Tl;dr:
- PhotoPrism: Local AI with strong privacy but heavier setup.
- LibrePhotos: Same, but less polished, more community-built.
- Immich: Best self-hosted Google Photos alternative.
- Ente Photos: E2E encrypted, low-maintenance, most “plug and play”
Immich’s AI search is so much better than PhotoPrism
Apart from me maybe thinking immich should have built in backup tools, I’ve very much found it met my needs.
Wow these all sound so much better than Proton’s photo backup. In the words of @mhzawadi@lemmy.horwood.cloud , it’s pants.
Proton reinventing the wheel is so stupid.
They should use what’s out there and improve it. Like including simplelogin. They should use immich, make it private, and include it in their setup. They even suck for calendar. You can’t integrate it anywhere. Integrating email is difficult as well. They want to become the next tech silo. I am somewhat stuck with them for now but I may move to tuta if I can
Honestly I would be ok with then being the next tech silo. If they just actually did a good job more often.
They perpetually suffer from 6 outta 10 syndrome.
They are good enough to use, better then most alternatives, but just suck enough that I’m always disappointed but not angry.
I have a docker compose immich that I somehow managed to kill fourteen minutes after convincing my wife to switch to it.
Welcom to the world of self-hosting :-D
I tried Photoprism, Ente and Immich.
Immich is by far the best. It has got an app that really does what it should do, has an AI that actually works and is easy to host and to update.
Anyone with Nextcloud Memories setup? I’ve read it’s the only one that still respects a sane files and folders setup, whereas the other options basically force you to forever use their database-based system and files are terribly organized, so you are forced to use their interface.
This is my preferred solution.
I have one setup. The setup was abit clunky since cli work is required. But after that I had a great experience.
Since I would recommend everyone 3-2-1. I have both a good structured photobackup AND immich.
whereas the other options basically force you to forever use their database-based system and files are terribly organized, so you are forced to use their interface.
Immich has a “storage templates” section which allows you to choose a folder structure that it will use to store the files in.
Or go the other way and include your folders as external libraries.
“external library” is the way
Another vote for immich here, works great and let’s me shade albums with other accounts on my server.
I’m super happy with self hosted Ente. It was really simple to setup, mobile app is perfect and local ML works great. I can recommend!
Plus thanks to built in replication, my photos are securely stored in three diferent places
I use nextcloud, the builtin photos app is pants. But memories is amzing
Using immich for photos, going to set-up nextcloud and onlyoffice for the rest
Made exactly the same experience. Dumped the map plugin and using memories now, to geo tag and re-import photos to my existing local photo manager. I might even transfer the whole bunch of photos¹ from local storage to NC. Which will be a good reason to get rid of all tha external drive and SAN-based crap in the house and replace it by fiber and a proper NAS.
¹ 20+ years worth of them, I basically shut down my darkroom and analog lab when digicams became available to common mortals. The bastards who stole my Minolta, my Fujica and the case with most of my lenses, flashes etc. made the decision to go digital a lot easier for me.
I selfhost immich in a netcup VPS. They have a 2tb VM for about 22 euros a month via a black Friday sale
I’m on a 1tb arm plan for about 10 euros a month.










