I honestly don’t remember where I first heard about Everpix — maybe someone mentioned it on Twitter or App.net or in a blog post. I took a mental note and said to myself I’d try it as soon as I had enough time to understand how it worked and whether it could be a suitable solution for my photo sync needs.

Last Friday I finally checked Everpix out. The short video explaining what the service does is very well made, informative and funny. That put me in a good mood already. I signed up for a free account instantly.

What does Everpix do?

What Everpix does is quite simple: it keeps your entire photo collection in the cloud, always aggregated, organised, in sync, without duplicates — and everything is private by default. And I really mean your entire photo collection: if you subscribe/upgrade to a paid account ($4.99 per month, or $49 per year), you can upload all your photos — from your computer and from all your devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Android devices…) — no matter how long ago they were taken. A free account lets you upload all your photos from the past 12 months. Even this basic offering is better than iCloud and photo streaming, especially if you take a lot of photos with your smartphone.

Three main reasons I love Everpix

1. Design simplicity — Everpix is a classic example of good, streamlined design, where the user always knows what’s happening. There isn’t a single obscure element in its interface. The iOS universal app, the Mac app and the Web viewer are all well thought-out, responsive and snappy, easy to navigate, and offer a very pleasant experience on the whole (see below).
2. Not just to store, but also to rediscover — Everpix is not just a safe place you use to store hundreds of photos as part of a backup/syncing strategy. The service is also designed to encourage you to go over your photos, to rediscover past shots, to put everything you’ve been photographing in context and in perspective. My favourite is the Flashback feature, that shows you photos you took one year ago today (or two, three years ago today, etc.). It’s an instant reminder of where you were, what were you doing, but it’s also another chance to find great photos you might have overlooked right after you took them. Further, the beauty of having a single photo repository is that whatever device you’re using, you can browse, view, and (if necessary) download photos uploaded from a different device.
3. It ‘just works’ — You install the app on your iOS device, you sign in, and it starts uploading and syncing the contents of the Camera Roll. On the Mac, you can tell the Everpix app which photo folders you want to upload/sync. The process then happens in background and any error (such as Unsupported format or dimensions) is logged, so you always know what’s going on. The overall impression is to have a very robust and transparent tool at your disposal.

A quick look at the Web interface

I really love how clear, elegant and fast Everpix’s Web interface is:

(Click to enlarge)

This is the Home view: on the top, if available, you’ll see your photo ‘Flashbacks’; on the lower part of the screen you’ll see your photos neatly organised in reverse chronological order (from newest to oldest). I really love that sequences of photos taken on the same day are grouped in mini-albums. When you hover the mouse, all thumbnails are displayed:

If you click on the (>) icon, you can see all the photos from that sequence, in detail.

This is the single-photo view:

(Click to enlarge)

The sidebar offers all kinds of useful information: where and when the photo was taken, with which device, other EXIF data (ISO, focal length, f/stop, etc.), a selection of ‘nearby’ photos, and the source device where it comes from (‘Quattro’ is the name of my iPhone). From the More menu in the bottom right corner, you can rotate the photo left/right, edit the date, delete or download it.

Conclusion

I’ve only been using Everpix with a free account and for three days now. Maybe it’s too early to draw conclusions, but for now I haven’t noticed any significant downsides in Everpix. The service is really well-designed, powerful, fast and easy to use. If you need to store your thousands of photos in the cloud to have a constantly-updated, always-available collection you can browse from anywhere, then I certainly recommend you try Everpix. It’s what iCloud Photo Stream should have been from day one.

If you’re a professional photographer, keep in mind that, as of this writing, Everpix only imports photos in JPEG format (no TIFFs or RAWs), using RGB colour model (not grayscale or CMYK) — read this Support article for more information. Also, Everpix currently does not import videos.

Finally, the Everpix Support site is very helpful and informative. Make sure you check it, maybe starting from the Frequently Asked Questions.