Coppermine vs Zenphoto
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted photo management options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Coppermine | Zenphoto |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 57 · Fair | 66 · Good |
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | PHP | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 73 | ★ 318 |
| First released | 2002 | 2006 |
| Replaces | Flickr | SmugMug, Flickr |
What are Coppermine and Zenphoto?
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
Zenphoto
Zenphoto is an open-source gallery and content management system focused on multimedia. It supports albums, theming, and plugins, making it suitable for personal photo websites and portfolios.
- Photo gallery CMS
- Theming and plugins
- Albums and tagging
- Multimedia support
Coppermine vs Zenphoto: key differences
Both projects are written in PHP. Coppermine is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Zenphoto. Coppermine is the more established project (first released 2002), while Zenphoto arrived in 2006. Zenphoto has the considerably larger community, at 318 GitHub stars versus 73. Zenphoto 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 Zenphoto if…
- Mature project
- Good for portfolios
Watch out for
- Dated in places
- Requires LAMP stack
Frequently asked questions
Is Coppermine or Zenphoto better?
Neither is universally better. Zenphoto has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Coppermine and Zenphoto free and open-source?
Yes. Coppermine is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Zenphoto under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Coppermine and Zenphoto with Docker?
Coppermine: check the project docs for container support. Zenphoto: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Coppermine or Zenphoto?
Coppermine has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Zenphoto. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.