Tinybeans Private Family Album vs Google Photos

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 120 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

1. [R11] Tinybeans Private Family Album 5/5 · US Safe place to store memories: Tinybeans has, without exaggeration, changed our family for the better. We’re able to look back on 9+ years of wonderful memories and pictures. The app is user-friendly and secure, so I feel safe sharing my children’s photos and videos with loved ones. Thank you, Tinybeans. 💜
2. [R32] Tinybeans Private Family Album 5/5 · US The best photo sharing app for families: We love Tinybeans! We downloaded it because we wanted to share photos of our son and we were hesitant to "over-share" on social media. We also wanted a way for grandparents who aren't active on social media to see pictures. It's such a simple, private and user-friendly way to share photos with family and friends. We especially love the month-in-review colla
3. [R72] Google Photos 3/5 · US Good at one thing. And only that.: I’ve been using Google Photos for years. At its core, it’s great. It backs up my photos without my having to do anything. But that’s on one account. I have multiple Google accounts that I use regularly. The Google Photos app is only useful with the account I back up to. And here’s why. I can’t filter between backed up and non-backed up photos. The Google Photos
4. [R70] Google Photos 1/5 · US Nosy and not worth it: Wanted to upload my photos to a shared album on this app from a work team bonding event. It was a really fun day and I wanted to contribute. If I could select certain photos from my library I would’ve done just that and have a neutral to positive experience on this app. But no, I spent many minutes of my life poking around the app, not knowing why the selected photos I chose
5. [R6] Tinybeans Private Family Album 3/5 · US Going downhill: Used to love this app. Expected the experience to at least stay the same and not degrade when the price increased to almost double. Since then we have had weekly issues with the app. Most recently, more than once a week, we are unable to upload photos because they all show as back in the preview.
6. [R9] Tinybeans Private Family Album 3/5 · US Glitchy: Great app we have been using for almost 8 years but lately it has been so glitchy. I reached out to customer service for trouble shooting and they told me to re-download the app. I have done so a couple times and it is still not helping the glitches! I miss the old app.
7. [R61] Google Photos 1/5 · US Too hard: Way too difficult to figure out. It seems like it will back up every single photo in your phone or nothing at all. I wanted to backup only specific photos, not every one. But it’s all or nothing. Junk
8. [R78] Google Photos 3/5 · US Performance is horrible: I used to love this app and am married to it because all my photos from over the years are in it. However, the last year or two the performance has continued to deteriorate. The app is so impossibly slow and sometimes doesn’t load at all. Hoping to amend this review if updates are finally made, but I’m tired of waiting and hoping.
9. [R36] Tinybeans Private Family Album 3/5 · US Loved it, glitchy now: I used to love it and my whole family follows it. However now I can’t get any of my photos to upload. Seems glitchy
10. [R40] Tinybeans Private Family Album 1/5 · US Surprise Terms Change: It is evil capitalist garbage to suddenly require payment to access my own family photos. My family has been leaving photos and comments for years. Now they’re hidden until I pay. Absolutely sinister corporate nonsense. BEWARE!!
11. [R103] Google Photos 2/5 · US Crashes constantly: This app has gotten steadily worse over the years. It crashes constantly on my iPad. Very frustrating.
12. [R18] Tinybeans Private Family Album 3/5 · US Pricey: I started on here posting our family’s first grandchild and it was great until the price got jacked up to an incredibly high one. I think of it as an investment for my 95 yr old grandmother happy but no other reason to use this specific expensive product anymore.
13. [R57] Tinybeans Private Family Album 3/5 · US Price increase: Y’all, this price increase is wild. Families are doing their best and at $40 this was a splurge for us. We’ve recommended this app but that’s going to stop because the increase is too much of a jump. What a disappointment. Y’all can do better. Be better.
14. [R69] Google Photos 3/5 · US Photos won’t delete: I have been a longtime Google Photos user. We’re talking years!!! In the past 6 months I have noticed when I press delete on photos, it doesn’t actually delete. I will have to delete the same photo 3x sometimes Prior to it actually deleting and stop taking up my storage quota. Also, now that it’s not free, there’s little difference between paying here and paying for extra iClo
15. [R106] Google Photos 1/5 · US Took up all my Google storage, and I cannot unlink it from my Google account: I don’t even remember creating a Google Photos account and linking it to my iPhone camera roll, but somehow it has access to every single photo and video, and is taking up all my Google storage. I never use this app for anything, but there is no way to unlink it to free up more storage for my Google account (Gmail, drive
16. [R16] Tinybeans Private Family Album 1/5 · US No support: I paid for a subscription but the app is limiting my posts. I’ve reached out to their “support” twice and received no help.
17. [R30] Tinybeans Private Family Album 3/5 · US Love the app, but terrible communication: We’ve been using this app for years, and we love it. We even paid for the subscription. However, I’ve tried reaching out to the developers many times for various questions, including issues with the website when trying to take advantage of a Black Friday deal. No response ever. I was willing to continue paying for the subscription but changed my mind out o
18. [R67] Google Photos 1/5 · US Busted: Cannot access my Google Photos without allowing it access to my camera roll?? That is new and stupid.
19. [R85] Google Photos 2/5 · US Deletes photos from your device.: Update to review: I got a response from the developer with links about my issues and how to resolve it, and typical of developers they did not read my review. They skimmed it to look for key words or used an AI to "read" it. The link they gave me was what I suggested in my review to new users. I had already read through their help section and it is the same as th
20. [R1] Tinybeans Private Family Album 1/5 · US Expensive and glitchy, horrible app, greedy!!!!: They want $75 a year when it used to be free. I HATE them with a passion. Everything that used to be great SUCKS now and this is one of those things. I would never pay for this because the app doesn’t work half the time anyway. It crashes when you’re loading a bunch of photos at once and it’s a huge waste of time.
21. [R10] Tinybeans Private Family Album 1/5 · US No longer free: No notice to my email or on the app it would no longer be free. Log in today and have to pay. So disappointed. Edit: My MIL paid for a year and repaid when it was up a few months ago and there must have been an upgrade and bumped me down to the free plan out of nowhere when we paid for the year plan. Can I rate below 1 star? Update -1000 stars as I went to find a specific memory
22. [R19] Tinybeans Private Family Album 1/5 · US THIS IS A SCAM: We've been using Tiny Beans for a few years. It is a service that allows us to upload photos of our kids, and it then organizes them by date. It also allows us to share photos with our extended family like a private social media page. We have honestly loved it though it is really just a private facebook page at best. We've had a premium membership for a year or two which was $40 pe