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.
Not the right match-up?
Coppermine
Multi-purpose, full-featured web picture gallery
VS
Zenphoto
Open-source CMS for photo galleries and multimedia
| Feature | Coppermine | Zenphoto |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | ★ 319 |
| First released | 2002 | 2006 |
| Replaces | Flickr | SmugMug, Flickr |
Why pick each one
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.