Before Google took it down, Google Picasa was one of the best digital image management and editing services on the market. Not only does the service allow you to organize and manage all of your photos, it also allows users to do some basic editing. One of my favorite features of Google Picasa was the ability to organize images based on folders, tags, etc. which allowed me to categorize my images and find them quickly anytime. While Google Photos, which came out of Google Picasa offers a ton of similar features, it’s never been more intuitive and easy to use than the latter. Fortunately, there are a lot of services old and new that offer almost all of the features that have made Google Picasa such a great image management service. In this article, we’re going to take a look at all of these services as we walk you through the 7 best Google Picasa alternatives to use.
Also read: How to turn any photo into a drawing without Photoshop
Best Google Picasa Alternatives in 2019
1. Windows Photo Gallery
Windows Photo Gallery is an application that will make you feel right at home. It has one of the simplest and easiest to use layouts that you will find on any photo editing app. It does not offer you the storage solution offered by Picasa, but it works great if you want to manage all images on your desktop.
Its photo editing functions are quite correct and allow easy upload to OneDrive, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Vimeo. Besides basic editing, you can also add captions, create collages, slideshows, panoramas, photo fuses and movies. One feature that sets it apart is its ability to record the names of tagged people and geographic information directly into the file’s metadata.
2. Adobe Lightroom CC
Adobe Lightroom CC is probably the best digital image management and editing program on the market today. If you’re willing to pay the subscription price, Adobe Lightroom CC will get you all the features you need right at your fingertips. My favorite feature of Adobe Lightroom CC is its DAM or Digital Asset Management library which allows users to import all their images into the program and then categorize and organize them according to their preferences. One of the great things about Adobe Lightroom CC is that all of your photos are saved to the cloud. So no matter what device you use, you can access all of your photos. It also means that you won’t lose your photos even if your primary computer crashes.
Adobe Lightroom CC is second to none for editing. You have access to all the photo editing tools you need. From brightness and contrast to color correction, all tools come with easy-to-use sliders, which makes Adobe Lightroom CC a good option even for beginners. Lightroom also comes with Android and iOS apps allowing users to access and edit photos even on the go. Another cool feature of Lightroom is the ability to create and share shareable links allowing users to easily share photos with friends, clients or family. The only thing that holds me back as a previous Google Picasa user is the price. Like I said, if Adobe’s pricing is right for you, Lightroom CC will deliver everything you could ask for from an image management service.
Install: Trial free, $ 10 / month
3. Photoscape
Using Photoscape can be a fun experience, whether it’s editing, enhancing, or creating something special. It offers a huge range of features including basic editing and correction, batch editing, collage making , creating gifs using multiple photos, capturing screenshot and splitting photos.
It doesn’t offer the same cloud storage as Picasa, but it’s one of the most versatile photo editing apps out there. It’s a down to earth photo editing app more than anything else.
Install: Free
4. Phototheca
Phototheca is one of my free image management software for Windows. While this also comes with a paid plan, I think the free plan will be enough to meet the needs of most users. One of my favorite features of Phototheca is its many image organizing features which allow users not only to import images but also to view them. organize using folders, smart searches, tags, etc. I also like that Phototheca allows me to create shared folders. This feature is great for sharing photos with your friends and family when you are not the only contributor. Since all photos imported to a shared folder are available to all parties, regardless of the recipient, the photos are available to all users.
Phototheca also supports extensive search features allowing users to search for images in seconds . You can search for photos using names, tags, description, location, and other metadata elements. Another cool feature of Phototheca is its seamless integration with services such as Flickr, Google Photos, and Twitter, allowing users to easily share photos with their followers. Other cool features include duplicate detection, photo vault, dual view, and smart albums. I love Phototheca and in my opinion it is a valid alternative to Google Picasa.
Installation: free, $ 39.95
5. FastStone Image Viewer
Despite what the name suggests, FastStone Image Viewer is more than just a photo viewing app. You can use it to easily organize your photos. you can add tags, move photos to desired folders, or even add folders to favorites. It allows you to do basic edits, such as cropping, adjusting light, colors, curves and adding effects, etc.
However, if you are not happy with its editing capabilities, FastStone gives you the option of using an external editing program, but talk about being too modest.
Install: Free
6. Flickr and Amazon Prime photos
For those looking specifically for a storage solution, Flickr and Amazon Prime Photo are your best bet. Flickr is one of the best photo management and sharing apps in the world, and it’s relatively easy to use. Once you’ve signed up, you can explore Flickr to understand how amazing this service is. It offers its users the option to save 1000 photos for free, after which the service is chargeable. You can create your personal collections and albums and share them with your family and friends . Flickr is also available as an app for Android and iOS and you can use the same account on all of your devices.
Amazon Prime Photos is also a service identical to Picasa and Flickr in terms of storage. Just like Picasa uses a Google account and Flickr uses a Yahoo account, Amazon Prime Photos uses an Amazon account. With an eligible Prime membership, you receive free storage for all your photos on Amazon Cloud Drive, plus an additional 5GB of free storage space for storing personal videos and documents. You can download the Amazon Prime app to add photos from your Android or iOS device or install the Cloud Drive app for PC and Mac to add photos from your computer.
Visit: Amazon Prime Photos (Free, $ 11.99 / month) / Flickr (Free, $ 5.99 / month)
7. IrfanView
IrfanView is a free photo viewer and organizer for Windows with very low size and resource requirements. This makes it great software for users who use older generations of Windows PCs and want something lean and light. IrfanView takes only 3MB and does not take up space on your computer and can run on any device. One of the main advantages of using Google Picasa is the simplicity of resources. IrfanView is therefore very good at this.
Although IrfanView is a bit lighter on features, it brings all the important features to the table. It allows you to easily view your entire library as a thumbnail, open any image, support almost any image format, convert and optimize images for sharing and support batch processing of images. All of these features in a only 3MB package, completely free to download and use. I mean, what’s not going to like here.
Install: Free
Which Google Picasa alternatives have you chosen?
This concludes our article on the best Google Picasa alternatives you can use. All the apps mentioned here have been personally tested by me so that I can attest to that. Depending on your personal needs, one software on this list will serve you better than others. For example, if you are just looking for storage space, Amazon Prime Photos is a great option. However, it is not designed for editing. On the other hand, apps like Fastone and IrfanView are great for organizing devices, but don’t offer cloud storage. There’s also Adobe Lightroom, which does it all but costs a lot. So you see, you have a lot of options to choose from. Once you’ve found your favorite Google Picasa alternative, let us know in the comments section below which one you’ve chosen.