Coppermine vs nanogallery2
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted photo management options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Coppermine | nanogallery2 |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 57 · Fair | 12 · At risk |
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | PHP | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 73 | ★ 791 |
| First released | 2002 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Flickr | Flickr, SmugMug |
What are Coppermine and nanogallery2?
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
nanogallery2
nanogallery2 is an open-source JavaScript photo and video gallery library that builds responsive, touch-enabled galleries from images stored on your own server. It runs fully client-side and is self-hosted on any static web host.
- Responsive image galleries
- Touch and swipe support
- Lightbox display
- Multiple data sources
Coppermine vs nanogallery2: key differences
Coppermine is written in PHP, while nanogallery2 is built with JavaScript. Nanogallery2 is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Coppermine. Coppermine is the more established project (first released 2002), while nanogallery2 arrived in 2017. Nanogallery2 has the considerably larger community, at 791 GitHub stars versus 73.
Why pick each one
Choose Coppermine if…
- Very mature
- Community moderation tools
Watch out for
- Dated interface
- Aging codebase
Choose nanogallery2 if…
- Fully client-side
- Easy to embed
Watch out for
- Library, not a full app
- No upload management
Frequently asked questions
Is Coppermine or nanogallery2 better?
nanogallery2 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 nanogallery2 free and open-source?
Yes. Coppermine is licensed under GPL-3.0 and nanogallery2 under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Coppermine and nanogallery2 with Docker?
Coppermine: check the project docs for container support. nanogallery2: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Coppermine or nanogallery2?
nanogallery2 has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Coppermine. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.