Imgur Killed Anonymous Uploads. Here's What I Use Now.

I remember the exact moment I realized Imgur was done being a simple image host. It was May 2023, and I was trying to share a screenshot in a Discord server. I'd been using Imgur for years — the anonymous upload was perfect. Drag image, get link, paste link. Done.

Except this time, it asked me to log in. And when I checked, they'd removed anonymous uploads entirely. Millions of old links started breaking. Reddit threads from years ago suddenly had empty image placeholders everywhere. Technical documentation with embedded screenshots — gone.

That was almost three years ago now. Here's what happened since, and what I ended up using instead.

What Imgur Actually Did (and Why)

Let me be fair to Imgur here. They were hosting an absurd amount of content for free, and they needed to make money. The changes made business sense:

• Required accounts for all uploads (May 2023)
• Deleted anonymous and old unused images
• Shifted focus to being a "social media for images" — think Reddit but for pictures
• Added more aggressive advertising
• Applied compression to free uploads

The problem wasn't that they changed. Companies change. The problem was that they broke the internet's image infrastructure in the process. Imgur links were everywhere — in Stack Overflow answers, in medical forums, in legal documents, in academic papers. All gone overnight.

That taught me something important: don't depend on a free service that can change its terms whenever it wants. Which, I know, is basically every free service. But some are more honest about it than others.

What I Tried Next

After Imgur killed anonymous uploads, I went on a bit of a quest. Tried probably eight different services over the following months. Here's the honest version of how each went:

Postimages

First thing I tried. No account needed, which was the main draw. But the site looks like it was designed in 2008 and never updated. Ads everywhere. The upload worked fine, links were stable. I used it for maybe two months before the ad experience just got too annoying. The images themselves were fine though — no compression, good direct links.

Catbox (catbox.moe)

Discovered this one through Reddit. The 200MB file limit is wild for a free service. I used it mainly for larger files — GIFs, short video clips. The upload speed is noticeably slower than other services, especially from Asia. But it works, it's been reliable, and the community behind it seems genuinely committed to keeping it running.

The downside: no image-specific features. No thumbnails, no editing tools, no preview pages. It's basically a file host that happens to accept images.

ImgBB

Clean interface, decent speed, has a free API if you're a developer. I liked it at first but ran into storage limits on the free tier faster than expected. If you're uploading regularly, you'll hit the ceiling.

Discord/Slack as Image Hosts

I know people who just upload everything to a private Discord channel and use those links. It works... sort of. Discord links are long and ugly, and they compress images pretty aggressively. Plus, Discord has started expiring CDN links, which means your carefully shared screenshot might just 404 in a few months. Not a real solution.

Google Photos / iCloud Links

The nuclear option. Upload to your cloud storage, generate a sharing link. Quality is preserved, storage is generous. But the links expose your account name, the sharing permissions are confusing, and it feels wrong to use a personal storage service as a public image host.

What Actually Matters When Picking an Image Host

After all that testing, I narrowed down what I actually care about to three things. Not twelve. Three.

1. Does it preserve my image quality? If I upload a PNG, I want a PNG back. Not a recompressed JPEG with artifacts around every text character. This is non-negotiable for screenshots.
2. Will the link still work in six months? I share images in documentation and bug reports that people reference months later. Link rot is real and it's the worst.
3. Can I get a link in under 5 seconds? If I have to create an account, verify my email, solve a CAPTCHA, navigate a gallery UI, and then find the "copy link" button buried in a dropdown... I'm not using it. The whole point is speed.

Everything else — file size limits, CDN speed, extra features — is secondary. Those three are the deal-breakers.

Where Things Stand in 2026

The image hosting landscape has actually gotten better since the Imgur exodus. More services exist, and they're more transparent about their models. Some trends I've noticed:

• Anonymous uploads are back in style. After Imgur removed them, competitors made it a selling point. Multiple services now specifically advertise "no account required" as a feature.
• Privacy got more attention. EXIF stripping, minimal logging, and HTTPS everywhere are becoming standard rather than premium features.
• AI tools are showing up. Background removal, image upscaling, format conversion — these used to require separate apps. Now some image hosts include them for free.
• APIs matter more. Developers want to integrate image hosting into their apps and workflows. Services without APIs are falling behind.

If Imgur's changes taught us anything, it's that the image hosting market isn't a solved problem. It keeps evolving, and the best service today might not be the best one next year. The smart move is to pick something simple, fast, and transparent — and have a backup option ready.

My Setup Right Now

For what it's worth, here's what I actually use day to day:

• Screenshots and quick shares: Whatever loads fastest and doesn't need a login. I keep an upload page pinned in my browser.
• Large files: Catbox when it's available, Google Drive links as a fallback.
• Documentation: GitHub Issues for anything dev-related (GitHub's image hosting is excellent and free).
• Memes and fun stuff: Honestly, I just paste directly into Discord for those. Quality doesn't matter for memes.

Is it perfect? No. But it works, it's fast, and I don't lose sleep worrying about whether my links will break tomorrow. After the Imgur thing, that's really all I'm asking for.