Flickr vs Permafiles
Flickr
flickr.comPermafiles
permafiles.comSide by side
| Figure | Flickr | Permafiles |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $6.83/mo | £1.99/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 5 | 8 |
| Spec score · Photo Storage Services | 9.3 (#3) | 8.9 (#7) |
| API availability | Flickr's API exposes nearly all site functionality, is free to use, and provides access to data from more than five billion photos. | Nextcloud documents OCS HTTP APIs for capabilities, users, sharing and app management, plus WebDAV file access. |
| Integrations | Official tools include Lightroom and Aperture upload integrations, a Chrome new-tab extension, and desktop Uploadr applications. | The Nextcloud Mail app can connect to Gmail and other email providers using IMAP and SMTP. |
| Intended users | Flickr describes its community as a place for photographers to connect, learn, curate, and grow. | Permafiles says it is primarily aimed at customers in the UK and EU and presents family photo storage and sharing as a key use case. |
| Licence | Flickr's service and API are proprietary under SmugMug terms; the separate Flickr API Swagger specification repository is MIT licensed. | The Nextcloud server repository uses the GNU AGPL-3.0-or-later licence. |
| Rating on Apple App Store | 4.5 out of 5 from 15,000 ratings | 4.7 out of 5 from 10K ratings for the Nextcloud iOS app. |
| Rating on Google Play | 3.3 out of 5 from 34,100 reviews | 4.0 out of 5 from 1.93K reviews for Nextcloud Talk. |
| Security | Flickr says it takes physical, technical, and administrative measures to protect information, while stating that it cannot promise information will remain secure. | The service describes HTTPS/TLS, two-factor authentication, brute-force protection, antivirus protection, and optional end-to-end encryption for supported folders and use cases. |
| Support | Flickr directs users to contact its help service for questions, concerns, and customer service inquiries. | The contact page promises replies within 24 hours and offers live chat during office hours. |
| What it does | Flickr is an online photo management and sharing community for uploading, organizing, displaying and discussing photographs and videos. | Permafiles provides managed private cloud storage for photos, videos, documents and other files using Nextcloud. |
Plans
Flickr
- Flickr FreeFree
- Flickr Pro$8 a month
- Flickr Pro Monthly$11 a month
- Flickr Pro Annual$82 a year
- Flickr Pro 2-Year$148, paid once
Permafiles
- Nextcloud FreeFree
- Nextcloud Tiny£1.99 a month
- Nextcloud Small£2.99 a month
- Nextcloud Medium£3.99 a month
- Nextcloud Large£4.99 a month
- Nextcloud 1TB£9.99 a month
- Nextcloud 2TB£18.99 a month
- Nextcloud 3TB£27.99 a month
In their own words
Flickr
Flickr is an online photography community for managing, sharing, and discovering photos. Users can store and organize images, make galleries, and explore galleries from photographers they follow. Groups, contests, and a photography blog provide community activities, while daily curation and Creative Commons images support discovery. Privacy settings let users choose default visibility and control who can view, download, or interact with individual photos and videos. The mobile app can upload camera-roll photos and videos automatically, keeping them private until the user chooses to share them. Image recognition can find visually similar images and assist with search and organization. Users may authorize third-party apps to work with their accounts and later revoke access in settings. Flickr offers an API for non-commercial use; commercial use requires prior arrangement. The free plan permits 1,000 public photo and video uploads and displays ads. Flickr Pro costs $8 a month, billed annually, and includes unlimited full-resolution sharing and backup, ad-free browsing, detailed statistics, and enhanced privacy settings.
Permafiles
Permafiles is managed cloud storage built on the open-source Nextcloud platform, for files, photos, and folders. Users can share family photos and set permissions controlling who may access, edit, or download them. Shared links can also have passwords and expiration dates. Nextcloud Office supports online editing of documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, while Nextcloud Talk provides calls with up to 10 people. The Nextcloud Mail app can connect to Gmail and other email services through IMAP and SMTP. Sync clients are listed for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS, with web access as well. Security measures described include HTTPS/TLS, two-factor authentication, brute-force and antivirus protection, and optional end-to-end encryption for supported folders and use cases. Permafiles says its server infrastructure is hosted in Germany, while customer file data is stored with third-party S3-compatible storage in the United Kingdom. It also says it makes daily offsite backups and can restore a complete server failure within a couple of hours. The free plan includes 5 GB. Paid plans range from £1.99 per month for 64 GB to £27.99 per month for 3 TB.