I created myself an ipernity account today, because I wanted to broaden my horizon. I've used flickr for years, and I wanted to study this flickr clone.

At first sight I can see some advantages:

  • a free account has 200 MB upload limit (flickr has 100 MB)
  • a free account has the last 1000 items visible (flickr has 200 items)
  • a free account can have many sets (flickr limits to 3)
  • a free account allows you to download your own originals (flickr doesn't)
  • on ipernity you can download originals from free accounts, if you yourself are pro
  • a pro account keeps the static URL when photos are replaced (flickr doesn't)
  • ipernity allows to block original downloads without blocking blogging (flickr doesn't)
  • ipernity can host more than just photos and videos
  • ipernity doesn't require a pro account for videos
  • ipernity doesn't censor german users
  • ipernity accounts have a blog

I can see some disadvantages, too:

  • ipernity pro is 25 Euro for one year (flickr is 25 US-$)
  • ipernity has no guest pass feature for photos and sets
  • ipernity has a much smaller community

Conclusion (first sight):

  • ipernity has very useful free accounts (flickr doesn't at all)
  • if you don't need guest passes and a huge community, ipernity rules!

I haven't checked whether ipernity's video feature is better than flickr's, yet. (flickr's is useless due to the limitations in size and length and especially due to the enormous quality diminution and incompatibility.)

And again: This is all on first sight, so this comparison can't be complete and it might not be correct in every detail. But to me, ipernity makes a very good impression on first sight.