Ask HN: iCloud or Google Photos? What do you use and why?
I kind of dislike the fact that Google uses pictures to train their models, but I can't discard the usefulness of being able to share (and participate) in the photos ecosystem with my family and friends.
iCloud is nice for solo use, but useless in terms of sharing with others, especially outside Apple ecosystem (and inside the ecosystem, its a pain as well).
Both are terrible at taking out the data. Apple requires using custom made tools, or exporting/downloading chunks (in case the entire photo library does not fit the disk). Google has Google Takeout which dumps the photos and the metadata in separate files, requiring a 3rd party tool to merge them back (been there, done that, not fun).
Self hosted options are too much hassle. They require maintaining them and are not available "on-the-go", unless one decides to setup VPN, meaning more maintenance. And good luck convincing family members to use your home-baked solution.
Between the two major clouds, what do you use and what would you recommend: iCloud photos or Google Photos?
Ignore backups for now, obviously both require a 3-2-1 backup solution to be complete and fail-proof.