FamilyAlbum vs Stingle Photos

FamilyAlbum is a private service for sharing family photos and videos, designed to help parents share children’s moments with loved ones. Uploads are arranged automatically into albums by month. Only family members invited by the user can view an album; they can comment, respond to reactions and communicate there, while album owners can check whether relatives viewed photos. The free plan includes unlimited photo and video storage and 11 free prints per family member each month. Users can follow suggested ideas for monthly photobooks or create their own. FamilyAlbum is available on Android, iOS and the web, with no desktop app listed. Paid plans begin at $2.99 a month: Premium One costs $2.99 a month, Premium Family is $5.99 a month or 59 USD per year, and Premium Family Pro is $10.99 a month or 109 USD per year. Premium plans add features such as computer uploads, longer or higher-quality video uploads, bulk downloads, search and TV casting. FamilyAlbum says transfers are encrypted and that it does not sell user data to third parties.

Stingle Photos is a gallery and camera app for backing up and syncing photos and videos across devices using the same account. It backs up files in the background and supports video recording and playback. Files are encrypted locally before they are sent to cloud storage. Stingle names XChaCha20 with Poly1305 for file data, X25519 for public-key cryptography and Argon2 for key derivation; it says sensitive photo and video metadata is encrypted in the file header. Albums can be shared with other Stingle users using encrypted album keys. The product is open source under GPLv3, and listed platforms include Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows, API access and self-hosting. The free plan includes 1 GB. Paid storage starts at $2.99 a month for 100 GB; other listed plans include monthly and yearly capacities up to multiple terabytes. Users can host their own API server, with Linux, S3-compatible storage, a domain name and Git among the prerequisites. The hosted service uses DigitalOcean and Wasabi hot cloud storage. The provider cannot recover or change a forgotten password, so users should save the recovery phrase. The maker’s August 2026 post says the iOS app is available on the App Store and includes a built-in camera; a web version is planned.