The free iCloud tops out at 5GB (which is low for storing device backups and photos; ideally, you should get the same storage as your device size for free). You can pay for more storage.
And if you don't want to trust iCloud with photo sync, there are other options (Dropbox does that, and Plex has a photo sync function if you want to host those files yourself).
And if you don't want to trust iCloud with photo sync, there are other options (Dropbox does that, and Plex has a photo sync function if you want to host those files yourself).