A wedding photo sharing app that is actually free

Yes, and no card is asked for at any point. Each guest can upload up to 20 photos, the gallery is kept for 14 days, and there is no limit on how many guests join in. It is not a trial with a subscription waiting behind it: you can create the event, collect the photos, download every one of them and never pay anything.

Up to 20 photos per guest, photos only — no video on the free plan — and 14 days of storage. Guests scan the QR code and upload from their phones with no app and no account. The part most free tiers hold back is included here: you can download every photo as one ZIP from your host page.

When the guest list is modest and you will do the download in the week that follows. 20 photos each goes further than it sounds — forty guests can send up to 800 — and 14 days is plenty if the ZIP is on your laptop before the thank-you cards go out. It runs short if you want the speeches on video, or you would like the gallery still there in the spring.

A one-time $19.99 (£15.99 in the UK) for that event, with nothing recurring. It lifts the per-guest cap entirely — unlimited photos and videos — adds video files up to 200 MB, 12 months of storage, the digital guest book for written messages and video greetings, the printable QR sign designer, and photo search. You can start free and upgrade the same event later.

In the week of the wedding. The 14 days of a free event count from the day you create it, not from the wedding date, so an event created two months ahead is already deleted before anyone scans it. If your signs or programs go to print earlier, create the event then and upgrade it for $19.99 (£15.99 in the UK): a paid event is kept for 12 months. A guest can also pay for the upgrade from the event page, and it then applies for everyone.

No, on either plan. A guest points their phone camera at the code on the table, the upload page opens in the browser, and they type a name the first time so you know whose photos are whose. No app store, no login, nothing to remember. That is why the uncle who has never installed an event app in his life still sends you eleven photos.

After 14 days a free event and its photos are deleted, permanently — there is no backup to recover it from. So the one thing to put on the calendar is the download. Open your host page, download everything at once, and the countdown no longer matters. Upgrading the event before then also keeps it, for 12 months.