Coppermine vs Sigal
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted photo management options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Coppermine | Sigal |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 57 · Fair | 78 · Good |
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | PHP | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 73 | ★ 945 |
| First released | 2002 | 2012 |
| Replaces | Flickr | Flickr |
What are Coppermine and Sigal?
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
Sigal
Sigal is a simple static gallery generator that builds a browsable photo and video website from a folder of images. The output is plain HTML and works with several themes.
- Static gallery generation
- Multiple themes
- Plugin system
- Video thumbnail support
Coppermine vs Sigal: key differences
Coppermine is written in PHP, while Sigal is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Coppermine versus MIT for Sigal. Sigal is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Coppermine. Coppermine is the more established project (first released 2002), while Sigal arrived in 2012. Sigal has the considerably larger community, at 945 GitHub stars versus 73.
Why pick each one
Choose Coppermine if…
- Very mature
- Community moderation tools
Watch out for
- Dated interface
- Aging codebase
Choose Sigal if…
- Very lightweight
- Easy to host
Watch out for
- No uploads or editing
- Static output only
Frequently asked questions
Is Coppermine or Sigal better?
Sigal 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 Sigal free and open-source?
Yes. Coppermine is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Sigal under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Coppermine and Sigal with Docker?
Coppermine: check the project docs for container support. Sigal: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Coppermine or Sigal?
Sigal has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Coppermine. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.