Google Photos vs Stingle Photos
Google Photos
google.comStingle Photos
stingle.orgSide by side
| Figure | Google Photos | Stingle Photos |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $2.49/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 | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 10 | 10 |
| Spec score · Photo Storage Services | 9.3 (#4) | 8.7 (#9) |
| Company profile | Crunchbase describes Google as an internet-services and software company headquartered in Mountain View with a 10,001-plus employee category. | LinkedIn lists Stingle Inc. as a privately held software company headquartered in Middletown, Delaware, founded in 2020, with 2–10 employees. |
| Product | Google Photos provides tools to edit, organize, search, back up, and share photos and videos. | Stingle Photos combines an encrypted gallery and camera with cloud backup and synchronization for photos and videos. |
| Rating on Apple App Store | 4.8 out of 5 from 1.6M ratings | 4.0 out of 5 from 2 ratings. |
| Rating on Google Play | 4.4 out of 5 from 53,899,623 ratings | 3.6 out of 5 from 167 reviews. |
| Self-hosting | The official product and developer pages describe Google-hosted web, mobile and API services and provide no self-hosted deployment option. | A user can run a Stingle API server with Linux, a domain, Git and S3-compatible storage using the published Docker setup. |
| Sharing | Users can share photos, videos and albums with contacts who do not use Google Photos, including through WhatsApp, Snapchat and shareable links. | Users can share albums and media with other users through end-to-end encrypted key exchange. |
Plans
Google Photos
- FreeFree
- Basic$1.99 a month
- Google AI Plus$9.99 a month
- Google AI Pro$19.99 a month
- FreeFree
- Basic$1.99 a month
- Google AI Plus$9.99 a month
- Google One Basic (100 GB)¥290 a month
- Google AI Plus (2 TB)¥1,450 a month
- Google AI Pro (5 TB)¥2,900 a month
Stingle Photos
- 1 GBFree
- 100 GB monthly$2.99 a month
- 300 GB monthly$4.99 a month
- 1 TB monthly$11.99 a month
- 100 GB yearly$29.90 a year
- 3 TB monthly$35.99 a month
- 300 GB yearly$49.99 a year
- 5 TB monthly$59.99 a month
- 1 TB yearly$111.99 a year
- 3 TB yearly$359.99 a year
In their own words
Google Photos
Google Photos is a service for editing, organizing, searching, backing up, and sharing photos and videos. It runs on Android, iOS, and the web. A Google Account includes 15 GB shared among Photos, Gmail, and Drive at no cost; Original quality backups use that storage. Users can back up media automatically or manually, and share photos, videos, and albums with people who do not use Google Photos. The app lists AI editing tools including Magic Eraser and Photo Unblur. It supports full-resolution RAW image backup and cloud storage for 4K video. Google lists paid monthly plans including Basic at $1.99 a month for 100 GB, Google AI Plus at $9.99 a month for 2 TB, and Google AI Pro at $19.99 a month for 5 TB; each allows up to five additional people. The natural-language search example is limited to eligible US users aged 18 or older who meet specified language and settings requirements. Google says data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and users can delete or export their content.
Stingle Photos
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.