iCloud Photos alternatives for families

When iCloud Photos is the right choice

If every person who matters has an Apple device, iCloud Photos and its Shared Photo Library work well, and they’re built into the phone. There’s no need to change anything.

Where families outgrow it

• Not everyone has an iPhone. iCloud Photos is made for Apple devices; family members on Android or Windows are left with a web page or nothing.
• The storage is shared with everything else. iCloud storage also holds phone backups, messages and files, so photos compete for the same space.
• It’s one person’s account. Photos live in whoever took them’s iCloud. Gathering everyone’s photos of the same day takes asking, sending and saving.

What to look for in an alternative

• Works on every phone and computer, with nothing to install for the people you share with.
• One family library that several people add to, not separate accounts.
• Full-quality originals you can always download.
• People, places and dates found for you, so nobody has to sort.
• Private: no ads, and your photos not used to train AI.

How Mantel does it

Mantel runs in the browser on any phone or computer, and can sit on the home screen like an app. One library holds the whole family’s photos and videos at full quality; it finds the people and places in them; and it’s shared only with the people you invite, or one album at a time with a link that works without an account. Free with 5 GB; 1 TB for up to 5 people is $9.99 a month (pricing).

Moving your photos out of iCloud

1. On a computer, go to privacy.apple.com and request a copy of your data, choosing iCloud Photos, or download them from iCloud.com in batches.
2. Create a free Mantel library and add the folders: Mantel reads the dates and places in the photos, and finds the people, as they arrive.
3. Invite the family, so everyone’s photos land in the same place from now on.