized to 16 MP and video above 1080p is reduced to 1080p, and it still counts toward your storage. If you backed up that way, what you share is the reduced copy. Link in Seconds serves the file you uploaded. The only change we make is converting iPhone HEIC photos to JPEG in your browser so every device can open them.
Every link here, album or single file, comes with a view counter and a downloadable QR code. Pro adds device and country breakdowns, a notification when someone opens the link, a password, an expiry date and a view limit; turning downloads off works on any plan. That makes it useful for photos you send for a reason, like listing photos to an agent or a set of proofs to a client, where knowing it landed matters.
Most people should use both. Keep Google Photos for backup, search and the albums you build with other Google users. Reach for Link in Seconds when the recipient is outside your Google circle, when the set includes PDFs or video, when you want the original files to arrive untouched, or when you want to know the link was opened. A link is just a URL, so there is nothing to migrate and nothing to lock you in.
| Feature | Link in Seconds | Google Photos |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic phone backup | Link in Seconds, Automatic phone backup: no | Google Photos, Automatic phone backup: yes |
| Search, face grouping, editing | Link in Seconds, Search, face grouping, editing: no | Google Photos, Search, face grouping, editing: yes |
| Anyone with the link can view | Link in Seconds, Anyone with the link can view: yes | Google Photos, Anyone with the link can view: yes |
| Link visitors can add photos | No, read-only | Yes, unless the owner turns Collaborate off |
| Turn a shared link off | Link in Seconds, Turn a shared link off: yes | Google Photos, Turn a shared link off: yes |
| PDFs in the same album as photos | Yes, with a PDF viewer | Photos and videos |
| Quality of what is shared | The file you uploaded | Original, or reduced with Storage saver |
| Storage included | 100 MB / 15 GB Pro | 15 GB, shared with Gmail and Drive |
Google Photos details taken from Google Photos Help (support.google.com) as of September 2026; features and storage terms change, so check Google's site for current terms.
Still stuck? Ask us directly — a real person answers.
No. It has no phone backup, no search and no face grouping. It is for sending a chosen set of photos (and any PDFs or video that go with them) as one link. Keep Google Photos as your library.
20 links · 100 MB total · 3 albums
Unlimited links · 15 GB · 200 MB per file
Unlimited links · 30 GB · pay once, keep it
Everything in Pro, billed once a year
Coming from WeTransfer, DocSend or tiiny.host? See the comparisons →
Sign in free with Google — one tap, no form — and share one clean, trackable link.
