This Mac 911 article is in response to a question submitted by Macworld reader Elizabeth. Dropbox also charges about the same as Apple for cloud storage.

Sync via Dropbox: Dropbox can automatically sync images from an iPhone or iPad using an app on the device or when you plug in a mobile device (or camera) to a Mac.

(This is also an option for macOS.) Google’s storage prices aren’t far off from Apple’s.

Sync via Google Photos: Google can automatically sync photos with Google Photos installed without occupying much storage on your device.

This is manual, so these backups occur only when you physically connect your mobile device via USB to your Mac.

Sync via a Mac: You can use iTunes in macOS Mojave or earlier or the Finder in macOS Catalina or later to sync images images from your iPhone or iPad to your Mac.

On an iPhone or iPad, you have to engage a bit more effort: Pick Download, which ensures that all images in any state are downloaded to your Mac.

Photos prompts you to confirm, but offers two choices.

If you don’t have Download Originals to this Mac checked, do so.

In Photos for macOS, go to Photos > Preferences > iCloud Photos.

The easiest method is to force Photos to perform a download: Make sure one of your devices does (most likely a Mac), and that it has enough storage to download the full library. If your set of synced media is optimized, then you don’t have a full-resolution version of all images and videos on that device. (This can also be set through the iCloud preference pane in 10.14 Mojave and earlier and the iCloud view in the Apple ID preference pane in 10.15 Catalina and later.)

In macOS, open Photos and go to Photos > Preferences > iCloud.

In iOS and iPadOS, go to Settings > account name > Photos.

You can check whether Optimize iPhone/iPad/Mac Storage is enabled in these locations:

Download particular video from icloud