Last month in the post Stop Sending Me Your Photo , I recommended Kodak Gallery for storing your photos online and photo printing. One of our readers, Rastin, favors Flickr for online photo storage. So I thought that I would go more into depth as to why I recommend Kodak Gallery and also compare Kodak to Flickr.
Big Dogs
Kodak is an international company with a long history and good reputation. It is not likely that Kodak will go out of business any time soon and taking your photos with them. There have been some photo hosting companies that have shut down without any warning.
Flickr is now owned by Yahoo. Yahoo is also a large company that is a major player on the Internet. Yahoo like Kodak will probably not go anywhere. Those that had photos on Yahoo’s site did have warning to move photos to Flickr before Yahoo shut down their photo hosting. Even with the warning, there was some inconvenience.
What’s the Diff?
Both Kodak Gallery and Flickr have easy-to-use web sites. Although Flickr seems to have more photo layout options than Kodak, they both have the same features such as adding photo titles, tags or keywords, and sorting order.
Kodak Gallery has more editing options than Flickr. With Flickr you can rotate images, but with Kodak you can also remove red eye, crop, and “instant fix” your photos.
Nothing is Free
Kodak is free to use with unlimited storage space and no limit on the uploading photos. Kodak requires at least one purchase every 12 months to keep your account active. There is no minimum purchase to stay active, you can purchase just one print every 12 months.
Flickr has a free and a Pro account. The free account has unlimited storage space but there is a 100mb per month upload limit. The Pro account has unlimited storage and uploading. The Pro account is $24.95 per year.
Formats
With Flickr, you can upload photos in JPEG, GIF, PNG, and TIFF formats. Kodak Gallery uses only the JPEG format.
Uploading
Both sites use web-based uploading of photos. There is a third party upload tool called jUploader and Windows Explorer tool for use with Flickr. Kodak Gallery has its own software, Kodak EasyShareSoftware, an Internet Explorer plug-in and Gallery Mobile for uploading photos from your cell phone. All uploading tools for Flickr and Kodak Gallery are free.
I use Kodak EasyShareSoftware because I can use it to do both download photos from my camera and upload them to Kodak Gallery in just one step. This is very convenient.
Prints
Prints are $0.15 at each site. Shipping for the prints is difficult to compare because Flickr shipping charges are based on location where Kodak Gallery is a flat rate based on number of prints.
The biggest difference in prints is the number of different retailers where the prints can be picked up. With Flickr there is only one options: Target. Kodak Gallery uses 8 different retailers for standard (1-5 days) pickup and 4 retailers for same-day pickup. See the comparison chart below for a list of retailers.
| Kodak Gallery | Flickr | |
| Storage Cost |
Free* *Require one purchase every 12 months. |
Free/$24.95 yr* *Upgrade to Pro is $24.95 a year. |
| Storage | Unlimited |
|
| Photo Format | JPEG | JPEG, GIFs, PNG, TIFF |
| Upload Tools |
|
|
| Prints (4×6) | $0.15 each | $0.15 each |
| Delivered | $1.39 + $0.04 each additional + tax | $1.49 & up (based on location) + tax |
| Pickup Retailers |  |
 |
| Same-Day Pickup |  |
|
Bottom Line
While Flickr does have its pros, Kodak Gallery has far more pros. Kodak Gallery is a large reputable company. Kodak Gallery has several options for uploading photos, all of which are fully supported by Kodak. Kodak also has more retail locations for standard and same-day pickup.
Although not technically free, Kodak Gallery is virtually free with a no-minimum purchase requirement once a year. There is no upload limits with Kodak which is great when you are uploading lots of photos which usually how I upload photos anyway.
Try using Kodak Gallery for online photo storage and online photo printing.
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May 27th, 2008 at 11:56 am
you left out one MAJOR comparison.
You can download ALL your flickr photos to your Harddisk using third party Flickr Download software. Kodak Gallery as of date does not have a good option for porting your photos.
July 1st, 2008 at 5:09 pm
What about Webshots, snapfish, shutterfly, and hundres of others such as wallmart, wallgreen printing and storage systems?
July 19th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Kodak Gallery allows users to download photos to their hard-drives through the EasyShare Software. Go to My Collection. Click on The Gallery. Right click on the album you would like to import, and select express download. Your pictures will be copied to your desktop.
August 7th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
What about a comparison of security? I notice that Flickr has, for example, an option to tick which disallows web searches from being able to find your photos. And if you send someone a guest pass, I don’t think they can pass that on, which is a good thing because then you can keep track of who is seeing (and using) your photos. I haven’t found anything like that on Kodak. Anyone have any ideas about the comparison?