Coppermine vs Lychee
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted photo management options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Coppermine | Lychee |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 57 · Fair | 89 · Excellent |
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | PHP | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 73 | ★ 4,303 |
| First released | 2002 | 2012 |
| Replaces | Flickr | Google Photos, Flickr |
What are Coppermine and Lychee?
Coppermine
Coppermine is a multi-purpose, fully featured web picture gallery that supports user uploads, ratings, and comments. It is one of the longest-running open-source gallery scripts and runs on a standard PHP and MySQL stack.
- User uploads and ratings
- Comments and moderation
- Theming support
- Batch import
Lychee
Lychee is a self-hosted photo management tool focused on simple, attractive galleries with quick uploads and sharing. It targets users who want a straightforward photo gallery. It is deployed via Docker or a PHP stack.
- Clean photo galleries
- Quick upload and sharing
- Albums and tags
- EXIF metadata display
Coppermine vs Lychee: key differences
Both projects are written in PHP. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Coppermine versus MIT for Lychee. Coppermine is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Lychee. Coppermine is the more established project (first released 2002), while Lychee arrived in 2012. Lychee has the considerably larger community, at 4,303 GitHub stars versus 73. Lychee lists first-class Docker deployment; Coppermine does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Coppermine if…
- Very mature
- Community moderation tools
Watch out for
- Dated interface
- Aging codebase
Choose Lychee if…
- Simple and attractive
- Easy to host
- Lightweight
Watch out for
- No AI features
- Basic search
Frequently asked questions
Is Coppermine or Lychee better?
Lychee is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Coppermine if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Coppermine and Lychee free and open-source?
Yes. Coppermine is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Lychee under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Coppermine and Lychee with Docker?
Coppermine: check the project docs for container support. Lychee: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Coppermine or Lychee?
Coppermine has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Lychee. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.