Google Photos shared albums
Free, already installed, and almost enough.
This is the first thing most teams try, and for good reason. It costs nothing, everyone has an account, and IT already approved it. It is worth saying where it holds up, because for some teams it genuinely does.
Being fair about it
For a small, willing team, it works.
Four people who all remember to upload will get a usable shared album out of Google Photos, at original quality if their settings are right. If that is your situation, do not buy anything.
The problem is not the pixels. It is the uploading.
A shared album is a place to put photos. Somebody still has to open the app, later, at home, and put them there. Most people do not, and nobody finds out until the content is due.
Side by side
The differences that actually change your week.
| Google Photos | Team Capture | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free with a Google account | Free up to 5 people, then from $99 a month per workspace |
| Getting photos in | Each person uploads, deliberately, later | Share sheet at the event, then it handles itself |
| No signal at the venue | Upload fails or waits on the app being open | Queues and survives a restart and the drive home |
| Duplicates | Land twice if two people add the same file | Fingerprinted, so the same original lands once |
| Who can see what | Anyone with the album link | Per album, with roles and revocable access |
| When someone leaves | Their photos leave with their account | Photos stay with the workspace, access does not |
| Getting it all out | Download album, or Takeout | Select and export the originals, up to sixty at a time |
Checked against public information on 20 August 2026.
Where it stops working
Staff turnover takes the photos with it.
Contributions live in personal accounts. When someone moves on and their account goes, so does what they contributed.
There is no such thing as an admin.
A shared album has a link, not roles. You cannot say this person reviews and that person only contributes.
Nobody is chasing anybody.
The collection problem is a behaviour problem. The fix is not more storage, it is removing the step where a person has to remember.
Which one you want
Four organised people? Use a shared album and keep your money.
If four organised people are shooting one event, use a shared album and keep your money. When it is a dozen people, several of them part-time, across a season, the thing that breaks is not storage. It is that half of them never upload, and you find out too late.
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Who asks this question
Photo collection for a product launch
One night, one shot at it, everyone shooting. Team Capture collects every phone at the launch into one album at full resolution.
Read itCollecting photos across every location
Every location runs events and shoots them. Head office sees almost none of it. Team Capture collects each location into the same workspace.
Read it