10 Best Imgur Alternatives (Free and Paid) in 2023 (2024)

Imgur is often the go-to site for quickly sharing images or even funny GIFs and memes. But, while Imgur is free for general use, it lacks some key features and it might not give off that professional vibe you need for sharing an image with a work colleague.

Today we’ll take a look at why you might want an Imgur alternative and our top 10 choices.

Why do you need an Imgur alternative?

Imgur is a free image hosting site (there’s a subscription for an ad-free experience). You can upload, embed, or share images without having to create an account.

Imgur actually started off as an image sharing tool for Reddit. But as fate would have it is now probably more popular than the social network itself.

Although some top features are available for free, there are some limitations of using Imgur. Here are some reasons why you might want an Imgur alternative:

• Loss of ownership of the image: If you upload an image taken or created by you on Imgur, you can’t claim rights to it later on.
• Imgur compresses images above 1MB: While imgur says that compressing images above 1MB doesn’t lower the quality, we think it does—even if only a bit.
• No editing features: If you want to crop or adjust an image you’ll have to do this on another platform before uploading it onto Imgur.

After a while these limitations may become frustrating to deal with on a daily basis. So, you may want to consider one of these 10 Imgur alternatives.

10 best Imgur alternatives

1. ImageShack [Best for high-res image support]

Popular image sharing site ImageShack is a great Imgur alternative if you’re looking for more features and don’t mind paying for a pro plan.

One of its top advantages is that you can choose to make single images or whole albums public or private, which is ideal if you’d rather limit who views your images. You can also use ImageShack to host images for your site or forum.

If image quality is a concern, ImageShack is a top choice since it doesn’t compress images and stores them as high-res.

Their app ImageShack Resize allows you to resize, crop and apply filters to your images. You can set the app Skypath to auto sync your camera roll with the platform which securely stores your images in the cloud.

Pricing: The Basic plan is $3.99/month, comes with unlimited space and direct linking. The Pro plan is $29.99/month and has dedicated support, API access, and a dynamic image resizer.

2. Postimage [Best for social media sharing]

Postimage is a simple Imgur alternative that lets you upload images quickly onto your browser. Once you’ve uploaded your image, Postimage gives you different link types like a direct link, hotlink, and thumbnail sharing.

That way you can easily attach your image to a forum post or share a permanent link on Facebook or Twitter.

Postimage also gives you a deletion link which enables you to delete images from their server.

It’s worth keeping in mind that free account image uploads cannot exceed 24Mb and 10,000 x 10,000 pixels. On the other hand, a premium account has a higher limit of 48Mb. There’s also the option of uploading images in bulk––up to 1000 at a time.

There’s no limit to how many images you can upload to your account but Postimage may levy a charge if they don’t receive advertising revenue from your images, for instance with images embedded into links leading back to the site.

Pricing: The 1-month Premium plan is $11.95/month and allows unlimited image hosting and disables advertising.

3. Flickr [Best for image editing]

Yahoo’s photo-sharing platform Flickr is a top Imgur alternative for those who prioritize image quality.

Flickr gives you 1 TB of free storage and unlimited photos on display. Generous size limits of up to 200MB with unlimited resolution should be enough even for professional photographers.

With advanced editing tools, users can adjust, refocus, annotate, and add filters to images.

Perhaps best known for its image sharing and photographer community, the discover feature pulls up millions of photos taken by people from around the world. A mobile app is handy for users who want to edit or upload images on the go.

Pricing: Flickr is free to use, but if you want advanced stats, ad-free browsing, and automatic uploads you’ll need to upgrade to a Pro plan at $6.99/month.

4. imgbox [Best for unlimited storage]

imgbox is a top free Imgur alternative. The image-sharing platform has a few key advantages over other Imgur alternatives like infinite storage time and unlimited storage space.

The simple user interface makes it easy for users who might be unfamiliar with image hosting sites to find their way around.

Like most other image hosting sites, imgbox imposes a maximum file size. In this case, it’s 10MB. It’s worth noting the site supports JPEG, GIF, and PNG files. You can also upload videos too.

If you’d rather just upload the occasional file, there’s no need to create an account either –– you can jump straight to uploading content on your browser.

Pricing: Free

5. PicPastePlus [Best for privacy]

If privacy is a top priority, PicPastePlus is a great Imgur alternative. You can set the number of times an image can be viewed (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 1000, or unlimited). You can also select the amount of time for which the image is viewable (1 minute, 10, 20, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 6 hours, 1 day, 2 weeks, 1 month, 1 year, or unlimited).

As an additional measure, an auto-lock feature allows you to keep images on the server while preventing others from viewing them.

Using PicPastePlus, you can also share images, convert them to HTML code, and get shareable links. Available as a browser extension, it’s a convenient option for on the go uploading and converting.

Pricing: Free

6. ImgPile [Best for free hosting]

ImgPile is a great image hosting site for those who want free hosting and unlimited storage. It’s a great Imgur alternative for people who want to share images on social media sites like Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter with permanent links.

The site supports hotlinking and lets you upload images up to 100MB in size. You don’t need to create an account to start uploading images. But benefits of creating an account include access to your upload history.

The site also allows you to upload images from your computer or via URL.

Pricing: Free

7. Kek.gg [Best for simple image sharing]

If you’re looking for a simple image hosting tool that gets the job effectively without anything fancy, Kek.gg is a safe bet.

Since you don’t need to create an account to start uploading, Kek.gg is also a great choice for privacy-minded users.

The user interface is basic too––the homepage is simply an uploading tool where you can drag & drop files or paste image URLs.

Kek.gg is committed to free speech, so there are pretty much no restrictions on the types of images you can store on its servers so long as it’s legal in the U.S.

The main limitation is that Kek.gg has a 5 MB limit on image uploads which amounts to just a small JPEG file.

Pricing: Free

8. Unsee [Best for protecting image rights]

Unsee is another solid Imgur alternative for users concerned about image privacy and copyright.

When you upload an image, you can choose to include an expiration date, either making the image delete itself after the first viewing, in 10 minutes, in 30 minutes, in an hour, or after a day.

To further increase security, Unsee watermarks the IP address of everyone who views the file onto the image. That way, the uploader can check who’s seen it and it’s less likely to be reshared.

Each image also has its own unique QR code containing an ID, timestamp, and an encrypted IP of the image uploader.

Pricing: Free

9. ImgBB [Best for adding a plugin to your site]

ImgBB is another free Imgur alternative that is simple to use directly out of your browser. Again, all you need to do is drag and drop images or choose files from your desktop.

It’s easy to convert your images into URLs, BBCode, and HTML thumbnails. With a file size limit of up to 32MB, users can upload larger images than most of the tools on this list.

There’s also an option to install an upload plugin. It provides image uploading to any website by placing a button that enables users to directly upload images to their server, thereby inserting them into the web page.

All users need to do is copy and paste the plugin code into their website HTML code, preferably in the head section.

Pricing: Free

10. Publitio [Best full media asset management solution]

Publitio is best for users looking for a full-suite solution that can host, upload, convert and protect media files. It’s more of a pro solution, but there is a free trial for 14 days.

It’s easy to upload files onto the Publitio dashboard or via the API. Using the URL-based transformations, you can convert files to different formats and add different transformations like resizing; watermarking; cropping; or quality adjustment on both images and videos.

Advanced privacy controls allow you to make your file private, only playable or viewable on your domain. There’s also HLS video encryption which prevents the download of your files. You can then share your files via simple links or embed.

Pricing: The Free plan includes 5 GB of storage space and 10 GB of monthly bandwidth. The Premium plan is $9/month and includes 50 GB of storage and 100 GB of monthly bandwidth, along with extras like encryption and analytics.

AppSumo’s verdict: Imgur alternative

Imgur is a great free file hosting site. But it does have a few limitations like how it compresses images and removes file ownership. For those reasons, you might want an Imgur alternative.

There are loads of free tools available on your browser but if you need more privacy options and prefer an ad-free experience, it’s best to go for a paid tool like Publitio or Postimage. While you’re choosing the right Imgur alternative for you, why not take a look at the AppSumo store? We have some of the best software deals available today.