PhotoBucket.com Review
Photobucket.com offers digital photo storage for the purpose of sharing photos with friends and family - but that's not all it does. Unlike most digital photo sites, Photobucket.com allows linking to their photos from other websites- which is a major benefit for just about anyone who posts photos online.
Services at Photobucket.com
Many photo websites will allow you to store your photos, but you don't have the option of linking to the photo and adding it to another webpage. For example, if you are selling an item on Ebay, or if you want to add a photo to your online journal or a message board, you may not be allowed to link to the photo because the website that is storing it doesn't want to overload their bandwidth. Photobucket.com is designed to provide this exact service to digital photographers.
If you've ever tried to post a photo somewhere and gotten an invalid link or an error, you may have been violating the terms of the site where the photo was stored. Becoming a member at Photobucket.com allows you to upload your photos to your Photobucket account, and then link to them using the photo's specific url. The site is essentially a "storage hub" for digital photos, and it's one of the few sites on the market today that allows you to do this, so it's extremely popular.
In addition to providing linkable photo (and video) storage, Photobucket.com also offers other services such as photo slideshows. You can also order digital prints of your photos and have them shipped to your door.
Pricing at Photobucket.com
Registering at the website is free, and free members receive 1GB of storage and 10GB of bandwidth (which is basically the amount of people that can be accessing your images). Free accounts do receive ads on their photo storage pages. Upgrading to a Pro account costs just $25 for one year. Pro accounts are ad-free and feature 5GB of storage and unmetered bandwidth. If you're planning on posting lots of images, the Pro account is definitely a great bargain. The site also offers various miscellaneous features, such as blogging, friends-only album options, and mobile uploading, all available to both levels of membership.