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Our Family Socials vs private Facebook groups

A private Facebook group is the default way most families share photos, and Our Family Socials is a purpose-built private family network. This page compares the two fairly so you can pick the right one. Facts about Facebook are general and taken from Meta's own documentation as of October 2026 - check facebook.com for current details.

Last updated October 2026

The short answer

Use a private Facebook group if every relative is already on Facebook, you want it to cost nothing, and you mainly want a chat-and-photos stream. Use Our Family Socials if you want family memories kept off an advertising platform, organised into event pages with maps and a timeline, and visible in the order they were posted.

Where private Facebook groups are stronger

No cost. Facebook groups are free to create and use. Our Family Socials charges for creating unlimited events.
Everyone is already there. No relative has to sign up for a new service, and most already know how groups work.
More general-purpose tools. Group chat, polls, RSVP-style events and a much larger ecosystem of features.
Native iOS and Android apps with years of polish; Our Family Socials is a progressive web app you add to your home screen.

Key differences

	Private Facebook group	Our Family Socials
Platform and business model	Runs on Meta's advertising platform, which is funded by ads and subject to Meta's policy changes.	A separate, subscription-funded platform. No advertising in the product and no selling of your data.
Feed order	Facebook ranks what you see algorithmically, so posts in a group may not appear chronologically and can be missed.	Strictly chronological. Every event from the people you follow appears in the order it was shared.
Organisation	Posts live in one long scroll. Finding last year's holiday album means scrolling or searching.	Events organised by date, location, person and category, with timeline and map views.
Location features	Basic location tagging on a post.	Interactive world map, multi-stop journey maps, and automatic GPS extraction from photo metadata.
Page depth	A post with a caption and an album.	An event page with a rich text story, galleries, videos, multiple locations, dates and tagged family members.
Account requirements	Every member needs a Facebook account.	Sign-up with an email address, or view a single event through a private share link with no account at all.

What it costs

A Facebook group costs nothing. Our Family Socials is free to view forever, and paid when you want to create unlimited events: Free plan $0/forever, Pro $9/month billed annually ($108/year) or $12/month billed monthly, and a one-time Lifetime plan at $294. Every new account gets a 30-day free trial of Pro, no credit card required.

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