Overview
In my quest to reduce my reliance upon proprietary software applications, I’ve begun to focus some more time in finding a good Google Photos or Apple Photos alternative. As began looking at the alternatives, I discovered that there were way more options that I had originally anticipated. Each alternative had a different feature set and I found it difficult to compare the different options. To solve this dilemma for myself (and hopefully for many others), I’m compiling a list of free and open source photo libraries that can be self-hosted or run locally without any need for cloud services.
Google/Apple Photos Alternatives
As of the writing of this post, my alternative comparison list looks like the following (Be sure to visit the github repository for the most up to date comparison.
Comparison
✅ = Feature exists in at least a limited fashion
🚧 = Feature may exist but may not be practical or officially released
❌ = Feature does not yet exist
#️⃣ = Subjective measure of feature quality (on scale of 0-10)
Tip: Hover over icons for missing/incomplete features for more information
Feature | Damselfly | Immich | Librephotos | Lychee | Nextcloud Photos | Photonix | PiGallery2 | Photoprism | Photoview | Piwigo |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Github Stars | ||||||||||
Active Contributors | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 3 |
Source Language | C# | Dart | Python | PHP | JavaScript | Python | TypeScript | Go | Typescript/Go | PHP |
License | ||||||||||
Demo | ❌ | ❌ | ✅6️⃣* | ✅4️⃣ | ✅7️⃣ | ✅8️⃣ | ✅8️⃣ | ✅9️⃣ | ✅9️⃣ | ✅9️⃣ |
Freeness | ✅🔟 | ✅🔟 | ✅🔟 | ✅🔟 | ✅🔟 | ✅🔟 | ✅🔟 | 🚧7️⃣ | ✅🔟 | ✅🔟 |
Automatic Mobile Upload | ❌ | ✅7️⃣ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅4️⃣ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅6️⃣ | ❌ | ✅7️⃣ |
Web App | ✅8️⃣ | ✅8️⃣ | ✅8️⃣ | ✅8️⃣ | ✅5️⃣ | ✅7️⃣ | ✅7️⃣ | ✅7️⃣ | ✅8️⃣ | ✅8️⃣ |
Mobile App | ❌ | ✅6️⃣ | ✅6️⃣ | ❌ | ✅3️⃣ | ✅4️⃣ | ❌ | 🚧 | ✅6️⃣ | ✅7️⃣ |
Desktop App | ✅9️⃣ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
LivePhotos Support | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅6️⃣ | ✅7️⃣ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅7️⃣ | ❌ | ❌ |
Video Support | ❌ | ✅8️⃣ | ✅8️⃣ | ✅6️⃣ | ✅6️⃣ | ❌ | ✅8️⃣ | ✅7️⃣ | ✅7️⃣ | ✅4️⃣ |
Photo Map | ✅8️⃣ | ✅4️⃣ | ✅8️⃣ | ❌ | ✅6️⃣ | ✅9️⃣ | ✅8️⃣ | ✅7️⃣ | ✅8️⃣ | ❌ |
Photo Discovery | ❌ | ❌ | ✅7️⃣ | ❌ | ✅3️⃣ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅6️⃣ | ❌ | ✅1️⃣ |
Albums | ❌ | ✅8️⃣ | ✅9️⃣ | ✅8️⃣ | ✅3️⃣ | ✅5️⃣ | ✅6️⃣ | ✅8️⃣ | ✅6️⃣ | ✅8️⃣ |
Timeline | ✅5️⃣ | ✅9️⃣ | ✅9️⃣ | ❌ | ✅5️⃣ | ✅5️⃣ | ✅5️⃣ | ✅5️⃣ | ✅9️⃣ | ✅3️⃣ |
Photo Sharing | ❌ | ✅4️⃣ | ✅9️⃣ | ✅9️⃣ | ✅5️⃣ | ❌ | ✅7️⃣ | ✅7️⃣ | ✅8️⃣ | ✅5️⃣ |
Photo Search | ✅8️⃣ | ✅7️⃣ | ✅8️⃣ | ✅3️⃣ | ✅3️⃣ | ✅8️⃣ | ✅7️⃣ | ✅8️⃣ | ✅5️⃣ | ✅7️⃣ |
Docker Installation | ✅8️⃣ | ✅7️⃣ | ✅7️⃣ | ✅7️⃣ | ✅6️⃣ | ✅8️⃣ | ✅7️⃣ | ✅6️⃣ | ✅8️⃣ | ❌ |
Object/Face Recognition | ✅8️⃣ | ✅6️⃣ | ✅8️⃣ | ❌ | 🚧3️⃣ | ✅8️⃣ | ✅6️⃣ | ✅9️⃣ | ✅6️⃣ | 🚧 |
Basic Editing | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
EXIF Data | ✅9️⃣ | ✅7️⃣ | ✅3️⃣ | ✅7️⃣ | ❌ | ✅7️⃣ | ✅7️⃣ | ✅9️⃣ | ✅7️⃣ | ✅7️⃣ |
Multiple User Support | ✅7️⃣ | ✅7️⃣ | ✅8️⃣ | ❌ | ✅7️⃣ | ✅7️⃣ | ✅7️⃣ | ❌ | ✅6️⃣ | ✅8️⃣ |
* Librephotos Demo (User:demo Password:demo1234)
Note: This list is by no means comprehensive. For links to other photo library projects, see the Awesome Self-Hosted list.
Contributing
Please contribute additions and corrections by submitting a merge request to the github repository! When contributing, please add links to the source of the information. (i.e. link to an issue that indicates that a feature does not exist)
~ Don’t give away your photos to the largest data collection entities in the world! Your photos document your life better than any other kinds of data. Pictures are worth more than a thousand words to advertisers!