SnapVault vs cloud storage subscriptions: what does photo backup really cost?

How do the cloud storage subscriptions compare with SnapVault?

Each row shows the cheapest plan that holds the library, on the cheapest billing the vendor offers. SnapVault rows include the one-time app price and the provider's always-free allowance. Click a service for the full article with plan tables, arithmetic and export steps.

How were these costs calculated?

Every figure on this page uses the same method. Year 1 is twelve months of the cheapest plan that fits the library, on annual billing where the vendor offers it and monthly otherwise; iCloud+ and Amazon Photos are monthly only in the United States. Five years is year 1 times five with no price changes assumed. SnapVault totals are the provider's storage bill only, excluding the one-time app purchase (priced per country in the App Store); storage is billed per gigabyte-month: $0.00695 on Backblaze B2, $0.015 on Cloudflare R2 and $0.023 on AWS S3 Standard as of 2026-08-19, after subtracting the 10 GB that B2 and R2 give free. Egress is left out because a backup is written once and read only on restore, and both B2 and R2 allow a full restore at no charge within their free allowances. Prices were read from the vendors' public pages on 2026-08-19; where a page did not render a price, the figure is marked "about" and sourced in the article.

Context: in a February 2026 All About Cookies survey of 1,000 US adults, 70% of iPhone users said they pay for extra phone cloud storage, spending $5.92 per month on average (source).

Which comparison do you need?

• SnapVault vs iCloud+ Is SnapVault cheaper than iCloud+ for backing up iPhone photos? At 200 GB, yes: SnapVault plus a Backblaze B2 bucket costs about $79 in storage over five years, plus the one-time app purchase, against $179.40 for iCloud+ at $2.99 per month. At 2 TB, iCloud+ is cheaper ($599.40 versus about $830 in storage with B2, plus the app). SnapVault's advantage is ownership: photos sit in a bucket you control. Read the comparison
• SnapVault vs Google Photos (Google One) Is SnapVault cheaper than Google Photos with Google One storage? For a 200 GB library, SnapVault plus a Backblaze B2 bucket is about $79 in storage over five years, plus the one-time app purchase, against $299.40 for Google AI Plus (400 GB) at $4.99 per month. At 2 TB, Google One at $99.99 per year ($499.95) beats every bucket. SnapVault's edge is owning the files in your own account. Read the comparison
• SnapVault vs Dropbox Is SnapVault a cheaper way to back up phone photos than Dropbox? Yes at 200 GB: Dropbox's smallest paid plan is Plus with 2 TB at $9.99 per month billed yearly, $599.40 over five years, while SnapVault plus a Backblaze B2 bucket is about $79 in storage plus the one-time app purchase. At 2 TB, Dropbox Plus ($599.40) is cheaper than SnapVault on B2 (about $830 in storage plus the app). Dropbox is the better collaboration tool. Read the comparison
• SnapVault vs Box Is Box a good way to back up phone photos, or is SnapVault a better fit? Box is built for business content, not personal photo libraries. Its free tier caps files at 250 MB and Personal Pro tops out at 100 GB, so 200 GB needs a three-seat Business plan at about $540 per year. SnapVault plus a Backblaze B2 bucket holds 200 GB for about $79 in storage over five years, plus the one-time app purchase. Read the comparison
• SnapVault vs OneDrive (Microsoft 365) Is SnapVault cheaper than OneDrive and Microsoft 365 for photo backup? Yes at both sizes. OneDrive needs Microsoft 365 Personal (1 TB, $99.99 per year) to hold 200 GB, $499.95 over five years, and about $1,099 at 2 TB with a storage add-on. SnapVault plus a Backblaze B2 bucket is about $79 at 200 GB and about $830 at 2 TB in storage, plus the one-time app purchase. Read the comparison
• SnapVault vs Amazon Photos Is SnapVault better than Amazon Photos for backing up phone photos and videos? It depends on video. Prime members get unlimited full-resolution photo storage at no extra cost, which is hard to beat, but only 5 GB for video. A 200 GB mixed library on Amazon's 1 TB plan is $83.88 per year, $419.40 over five years; SnapVault plus Backblaze B2 is about $79 in storage over five years, plus the one-time app purchase. Read the comparison

What does an S3-compatible bucket cost for photo backup?

An S3-compatible bucket is object storage you rent directly from a provider and pay for per gigabyte-month, with no plan tiers to outgrow. As of 2026-08-19, Backblaze B2 lists $6.95 per TB-month ($0.00695 per GB) with the first 10 GB free and free egress up to three times the stored volume; Cloudflare R2 lists $0.015 per GB-month with 10 GB free and no egress fee at all; AWS S3 Standard lists $0.023 per GB-month with egress at $0.09 per GB after the first 100 GB each month; Wasabi lists $6.99 per TB-month but bills a 1 TB minimum, so it only makes sense above about a terabyte. Uploading 50,000 photos costs well under a dollar in request fees on any of them. SnapVault writes to all four, plus self-hosted MinIO, using the access keys you create, and the provider bills your account directly; the app itself is a one-time purchase priced in your local App Store.

SnapVault bucket cost at 200 GB

SnapVault bucket cost at 2 TB

MinIO is free, self-hosted software; its cost is your own hardware and electricity. Note that the MinIO Community Edition repository was archived upstream in April 2026 and is source-only, so treat it as an option for self-hosters who maintain their own builds.