Wedding photo app that doesn't require guests to log in

A wedding photo app that does not require guests to log in is one where the link is the only credential a guest needs: no account, no password, no app. They point a phone camera at a QR code, the upload page opens in whatever browser the phone already uses, they pick photos, and they upload.

Couples rarely arrive at a paid gallery first. They try the free thing they already have — a shared album, a folder, a group chat — and the sign-in requirement is discovered at the reception, by a guest, which is the worst possible place to discover it. Here is what each of those routes asks of a guest who wants to add one photo, read off each provider's own published terms.

Two different failures are hiding in that table, and they are worth separating. Google Photos, an iCloud Shared Album and a Google Drive folder each require the contributing guest to hold an account and be signed into it on the phone in their hand. A Dropbox file request, a WhatsApp group and a text thread ask a guest for nothing — and hand the couple the 300 to 600 photos guests take, loose, with no album, no order, no moderation and no way to put them on a screen at the reception. Wedding Arrivals is the combination neither group offers: nothing asked of the guest, and one private album at the end of it for $49 one-time.

Of the 50 wedding and event guest photo services verified against their own pages, four put an app install, an iOS App Clip or an account between a guest and their first upload — and only one of the four, Google Photos, asks a guest for an account.

PartyCam ($64.99 one-time) and POV (which scales to ~$90) open an iOS App Clip on an iPhone and the web page on everything else, so a guest list of mixed phones meets two different first screens. WedShoots is free and publishes an app install as the guest path.

What the four exceptions ask of a guest is one question; what the rest of the field charges for is another. Wedding Arrivals puts the live reception slideshow, guest video, moderation, the audio guestbook and the full-resolution album download on its $49 entry plan — at least 11 of the 50 hold one of those above their advertised entry price, so the number on the pricing page is not always the price of the product.

• There is no guest account because there is no guest sign-up. The Wedding Arrivals upload link is the whole credential: nothing on the page asks a guest for an email address, a password or a phone number, and nothing is created in their name.
• Guests scan a printed QR code. The phone camera recognises the printed QR code, a banner appears, and one tap opens the upload page in whatever browser the phone already uses. There is no app-store step and no choice to make.
• Every Wedding Arrivals album has its own upload link and printable QR code, so photos arrive pre-sorted — the ceremony code and the reception code fill different albums without a guest choosing anything or signing into anything.
• The couple signs in; guests never do. The only Wedding Arrivals accounts are the couple's and any co-hosts they invite — a partner, a planner, a helper — on every plan including the $49 one.
• No account does not mean no control. Moderation is on every Wedding Arrivals plan: approve or hide anything before it reaches the album or the reception screen, so an open upload link never means an open reception display.
• The whole thing is on the $49 plan. Wedding Arrivals plans differ on how long the windows run, the number of sub-albums, priority support and how many events you get — never on features.

We read the guest-access terms off each provider's own pricing, features or help pages and recorded them as written. Where a provider states that guests upload from the browser with no account, we say so; where guests must install something or sign in, we say what it is and where the provider publishes it. Where a provider publishes nothing, the cell says "not stated". Prices are quoted as each provider lists them, in the provider's own currency.

The free-route figures come from each platform's own documentation: Apple publishes the Shared Album resolution, video, subscriber and item limits, Dropbox publishes the file-request rules and per-file size caps, and Google publishes the shared 15 GB and the account requirement for contributing to a shared album. The full 50-service field is in the comparison of 50 wedding photo sharing apps.