The best Instagram al­ter­na­tives: Social networks for hobby pho­tog­ra­phers

Instagram is the picture network par ex­cel­lence. Nowhere else can smart­phone pho­tog­ra­phers share snapshots of their lives with the public so quickly and easily. In addition, the Android, iOS, and web ap­pli­ca­tion app is the absolute number one for busi­ness­es and in­flu­encers when it comes to in­ter­ac­tions.

But Instagram can also be a source of frus­tra­tion for some. Maybe aiming for new followers is causing you anxiety, or you find that before the new timeline algorithm every­thing was somehow more user-friendly. If you decide to delete your Instagram account, you don’t have to say goodbye to social photo-sharing forever. Here are some al­ter­na­tives to Instagram that are worth more than just a look.

When scrolling through Tumblr’s search results, you’ll notice a clear tendency towards images and animated GIFs, which are au­to­mat­i­cal­ly played back when called up. Each blog can also be displayed as a practical "archive" overview, allowing in­di­vid­ual posts to be accessed directly. Apart from that, you can also share texts, videos, live broad­casts, and even audio files on the network. As with Instagram, hashtags alert other users to their content and allow them to add blogs to their dashboard (Tumblr’s timeline) as favorites to keep abreast of new posts.

“Re­blog­ging” is of par­tic­u­lar im­por­tance. There are even some blogs on Tumblr that con­cen­trate ex­clu­sive­ly on gathering images on a certain topic. In this way, popular content swirls through the community at extreme speed and spreads far beyond. However, the pre­car­i­ous copyright situation should be taken into account. In order to surf the platform to your heart’s content, you don’t have to be a blogger: When you have a blog on this Instagram al­ter­na­tive platform, you can simply enjoy the content without in­ter­act­ing with it.

As in real life, the virtual pin board serves as a col­lec­tion point for ideas, recipes, and in­struc­tions, presented in pictures rather than as text or video. This content can be found via pins (the Pinterest version of hashtags) and stored in theme-based galleries. Images can even be pinned directly from external websites. All you have to do is enter the URL; the app au­to­mat­i­cal­ly displays all available content to save – if you used Instagram for lifestyle tips and tricks, this may be the Instagram al­ter­na­tive you want.

However, Pinterest does not offer filters and photo effects, as is the case with Instagram. Pictures should already be edited to a high quality before they are uploaded to the platform. This focus on quality and pro­fes­sion­al­ism offers numerous starting points for companies who want to present their content and products on Pinterest in a sales-promoting way. Many images are therefore linked to online shops: Customers click on an in­ter­est­ing piece of furniture or a fancy styling idea, go directly to the provider’s website, generate traffic, and perhaps even make a spon­ta­neous purchase. Pinterest is con­stant­ly expanding the pos­si­bil­i­ties for ad­ver­tis­ers – for example with an in­flu­encer marketing program and functions for a more targeted user approach.

This is es­pe­cial­ly useful when you are looking for visual material for your next design project. Many photos uploaded to the platform are in the public domain or released for further pro­cess­ing and com­mer­cial use under different Creative Commons licenses (this is ex­plic­it­ly stated for each image). And the selection is im­pres­sive, because Flickr is a meeting place for real photo en­thu­si­asts who have a real passion for their craft and don’t just want to post spon­ta­neous smart­phone snapshots. Special attention is paid to the technical aspect of pho­tog­ra­phy. You can also upload your visual works with all the as­so­ci­at­ed camera data, giving other users an insight into your working methods.

However, the new app owner SmugMug, who wants to limit the platform’s free cloud storage from 1 TB to only 1,000 photos and videos from January 2019, has received criticism. For an ad-free Pro-Account with unlimited storage space as well as extended functions, you have to pay about 50 US dollars (approx. 44 euros) per year.

The offered standard licenses for the worldwide digital use of an image costs 20 US dollars (approx. 18 euros), but depending on the re­quire­ments the prices can also rise to 50 (approx. 44 euros) or 250 US dollars (approx. 220 euros). With a guar­an­teed com­mis­sion of 50 percent of the sales price as well as weekly motif tasks (called “EyeEm Missions”), the de­vel­op­ers motivate their users to create high-quality photos on topics such as nature, people, or travel. In other words, you’ll rarely find bubbly fashion bloggers making the duckface in this community.

EyeEm’s in­tel­li­gent image recog­ni­tion software called “The Roll” helps to select the best photos for sale by au­to­mat­i­cal­ly sorting the smart­phone gallery by topic and relevance, while providing technical data such as shutter speed, aperture, and ISO value. EyeEm’s main customers are product man­u­fac­tur­ers as well as tele­vi­sion stations and pub­lish­ing houses, prominent examples include Lufthansa, Airbnb, and the Huff­in­g­ton Post. This places the image mar­ket­place in direct com­pe­ti­tion with stock photo providers such as Fotolia – a real al­ter­na­tive to the in­flu­encer’s business model.

The in­flu­encers were probably attracted by the de­vel­op­ers’ vision of offering Vero as a real al­ter­na­tive to the top dog Instagram and other long-es­tab­lished social media platforms: According to the name (“Vero” is Italian for “truth”) and the slogan “True Social”, the aim is to take a head-on approach to the abuses typical of the industry. This means: no ad­ver­tis­ing, no user data col­lec­tion, and no annoying algorithm to pre-curate content. This promise has led to Vero already being traded as “the next Instagram” in some places. But can the app do justice to this claim?

The fact is that even the big social networks like Facebook and Twitter were free of ad­ver­tis­ing and al­go­rithms at the beginning. Another hyp­o­crit­i­cal criticism is that when reg­is­ter­ing a new account you have to provide your telephone number. In addition, Vero will not remain freely ac­ces­si­ble forever: Paid, albeit in­ex­pen­sive, sub­scrip­tions may ensure the financing of the app in the future. In view of the pre­vail­ing technical problems, the de­vel­op­ers have decided to extend their “Free for Life” offer, which should actually only apply to the first million users, until further notice. So it’s worth jumping on the bandwagon now and perhaps becoming the early adopter of a new, up-and-coming photo network.

The following overview sum­ma­rizes all sim­i­lar­i­ties and dif­fer­ences between the five best al­ter­na­tives to Instagram: