FamilyAlbum vs Tinybeans: Which Is Better After the Price Hike?
Written by the FamilyAlbum Editorial Team, drawing on our user research. FamilyAlbum is our own app, so we’ve kept this comparison factual and we’ll be upfront about our own weaknesses. Facts current as of July 2026.
The renewal email is usually what starts this comparison. Tinybeans raised its subscription by about 87% in 2024, landing at $74.99 a year, as the company shifted from advertising toward subscription revenue (Mi-3). Some families shrugged and paid. A lot of others opened a search tab.
If you’re in the second group, this report is the comparison you were looking for. FamilyAlbum is a private family photo and video sharing app, like Tinybeans in concept, and it’s free at its core. Here’s where the two genuinely differ, and who should pick which.
The quick version: FamilyAlbum’s free plan covers what most families use Tinybeans for: unlimited photo and video uploads to a private album the whole family can view (FamilyAlbum). Tinybeans now costs $74.99 a year. If the price sits fine with you and you love the app, staying is reasonable; about 92% of subscribers did. If you’re paying mostly to share photos with family, the free swap is hard to argue against.
The price gap, in plain numbers
| FamilyAlbum | Tinybeans | |
|---|---|---|
| Made by | Mixi, Inc. (Japan) | Tinybeans (Australia) |
| Base price | Free | $74.99/year ($7.99/mo) |
| Storage | Unlimited | Per plan |
| Video length | 2 min free, 10 min with Premium Family | Per plan |
| Optional paid tier | Premium One $2.99/mo, Premium Family $5.99/mo, Premium Family Pro $10.99/mo | Included in subscription |
| Who gets paid benefits | Premium Family or Premium Family Pro covers the whole album | Per subscription terms |
Sources: FamilyAlbum; Mi-3. “Made by” reflects each app’s operating company; Tinybeans is ASX-listed (Australia) per Mi-3. Check Tinybeans’ current plan details on their site; we’ve only cited what’s publicly reported.
The structural difference matters more than the numbers. Tinybeans is now a subscription product: the price of entry is the yearly fee. FamilyAlbum is free at the center with paid extras on the edge. You can use it for years without paying anything, and plenty of families in our research do exactly that.
What you get on FamilyAlbum without paying
The free plan isn’t a trial. Uploads and storage are unlimited, the album is private and invite-only, family members comment and react inside the app, and every three months FamilyAlbum automatically builds a recap video from your clips (FamilyAlbum).
One honest limitation: free videos cap at two minutes. Longer moments mean either trimming, splitting, or upgrading to Premium Family ($5.99 a month or $59 a year), which raises the cap to ten minutes. One quirk worth knowing: if any one person subscribes to Premium Family or Premium Family Pro, the whole album gets the benefits. (The cheaper Premium One tier, at $2.99 a month, covers just that one person.)
Grandparents join by invite and view through the app, or through a browser with no account to create. That browser view is more limited than the app, but nobody’s locked out. The one edge case is a relative who won’t open any link at all. That’s rare, and Tinybeans wouldn’t fix it either, but better to know before you move than after.
What our research says about switchers
The patterns here come from our user research: more than 160 interviews with parents and grandparents between 2024 and 2026. They’re recurring themes we heard, not any one person’s story.
Some of the parents we interviewed record everything, and they lean toward video over stills because a clip keeps the sound and movement a photo can’t: the giggle, the first words, the way a toddler runs everywhere. Their deepest fear is losing that archive. For them, the scary part of switching apps was never the new app. It was the move itself: what happens to five years of photos in transit? That instinct, export everything before touching anything, is exactly right, and it’s the order we recommend below.
Other family members, especially grandparents, told us they’ve subscribed to and cancelled more streaming services than they can count, and they apply the same test here: what specifically am I getting for this money? At $74.99 a year, the question isn’t whether Tinybeans is good. It’s whether the same daily habit, checking new photos of the grandkids, justifies a fee when a free app does the same job. When the value is concrete they pay happily; when it isn’t, they cancel without drama.
How to switch without losing anything
Do it in this order, and the move is boring in the best way.
- Export your photos and videos from Tinybeans first, using their download tools.
- Set up FamilyAlbum and upload everything. Uploads are unlimited on the free plan, so a five-year archive is fine.
- Invite the family members who followed you on Tinybeans.
- Confirm everyone can see the album, then cancel Tinybeans before the next renewal.
FamilyAlbum’s help center has a step-by-step guide for exactly this move, from a computer or a phone (migration guide). Cancel last, not first. The rare horror stories in this category are all people who cancelled before exporting.
When staying on Tinybeans makes sense
Fairness cuts both ways. Tinybeans kept roughly 92% of its subscribers through the price change (Mi-3). Read that for what it is, though: it’s loyalty from families already set up there, not a verdict on the best value for someone choosing today. Switching always has a cost. If your extended family is fully in the habit and $74.99 a year doesn’t bother you, staying put to avoid that hassle is a legitimate trade to decline.
The families who should switch are the ones paying mostly out of inertia, for a job, private sharing with family, that a free app does just as well.
FAQ
Is FamilyAlbum really free, or is there a catch?
The free plan is the full product: unlimited uploads, unlimited storage, private sharing. The main trade-off is a two-minute cap on each video. Paid tiers ($59 or $109 a year) are optional. More detail in our full breakdown.
How much does Tinybeans cost now?
$74.99 a year ($7.99 a month) after the 2024 increase of roughly 87% (Mi-3).
Can I move my Tinybeans photos to FamilyAlbum?
Yes. Export from Tinybeans, then upload to FamilyAlbum from a phone or computer. There’s an official step-by-step guide.
Do grandparents need to pay on FamilyAlbum?
No. Viewing is free for everyone invited, and if anyone subscribes to Premium Family or Premium Family Pro, the benefits apply to the whole album (the $2.99 Premium One tier covers just the subscriber).
What other alternatives should I consider?
Google Photos for backup-first families, Clann if a relative wants the absolute lightest setup with nothing installed at all, Cluster for a minimal shared album. Our full comparison of family photo sharing apps covers them all.
Sources
- Tinybeans price increase (CEO interview) — Mi-3
- FamilyAlbum Premium — pricing and plans
- FamilyAlbum Help Center — migrating from Tinybeans
Ready to start? Try FamilyAlbum for free.
Written by the FamilyAlbum Editorial Team. The perspectives here reflect patterns from our user research (more than 160 interviews), not any individual user. FamilyAlbum is our own app. Facts current as of July 2026.