Head to head, paid tier against paid tier
Kin Album app vs Tinybeans+ (2026)
Tinybeans is a journal with a strict free tier, so the honest comparison is its paid plan, Tinybeans+, against a Kin Album subscription. Tinybeans+ removes the ads and the caps; it doesn't say what happens to photo quality, and it carries the most extensive tracking label of any app here. Kin Album is made by the company that runs this site.
In short: Kin Album wins on originals kept, no ads at any tier, and a company that cannot open the photos. Tinybeans+ wins on price ($74.99 a year against $89.99), on Android, and on the journal format itself, and it doesn't state the photo resolution it keeps. Kin Album is made by the company that runs this site.
| Criterion | Kin Album* | Tinybeans |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free for 3 GB; $9.99/mo or $89.99/yr for unlimited[1][2] | Free (20 uploads/mo, 5 GB, ads); Tinybeans+ $7.99/mo or $74.99/yr[3][4] |
| Do relatives have to pay? | No[2] | No — followers view free[3][5] |
| Storage limit | Free: 3 GB shared; subscription: unlimited[1][2] | 5 GB free; 200 GB on Tinybeans+[6][7] |
| Photos kept at full quality? | Yes — originals[2][8] | Not stated[9] |
| Video limits | About 9 min on a subscription, 3 min free; over 400 MB saved smaller[2] | 5 min on Tinybeans+; free limit not stated[3][9] |
| Ads? | No[1] | Yes, on the free plan[10][5] |
| AI or face recognition run on your photos? | No — can't; photos encrypted before upload[1][8] | Not stated[11] |
| Can the company open your photos? | No — end to end, with disclosed exceptions[8] | Yes — no end-to-end claim[11] |
| Can family look without installing an app? | Yes — any browser, or by email[1] | Yes — website login[5] |
| Do viewers need an account? | Partly Members sign in; email recipients don't[1] | Yes — followers log in[12] |
| Can family add their own photos? | Partly — admins post[1] | Partly — owner posts; 'Full Access' followers[12] |
| Can you leave with everything? | Yes — originals, from the phone or the website (admins)[2][1] | Partly — bulk export needs Tinybeans+[13][12] |
| Platforms | iPhone app (not in the App Store yet when checked) + any browser; no Android app[1][2] | iOS, Android, web[14][13] |
| App Store label: data used to track you | Label not yet published when checked[1] | Yes Location, contacts, content, identifiers, usage[14] |
| How it makes money | Subscription only[2] | Ads, subscriptions, photo books[10][15] |
* Kin Album is made by Cobblestone, LLC, which runs this site. Compared on the same criteria as every other app here; no app pays us anything.
Where they differ
What paying buys. Tinybeans+ lifts the 20-upload monthly cap, raises storage from 5 GB to 200 GB, allows 5-minute videos, removes ads for you and your followers (Tinybeans’ own articles stay in the Home feed), and unlocks bulk export. Kin Album has no monthly upload count and no ads to remove; its subscription lifts storage from the free plan’s 3 GB to unlimited and videos from about 3 minutes to about 9.
Photo quality. Kin Album stores the original and exports it. Tinybeans doesn’t state its photo resolution on the pages we checked, paid or free — the one row where “not stated” is the whole answer, and worth asking Tinybeans before its journal becomes the only copy.
Who can open the photos. Tinybeans makes no end-to-end claim; “private” means only invited followers can view. Kin Album says its servers store “ciphertext and wrapped keys” and cannot decrypt the photos or videos, with captions, comments and names, preview copies made while anyone in the album gets photos by email, and invitations emailed from the iPhone app as the disclosed exceptions.
Price. Tinybeans+ is $74.99 a year; Kin Album is $89.99 a year or $9.99 a month, with no trial. On the free tiers, Tinybeans gives 5 GB and 20 uploads a month with ads; Kin Album gives 3 GB with no monthly count and no ads. Tinybeans+ can also be shared with one follower, who gets the full features.
Relatives. Tinybeans followers view in the app or on the website, with their own login. Kin Album members sign in and view in any browser; an email recipient gets the photos with no account at all. On contributing, neither is generous: the Tinybeans journal owner posts and “Full Access” followers gain rights such as export, with posting rights not spelled out; on Kin Album only admins post.
Export. Tinybeans+ exports by date range, sent by email as download links a month at a time; free users whose memories were archived at the 5 GB limit can export at no cost. Kin Album’s admins export any time, from the iPhone app or on kinalbum.com, as a zip of the originals, with no fee and no waiting period.
Platforms and the tracking label. Tinybeans runs on iOS, Android and the web; Kin Album is iPhone plus any browser, with no Android app. Tinybeans’ App Store label lists five kinds of data used to track you — location, contact info, user content, identifiers, usage — and paying doesn’t change the label. Kin Album’s label had not been published when we checked.
What Tinybeans has that Kin Album doesn’t. The journal format: dated entries, and photo books ordered from inside the app. Kin Album is an album, not a journal.
Who should pick which
On this site’s criteria Kin Album wins this one, on the rows that carry the most weight: originals kept, no ads at any tier, and a company that cannot open the photos, against a journal that doesn’t state its photo resolution and carries the longest tracking label on the site. Tinybeans+ wins on price, on Android, and on the journal itself — dated entries and photo books — which is the reason to choose it. Kin Album is made by the company that runs this site; each row above links to its source.
Sources
- Kin Album — kinalbum.com home page, checked 2026-10-14
Kin Album is a private family photo album for the people you invite and no one else. Photos and videos are end-to-end encrypted, so Kin Album can't look at them … Free for 3 GB, about 1,000 photos, shared by every album you own · unlimited for $9.99 a month or $89.99 a year · relatives never have to pay … You are not the only one who can post — make someone else an admin and their photos land in the same album … There are no ads in Kin Album. It is paid for by subscriptions, and that is the whole business … No AI on your photos. Ever. … Stop paying and the album moves to the free plan; nothing is deleted for two years, and never without 90 days’ notice and a free export … Family can look in the app on an iPhone or iPad, or in any browser on a computer. Or just email them the photos, with no app and no account at all … If you invite her as a member, she signs in once. If you add her as an email recipient, the photos just arrive in her email. She needs no account … Albums are created in the iPhone app. Invited family on a computer or an Android phone join right here. On an iPhone or iPad, their invite link gets them the app. The app isn't in the App Store yet.
- Kin Album — Kin Album — Help (updated 12 Oct 2026), checked 2026-10-14
An album without a subscription is on the free plan. It holds 3 GB of photos and videos, about 1,000 photos … A subscription costs $9.99 a month or $89.99 a year … Relatives never have to pay on either plan … Your albums move to the free plan. Everyone can still look and comment. You can still export everything, so you can take it all with you whenever you like. New photos and videos can still be added while the albums you own fit in the free plan’s 3 GB … Relatives who get Instant emails get a daily one until you subscribe again. Nothing is deleted for two years, and never without 90 days’ notice and a free export first … With a subscription, a video can be up to about 9 minutes. The iPhone keeps a video up to 400 MB as you recorded it, and saves a longer one smaller so it fits. On the free plan, a video can be up to about 3 minutes … If you're an album admin, you can save a copy of your whole album any time. There is no fee and no waiting period. In the iPhone app, go to Settings → Export. On kinalbum.com, go to Settings → Save a copy of your album. Your phone or your web browser unlocks the photos. Then it saves a zip of the original files right on your device … Every album you own without a subscription shares that space. Videos can be up to about 3 minutes each, and up to 130 MB … You get email updates daily, weekly or monthly … You also get Instant email updates. Any album, on either plan, can add up to 20 GB of photos and videos in a day … After that, an album without a subscription is deleted in two cases. The first is if its owner's albums without one hold more than the free plan's 3 GB. The second is if no member has opened it for two years, in the app or on the web … Gift time is 1, 3, 6 or 12 months, bought once in the Kin Album app on iPhone … The family never sees who gave or how much … A parent who starts their album from the link never sees a price … Kin Album never gets your contact list … Your encryption key is backed up automatically through iCloud Keychain … There is no import tool, and the encryption is the reason … You can post up to ten photos or videos at a time … Either one starts a 30-day countdown … You'd hear from us at least 90 days ahead … And if another company ever takes over Kin Album, it has to keep these promises … Subscriptions are the entire business. They pay for the free plan too … The share sheet is photos-only for now. Videos post from inside the app.
- Tinybeans — Help: How much is a Tinybeans+ subscription?, checked 2026-09-12
Tinybeans+ is available for $74.99/year or $7.99/month … Unlimited upload of photos and videos (up to 5 minutes in length each) · An ad free experience (including for followers) · 200GB of storage · Shared subscription – grant full subscription features to a follower of your journal! · The ability to export your memories.
- Tinybeans — Help: Can I use Tinybeans for free?, checked 2026-09-12
Free subscribers are able to upload up to 20 memories (photos or videos) per month – up to a total of 5GB – with an ad-supported experience.
- Tinybeans — Help: How do I remove ads from my Tinybeans?, checked 2026-09-12
Our Tinybeans+ subscription removes ads for you and your followers when viewing your journal in the app or website … You will still see our in-house articles in the Home feed.
- Tinybeans — Help: What happens when I reach the 5GB storage limit on the free plan?, checked 2026-09-12
You'll still have access to everything you've uploaded, but you won't be able to add new photos or videos unless you upgrade. Your most recent memories will remain visible, and older ones will be safely archived.
- Tinybeans — Help: Do you have a storage limit?, checked 2026-09-12
Tinybeans allows for 5GB of storage for free journals without a paid subscription … Our Tinybeans+ subscription unlocks expanded storage of 200GB.
- Kin Album — Kin Album — Security (updated 6 Oct 2026), checked 2026-10-14
Photos and videos are end-to-end encrypted for everyone who uses Kin Album, in the app or on the website. They are encrypted on your iPhone before they are uploaded … Our servers store ciphertext and wrapped keys. We cannot decrypt your photos or videos … Captions, comments, and names are stored readably … While anyone in an album gets photos in their emails, a preview-size copy of every photo posted to that album, by every member, is made outside the encryption and stored with us, beside the encrypted originals, so the emails can show the photos. Each preview copy is deleted about 30 days after its photo was posted … An invitation emailed from the iPhone app carries, in its link, a secret made for that invitation, which unlocks a copy of the album key we store for it … So until the invitation ends, we could in principle recover the album key. The link stops working 14 days after it is sent … Push notifications never contain a photo, a caption, or the text of a comment … a photo or video you choose to attach when you use Contact us in the iPhone app goes to our support team as it is — it isn’t end-to-end encrypted
- Tinybeans — Help: What's included in the Tinybeans+ subscription?, checked 2026-09-12
Unlimited monthly uploads · 200GB storage for your journal (50,000+ photos/videos) · High-quality videos up to 5 minutes · Ad-free experience on your journal.
- Tinybeans — Help: What's the difference between free Tinybeans and Tinybeans+?, checked 2026-09-12
Free Tinybeans allows you to upload a maximum of 20 photos and videos per month and includes ads around your family's journal. Additionally, free Tinybeans journals are subject to 5GB storage limit.
- Tinybeans — Tinybeans: Introducing Tinybeans+ (27 Aug 2023), checked 2026-09-12
Tinybeans+ subscribers won't be seeing any ads. No ads in albums, in-app, and no emails … 200GB of storage … Only the family and friends you invite … have access to viewing them.
- Tinybeans — Help: Who can export memories from a Tinybeans journal?, checked 2026-09-12
A journal's contents can only be exported by the journal owner and followers they have granted Full Access … Free users who have passed the free storage limit and had their memories archived can export at no cost via the More tab of the app.
- Tinybeans — Help: How can I export (or download) all of my memories?, checked 2026-09-12
As a Tinybeans+ subscriber, you can request a mass export of your journal's photos and videos at any time via the website … The export will come to your email as links to download a month at a time.
- Tinybeans — App Store listing: Tinybeans Private Family Album — App Privacy, checked 2026-09-12
Data Used to Track You: Location, Contact Info, User Content, Identifiers, Usage Data. Data Linked to You — Third-Party Advertising: Location, Identifiers, Usage Data, Other Data … In-App Purchases: Tinybeans Plus Subscription $7.99 · $74.99.
- Tinybeans — tinybeans.com home page, checked 2026-09-12
Capture and privately share sweet snapshots and videos of your littles with our family photo-sharing app … Print a Photo Book · Gift a Tinybeans+ subscription.
Questions people ask
What does Tinybeans+ include?
$7.99 a month or $74.99 a year: unlimited uploads, 200 GB of storage, videos up to 5 minutes, no ads for you or your followers, bulk export, and a shared subscription for one follower. The free plan is 20 uploads a month and 5 GB, with ads.
Does Tinybeans keep the original photo?
Tinybeans doesn’t state photo resolution on the help pages we checked; Tinybeans+ is described as offering ‘high-quality videos up to 5 minutes’. Kin Album says it stores the encrypted original and exports ‘the original files’.
Which tracks more?
Tinybeans’ App Store label lists Location, Contact Info, User Content, Identifiers and Usage Data as data that may be used to track you across other companies’ apps and websites — the longest such list among the fourteen apps compared here. Kin Album’s label had not been published when we checked; its site states no ads and nothing tracking you.