Comparison

Instagram vs Photos

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Instagram

Connect with friends and discover new content through photos, videos, and short-form entertainment. Share your daily moments and life's highlights, or dive into personalized feeds based on your interests.

Highlights
  • Short-form video creation and discovery (Reels)
  • Ephemeral content sharing (Stories & Notes)
  • Private group chats (Close Friends)
  • Personalized content feeds (Explore)
  • Customizable posts with templates and filters
  • Discover brands and shop products
Features
Read full description

Little moments lead to big friendships. Share yours on Instagram. — From Meta Connect with friends, find other fans, and see what people around you are up to and into. Explore your interests and post what's going on, from your daily moments to life's highlights. Share what you’re up to and into: - Turn your life into a movie and discover short, entertaining videos on Instagram with Reels. - Keep up with friends on the fly with Stories and Notes that disappear after 24 hours. - Start group chats and share unfiltered moments with your Close Friends. - Share memories from recent events or trips in Feed. - Customize your posts with exclusive templates, music, stickers and filters. Dive into your interests. - Watch videos from your favorite creators and discover new content that’s personalized to your interests. - Get inspired by photos and videos from new accounts in Explore. - Discover brands and small businesses, and shop products that are relevant to your personal style. Some Instagram features may not be available in your country or region. Terms and Policies: https://help.instagram.com/581066165581870 Consumer Health Privacy Policy: https://privacycenter.instagram.com/policies/health Learn how we're working to help keep our communities safe across Meta technologies at the Instagram Safety Center: https://about.instagram.com/safety

About

Photos

Organize, enhance, and share your cherished memories. This app provides intelligent tools to browse, edit, and manage your photos and videos. Discover new ways to relive your experiences and keep your library secure.

Highlights
  • Interactive photo and video grid
  • Organize by collections and media types
  • Powerful on-device search
  • Create custom albums
  • Relive memories with spatial scenes
  • Photo and video editing tools
  • Seamless sharing options
Features
Read full description

Browse, edit, and share your picture-perfect moments. Photos is the home for all of your amazing photos and videos, and it's smart and personal, with intelligent features that help you find, enjoy, and share your best shots.* Browse your library • The Library tab displays your photos and videos in an interactive, zoomable grid, with options to view by Months and Years • Quickly filter down to specific content types, like photos that have been edited, or choose to remove screenshots from the view Browse by Collections • The Collections tab organizes your library by topics, like Recent Days, People & Pets, Trips, Memories, your custom albums, Wallpaper Suggestions, and more • Media Types organizes your photos by type like Selfies, Videos, Portraits, and Screenshots • Utilities gathers photos by useful topics like Duplicates, Documents, Receipts, and Handwriting • Pinned Collections lets you put your most frequently accessed content right at your fingertips Customize the Photos app just for you • Reorder Collections sections and choose a size to enjoy just the way you like them • Choose to add items to Pinned Collections to keep your most-used items close at hand Find just what you're looking for with powerful Search • On-device machine learning analyzes your photos so you can search for people, places, dates, events, and even objects and scenes like basketball, birthday cake, or beach Organize your photos into albums • Create albums of your favorite topics Relive your memories • Spatial scenes let you view your photos with a delightful 3D effect • Memories uses on-device intelligence to find trips, holidays, people, pets, and more in your collection, and presents them as movies paced to music, or create your the memory you want to see using Apple Intelligence Perfect your photos in Edit • Fine‑tune your photos and videos with powerful tools like auto enhance, highlights, shadows, vibrance, and definition, and apply edits to another image or to a batch • Remove distractions with a tap using Clean Up • Slow down high frame rate videos for slow motion effects Share with friends and family • Share to Messages, Mail, and third party apps • Share photos seamlessly with up to five other family members with iCloud Shared Photo Library • Use Shared Albums to share photos and videos with just the people you choose • iCloud Links let you send a set of photos and videos that can be viewed on any platform, in any browser Keep your library safe and up to date with iCloud Photos • Store your photos and videos safely in iCloud and access them from any device, any time, including iPhone, iPad, and Mac, Apple Vision Pro, on iCloud.com, or even on a PC Keep your photos private • Photos protects your privacy by using on-device intelligence to analyze your photos and videos • Face recognition, scene detection, object detection and more are all done completely on your device • The Hidden and Recently Deleted albums are locked by default Use the Photos app on Apple Watch to access your favorite photos right on your wrist Relive your favorite moments with highlights from Memories Create a Photos or Portrait watch face *Not all features are available on all iPhone or iPad models. Refer to your device’s user guide for information on feature support.

Screenshots

Instagram4 screens
Photos4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Instagram at 4.7 against Photos's 3.1. Instagram also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 10 months) and ratings volume (30M vs 16K). Photos's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 12) and ads (none vs shown). On price there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Instagram sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $14.99 per month. Photos asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Instagram holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Instagram has 30M ratings behind it against 16K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 31% of Instagram's written reviews are positive against 22% of Photos's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Instagram ships an update weekly, Photos every 10 months. Both last shipped on November 1, 2026.

Scorecard10 real differences · 1 level
Instagram versus Photos: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterInstagramPhotos
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (30M ratings) — better3.1 (16K ratings)
Positive reviews31.5% of reviews — better21.7% of reviews
Number of ratings30M — better16K
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 10 months
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#2 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple TViPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — better
Requires iOS16.310.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size641 MB11 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperInstagram, Inc.Apple

Customer experience

Instagram

All ratings29,640,000 ratings
Positive92.5%
Neutral2.4%
Negative5.1%
Written reviews21,628 reviews
Positive31.5%
Neutral6.9%
Negative61.7%

Photos

All ratings15,879 ratings
Positive48.8%
Neutral6.8%
Negative44.3%
Written reviews3,665 reviews
Positive21.7%
Neutral9.4%
Negative68.8%

User reviews

Instagram

From 30M App Store ratings

What we love

  • 💕 Excellent way to connect with friends and family
  • 🌍 Ability to discover new content and accounts
  • 🎨 Great platform for artists and creators to showcase their work
  • 🤝 Helps small businesses promote their products

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent bugs and glitches
  • 🤖 Overly aggressive AI moderation leading to unfair account suspensions
  • 🔒 Poor customer support and lack of transparency around account issues
  • 📊 Declining organic reach and push towards paid advertising
  • 🔀 Confusing layout changes that make the app less user-friendly

Photos

From 16K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Innovative features
  • 💡 Customization options
  • 👍 Intuitive user interface
  • 👍 Seamless photo/video management
  • 🚀 Efficient photo organization

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Buggy and glitchy
  • 🤔 Confusing UI changes
  • 🤯 Unintuitive navigation
  • 🤔 Lack of basic organization features
  • 🤦‍♂️ Forced iCloud integration

Bugs and requests

Instagram

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Unable to post or view videos due to app crashing
  • Saved posts and drafts randomly disappearing
  • Notifications not working or showing outdated information
  • Inability to log in or switch between multiple accounts

Requested features

4 requests
  • Ability to edit/delete individual photos from a multi-photo post
  • Option to view posts in chronological order instead of algorithmic feed
  • Better tools for small businesses to manage and grow their presence
  • Improved accessibility features for users with disabilities

Photos

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Photos not syncing properly across devices
  • Editing tools and markup functionality unreliable
  • Frequent crashes and performance issues
  • Inconsistent behavior when managing albums
  • Shared library causing unexpected photo deletions

Requested features

5 requests
  • Allow manual people tagging
  • Add option to hide/remove photos from 'All Photos'
  • Improve search and filtering capabilities
  • Provide more customization options for albums/folders
  • Implement password protection for sensitive photos

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Instagram

Subscriptions1
  • Meta Verified Standard9 variants$14.991 Month
One-time2
  • Instagram Badge$0.99
  • Instagram Badge$4.99
None

Photos

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Instagram free?
Instagram is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Photos free?
Photos is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Instagram or Photos?
Instagram is rated higher. Instagram averages 4.7 out of 5 from 30M ratings, while Photos averages 3.1 from 16K ratings.
Do Instagram or Photos have ads?
Instagram shows ads; Photos does not.
Which is updated more often, Instagram or Photos?
Instagram ships an update weekly, and Photos every 10 months. Most recently, Instagram was updated on November 1, 2026 and Photos on November 1, 2026.

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