Google Photos is built to back up every photo on your phone automatically, with 15 GB of free storage shared with Gmail and Google Drive. Ancestorii is built for the photos that matter most: a private family space where relatives add the dates, stories and voices behind them, so most families are best served by using both.
Google’s figures below come from its own UK help and plan pages, as of October 2026.
“Me, pretending I was too cool to smile.” July 2010, from the founder’s own family photos.
Google Photos is a backup and photo library. Turn on backup and it copies the photos and videos on your phone to your Google Account, where you can browse, edit and share them.
Ancestorii does a different job. Nothing uploads automatically. You and the relatives you invite choose the photos worth keeping and add the context around them: who is in the picture, roughly when it was taken, the story behind it and the voices telling it. It all sits in My Family, a private space only invited members can see.
The useful question is which job you need doing. Most families need both.
Every Google Account includes up to 15 GB of free storage, but it is shared across Gmail, Google Drive and Google Photos, so a full inbox eats into the room for photos. Original quality backups count towards it, and so do Storage saver backups made since 1 June 2021.
Google’s paid plans are called Basic (100 GB), Google AI Plus (2 TB) and Google AI Pro (5 TB), and Google says paying annually saves up to 16%.
Ancestorii’s Free plan gives the whole family one shared pool of 1 GB, with files up to 20 MB. Premium raises that to 100 GB, with files up to 10 GB, for £3.99, €4.99 or $5.99 a month. It is paid per family, not per person, with no limit on how many relatives you invite.
On storage per pound, Google is far cheaper, and its 2 TB and 5 TB plans have no Ancestorii equivalent. Ancestorii is priced for a chosen archive, not a camera roll.
Google Photos lets you share albums with family. People can join, like, comment and add their own photos, and an album holds up to 20,000 photos or videos. If you are a collaborator but didn’t create the album, Google says you can only add photos and videos; other changes are left to its creator. You can also correct a photo’s date and time, though Google notes a downloaded or shared copy may still show the original date.
One detail matters for a family archive: when someone leaves a shared album, all the photos, videos, comments and likes they added are removed with them.
In Ancestorii, everyone you invite sees the whole family space and can add to it. Each photo in an album can have a name, a date written however you know it (“Summer 1994” works), a thread called The Story where relatives add what they remember, and voice notes, recorded or uploaded. Only the person who created something can delete it.
Around the albums sit Loved Ones profiles, timelines and time capsules; the Free plan includes one Loved Ones profile and Premium has no limit. See how albums with stories and voices work.
A backup keeps the photo. A family archive keeps the story behind it.
Google’s Inactive Account Policy says it may delete an account that hasn’t been used for two years, after emailing the account and its recovery address. Separately, if an account stays over its storage quota for two years or longer, all of its content may be removed, with at least three months’ notice.
The safeguard is Google’s Inactive Account Manager, which lets you choose up to 10 people to be notified or to receive parts of your data after a period of inactivity you set.
Ancestorii keeps the archive in a shared family space rather than one person’s account, and one Premium subscription covers everyone in it. If Premium ends, nothing is deleted: the terms say you keep access to view your family library, and only new uploads above the Free limits pause. Our guide to what happens to your photos when you die covers the wider picture.
In the UK, Google Photos offers a 7-inch softcover and a 9-inch hardcover photo book, each from 20 to 140 pages. Google doesn’t list prices on its help page; you see the price when you start an order. Printing takes two to four working days, then economy delivery takes 8 to 11 working days and priority 4 to 7.
Ancestorii Memory Books are A4 landscape hardcovers, 297 × 210 mm. A Chapter has 24 printed pages for £44.99, A Story has 36 for £54.99 and A Legacy has 48 for £64.99, each plus delivery. You design every page, and each photo can carry a subheading and a written comment, so the story behind each photo can go in the book too. Standard delivery is £4.99, takes 10 to 14 working days and reaches 20 countries.
“I walked past my dad’s room and caught him looking through his memory book again.” Alison, on the Memory Book she made for her dad.
One honest limit: a printed book holds photos and words, not sound, so voice notes stay in the app and on the website. See how Memory Books work.
| Feature | Ancestorii | Google Photos |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | A private family archive of the photos you choose | Automatic backup of your photos and videos |
| Free storage | 1 GB per family | 15 GB per account, shared with Gmail and Drive |
| Paid storage (UK) | 100 GB for £3.99 a month per family | 100 GB £1.59, 2 TB £7.99, 5 TB £18.99 a month |
| Who the plan covers | Everyone in the family space, no member limit | You plus up to 5 others |
| Automatic phone backup | No, you choose what to add | Yes |
| Beside each photo | A name, a date, a story thread and voice notes | Its date and time, plus comments and likes in shared albums |
| Printed books (UK) | A4 landscape hardcover, 24 to 48 pages, from £44.99 plus delivery | 7-inch softcover or 9-inch hardcover, 20 to 140 pages, priced when you order |
Figures as of October 2026, from Google’s UK help and plan pages. Comparing Apple instead? See Ancestorii vs iCloud Shared Albums.
The automatic backup of everything on your phone.
Keeping a full copy of every photo and video, in case a phone is lost or replaced.
The private family archive for the photos that matter.
Keeping the stories behind your photos, told by the people who were there.
Let Google Photos back up everything, then bring the photos worth explaining into Ancestorii. The Library of Congress advises keeping at least two copies of important photos, stored as far apart as practical. Our guide to backing up family photos has the full setup.
Ancestorii isn’t a backup service, and it doesn’t try to be. It doesn’t copy your camera roll, and iPhone HEIC photos are converted to JPEG as they upload, so keep your originals in Google Photos or iCloud. The Free plan’s 1 GB suits a chosen set of photos, not everything on everyone’s phones.
What it adds is the family side. Your family gets one private space, with free apps for iPhone and Android and the same login on the website. Photos go into the shared family Library and into albums, where each can carry its date, its story and the voices of the people who remember it.
Ancestorii shows no ads and doesn’t sell your data, and nothing in My Family becomes public unless someone chooses to publish it on Our Stories, the separate public feed. The Free plan needs no card; Premium is £3.99 a month for the whole family.
Free to start, with no card. Invite the whole family and add the story behind each photo.
Free forever · No credit card · Takes 2 minutes