Color Thief vs Immich Kiosk
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted photo management options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Color Thief
Library to extract color palettes from photos
VS
Immich Kiosk
Lightweight slideshow for running on kiosk devices and browsers that
| Feature | Color Thief | Immich Kiosk |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 13,616 | ★ 1,622 |
| First released | 2011 | 2026 |
| Replaces | Commercial color analysis APIs | — |
Why pick each one
Choose Immich Kiosk if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.6k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Color Thief or Immich Kiosk better?
Color Thief is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Immich Kiosk if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Color Thief and Immich Kiosk free and open-source?
Yes. Color Thief is licensed under MIT and Immich Kiosk under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Color Thief and Immich Kiosk with Docker?
Color Thief: check the project docs for container support. Immich Kiosk: yes.