Best self-hosted Google Photos alternatives (2026)

If you want something that feels like Google Photos, with automatic phone backup, face recognition and a timeline, Immich is the closest open-source match today. PhotoPrism is the better pick if you already have a big photo archive on disk and want to browse and search it. Ente is the one to look at if end-to-end encryption matters most to you.

The other apps in this list are more specialised: Lychee and PiGallery2 are galleries for showing photos, not backup tools for your phone.

What to look for

Google Photos does several jobs at once, and the self-hosted apps split them differently. Before you choose, decide which of these you actually need:

• Phone backup: an app on your phone that uploads new photos in the background. Without it, you need a separate sync tool.
• Search and faces: finding "beach" or a person's face across years of photos needs machine learning, and machine learning needs RAM and CPU.
• Sharing: albums for family, public links for friends, several user accounts.
• Your existing archive: some apps want to own the photo folder, others index a folder you already have and leave it alone.

Quick comparison

Immich

Immich describes itself as a photo and video backup solution directly from your phone, and that is where it is strongest. The official mobile apps back up selected albums automatically, also in the background. The web app and the phone apps both have face recognition, maps, shared albums, multiple users and "memories" from past years.

It is also the most active project here by a wide margin: about 116,000 GitHub stars and more than 200 commits in most months of the past year, with v3.3.1 released on 8 October 2026.

The cost is hardware. Immich's requirements page asks for at least 6 GB of RAM and 2 CPU cores, and recommends 8 GB and 4 cores. With 4 GB it can run if you turn off machine learning, which also turns off smart search and faces. The Postgres database should sit on a local SSD, never on a network share.

One thing to understand about backups: Immich's database holds only metadata and user information. Your actual photos are in the upload folder, and you need to back up both.

It suits anyone who wants to cancel Google Photos and keep the same habits. Run it on your own server with Docker Compose (the docs have a ready-made file), or on a managed host such as blitz.cloud, where Immich installs in one click.

PhotoPrism

PhotoPrism comes from the other direction. It is great at indexing a large folder of photos you already have, tagging them and making them searchable, with faces, places and an interactive world map.

It runs on less hardware than Immich: the docs ask for at least 2 cores and 3 GB of RAM, plus 4 GB of swap. Face recognition is turned off on systems with 1 GB of memory or less.

There is no native phone app. You can install the web app on your phone as a progressive web app, or upload through WebDAV with a sync app.

PhotoPrism also has paid editions. The free Community Edition has fewer account roles (Super Admin, Admin and Guest), while Essentials and Plus add more roles, and Plus adds a user management interface. OpenID Connect single sign-on is listed for the paid editions only. For a family where everyone shares one library this rarely matters, but check the editions page if you plan several separate users.

It suits people with a big existing archive who care about browsing and search more than about phone backup.

Ente

Ente is a photo service with end-to-end encryption, and its whole stack, including the server, is open source. Ente says the self-hosted server is "the same code we use on production."

That makes it unusual: the official Ente Photos apps for Android and iOS back up in the background, and you can point them at your own server. Face detection and grouping happen on the device, which is how it works with encrypted photos the server cannot read.

Self-hosting starts with a quickstart script that creates a Docker Compose setup. The minimum listed is 1 GB of RAM and 1 CPU core, and Docker runs the object storage for the photos as one of the services.

It suits people who want encryption even from the server admin, or who like Ente's hosted service but want the option to run it themselves.

LibrePhotos

LibrePhotos is a smaller, MIT-licensed project with a feature list that reads close to Immich: face detection and clustering ("name a person once and the rest is suggested"), object detection, semantic search, multiple users, shared albums and a map. Its repo lists an offline-first mobile app for Android and iOS built with Expo.

The recommended install is a single Docker container that serves the API and web app together. With about 8,100 stars, its community is much smaller than Immich's, so expect fewer guides and slower answers.

It suits people who prefer an MIT-licensed project or want to try a smaller alternative.

Lychee

Lychee is a photo management and publishing tool. You upload photos from your computer, a server, a URL or Dropbox, put them in albums, protect albums with passwords or make them public in one click.

Lychee does not mention a phone backup app or face recognition. That is fine, because Lychee solves a different problem: showing photos to other people in a clean web gallery. There is a docker-compose file for setup and a paid Supporter Edition to fund the project.

It suits photographers and families who want to publish albums, alongside a separate backup tool.

PiGallery2

PiGallery2 is a "directory-first photo gallery website" made for low-resource servers, especially the Raspberry Pi. It is read-only: "Your photo folder is never modified." You point it at a folder and get a fast web gallery on top. Docker is the recommended way to run it.

It suits someone with photos on a NAS or a Pi who wants to browse them in a browser without any app touching the files.

Two more worth knowing

If you already run Nextcloud, the Memories app adds a photo timeline on top of the files you sync there, with face tagging through Nextcloud's recognition apps. Photoview is another gallery that indexes existing folders.

How to run them

All of these are self-hosted, so the usual three routes apply:

1. Your own server with Docker. A home server is the natural place for a photo library because disk space is cheap there. Immich and PhotoPrism both publish official Docker Compose files.
2. A rented server. Works well, but storage for many years of photos adds up. Check disk prices before you move 500 GB of videos.
3. A managed host. Immich is available on blitz.cloud, where it installs in one click with HTTPS, hosted in the EU. There is a free plan without a credit card; apps on it sleep after 30 minutes without visitors.

Whatever you choose, keep a backup outside the app. Our self-hosting for beginners guide explains how to plan for that.

FAQ

What is the best self-hosted alternative to Google Photos?

For most people Immich, because it has official phone apps with background backup, face recognition and sharing, and the most active development. PhotoPrism is a strong second if you mainly organise an existing archive.

Can I import my Google Photos library?

Yes, through Google Takeout, which exports your photos with metadata in separate JSON files. For Immich, the docs recommend a community-maintained tool called immich-go to import a Takeout archive. Test with a small part of your library first.

Which option runs on a Raspberry Pi?

PiGallery2 is built for it. Immich needs at least 6 GB of RAM for a smooth experience, so it only fits on the larger Pi models, and without machine learning features on smaller ones.

Is there an end-to-end encrypted option?

Ente. Its apps encrypt photos on your device before upload, and you can self-host the server.

Do these apps replace a backup?

No. They are where your photos live, which makes them the thing you back up. Keep at least one more copy elsewhere.