Comparison
Time Portal next to the alternatives
Four ways to see what a place looked like before, and what each is actually good for — including the cases where Time Portal is not the one to reach for.
They all put the past on a map, and they are not substitutes for each other. The short version: Street View is the only one with near-total coverage and the only one that cannot go back further than 2007. Historypin has the longest history and the institutional partnerships, and has had no mobile app for a decade. On This Spot is the best of these if you want to be walked through a city by someone who chose the stops. Time Portal is the largest of the photograph archives and the only one that turns your own camera into the comparison.
| Feature | Time Portal | Historypin | On This Spot | Street View history |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How much there is | ~2.3 million photographs | ~200,000 assets | Curated tours, not a bulk archive | Street imagery, near-total road coverage |
| How far back | 1826–2000 | Varies by contribution | Varies by tour | 2007 onward |
| Where | Worldwide, densest in cities and Europe | Worldwide, strongest UK, US, Australia | Mostly North America | Worldwide |
| On a phone | iPhone and iPad, iOS 26+ | Apps discontinued in 2015 — web only | iPhone and Android | Google Maps app |
| In a browser | Yes, no account | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Re-take the photograph yourself | Yes — overlay on the live viewfinder | Overlay on Street View, on screen | Side-by-side comparison | No |
| Which way the camera faced | Stored on most photographs | Not as a data field | Implied by the tour | Yes, it is a panorama |
| Where the pictures come from | PastVu, a community archive | Users and partner institutions | Curated by the company | Google's own cameras |
| Price | Free from 1955 on; Pro unlocks the rest | Free, non-profit | Free | Free |
| Running since | 2016 | 2010 | 2016 | 2007 |
Historypin
The elder of the group, launched in beta in 2010 and run by a non-profit. Its archive is contributed by the public and by museums and historical societies, which is a genuine strength: a photograph arrives with the people who know what it shows. Wikipedia puts the collection at over 200,000 assets, weighted towards the UK, the US and Australia.
The practical catch is that its smartphone apps were all discontinued in 2015. Historypin today is a website. If you want to stand in the street and hold the old photograph up against the building, that is not what it is for any more.
On This Spot
A different idea, done well: instead of a map you search, it gives you walking tours with the stops already chosen and the then-and-now pairs already lined up. If you are visiting a city it covers, that is a better first hour than any archive — someone did the curation.
The trade is coverage. It is strongest across North American cities, and outside a curated tour there is no bulk archive to fall back on. It runs on both iPhone and Android, and it is free.
Google Street View's history slider
Not really a competitor so much as the thing everyone tries first. Coverage is unmatched and it costs nothing, but Google's cameras only started in 2007 — the slider shows you a shopfront that changed hands, not a street before the war. Everything older has to come from photographs, which is what the other three are for.
Time Portal
About 2.3 million photographs from 1826 to 2000, each pinned to the coordinates it was taken at, and most carrying the compass direction the camera faced — so a pin tells you not just where to stand but which way to look. Pins are tinted by year, and a two-handled scale narrows the era.
The part that has no equivalent here is the camera: on iPhone and iPad the original lays over your live viewfinder as a ghost, as traced edges, or split down the middle, and both frames share as one image. The archive is free to browse from 1955 onward with no account; the web map needs nothing installed, and the app is a free download.
Where Time Portal is the weaker choice
- If you are on Android. There is no native app — only the web map, and the web map has no camera. On This Spot ships on both platforms.
- If your city is thin. Coverage follows wherever the archive's community has been most active. Some regions are dense and some are nearly empty, and no amount of describing the archive changes what is under your own address. Searching it is free, so check before you decide.
- If you want to be shown around. Time Portal hands you a map and a year scale. It does not walk you through a city the way a curated tour does.
- If you want to contribute photographs. Uploading and placing them happens at PastVu and Historypin, not here.
- If you need the camera and will not pay. Browsing is free; Then & Now is part of Pro.
Figures for other tools come from their own listings and from Wikipedia, checked on 25 August 2026; ours come from the app itself. If something here has gone out of date, tell us at [email protected] — a comparison nobody maintains is worse than no comparison. More questions are answered on the FAQ.