Online photo sharing has caused the rise of websites like Flickr and Photobucket, which are two of the top online photo sharing services and serve remarkably good. Flickr vs Photobucket – Which one of these two is the best – is one of the hot topic in discussions on web. Here is the one-by-one comparison and review of both the photo sharing services.

This review is completely based on user involvement, community size, features, popularity and activity.

Flickr Pro Review and features

Flickr pro review

Signing Up and Cost

Easy and quick signup for Yahoo! users, who can simply login using there existing Yahoo! ID and password. Flickr also allows users to login with Facebook and Google account IDs but at last it asks to create a new Yahoo! account. So it’s better to create a new Yahoo! account at first if you don’t have one.

Standard Flickr service is available for free whereas Flickr Pro service costs $24.95 a year.

Standard features

A standard Flickr account gives you a monthly limit of 300MB photo upload with 2 videos.

Pro features

  • Batch upload, unlimited uploads and storage
  • Unlimited sets and collections
  • You can put licenses for your photos
  • Access to your original files
  • Stats on your account
  • Ad-free browsing and sharing
  • HD playback for high-definition video uploads

Design, Feel and Usability

Layout and Design is very simple and easy to surf but you may feel little stiffness in reading at first, due to bright blue-colored text on white background. After spending some time on site, this will not be a problem. It has the perfect layout which makes users feel the simplicity.

Flickr Pros & Cons

Pros: Flickr Pro allows users to upload unlimited photos using single or batch upload options.

Cons: The service doesn’t support video uploads, printing photos and sending gifts / printed photos to the users.

Photobucket Pro Review and Features

Photobucket pro review

Signing up and cost

Signup is easy and can be done either by direct signup form or by signing in with Facebook or Twitter.

Same as Flickr. Standard service is free and Pro service costs $24.95 annually.

Standard features

With a standard Photobucket account, you will get 10GB upload limit per month with a storage capacity of 500 MB.

Pro features

  • Unlimited storage and bandwidth
  • Batch upload, store or retrieve Original Photos
  • Gives you a personal web page
  • Ad-free Environment (although you may still see advertising for sponsored features, public search media, group album etc.)
  • Supports video (10 minutes) and SWF uploads (10 MB max)
  • FTP uploads and downloads
  • Premium email Tech support
  • Photo Printing Service

Design, look & Feel

Good Design but not as easy and smooth as Flickr. Although the colors are soothing, but the flow you find on Flickr is missing on Photobucket.

Photobucket Pros & Cons

Pros: Simple to use, offers a variety of features including live competitions.

Cons: Limited video length of 10 minutes.

Flickr vs Photobucket: The Community

Both the services, Flickr and Photobucket, have big communities, fans and followers all around the web. If we consider the popularity and community sizes, we’ll find out that Flickr is the preferred service among professional users. Flickr also has strong Community Guidelines that gives a good professional impression. Photobucket, on the other hand, has a huge user base of common as well as professional people and has evolved as the most used photo sharing service.

Result / Conclusion

Although Flickr provides limited features in it’s standard service, but it offers completely original, user-generated photographs on every user level. Whereas Photobucket is dedicated to photographic entertainment and socializing. The cost of Flickr Pro and Photobucket Pro is also the same.

From the above analysis, it is clear that Flickr is best for professional photographers who are not seeking “many” features.

Photobucket, which has significantly collaborated with Twitter in 2011 for social photo sharing purposes, is a more casual way to do things like socializing and uploading photos and should be tried if one looks for a variety of features.