Damselfly vs Ente Photos
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted photo management options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Ente Photos
End-to-end encrypted photo storage and backup
| Feature | Damselfly | Ente Photos |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 80 · Excellent | 98 · Excellent |
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | C# | Dart |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,787 | ★ 29,050 |
| First released | 2020 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Google Photos | Google Photos, iCloud Photos |
What are Damselfly and Ente Photos?
Damselfly
Damselfly is a server-based digital asset manager designed to index and search very large photo collections quickly. It targets photographers with huge archives. It is deployed via Docker.
- Fast search of large libraries
- Face and object recognition
- Keyword tagging and export
- Works with existing folders
Ente Photos
Ente is an end-to-end encrypted photo storage and backup service with apps across platforms and a self-hostable server. It targets privacy-focused users wanting encrypted photo backup. It is deployed via Docker.
- End-to-end encryption
- Apps for all platforms
- Self-hostable server
- Family sharing
Damselfly vs Ente Photos: key differences
Damselfly is written in C#, while Ente Photos is built with Dart. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Damselfly versus AGPL-3.0 for Ente Photos. Damselfly is the more established project (first released 2020), while Ente Photos arrived in 2022. Ente Photos has the considerably larger community, at 29,050 GitHub stars versus 1,787.
Why pick each one
Choose Damselfly if…
- Handles huge archives
- Non-destructive indexing
- Good search
Watch out for
- Niche tool
- Smaller community
Choose Ente Photos if…
- Strong encryption
- Polished apps
- Privacy-first
Watch out for
- Self-hosting is advanced
- Server setup nontrivial
Frequently asked questions
Is Damselfly or Ente Photos better?
Neither is universally better. Ente Photos has the larger community, while Damselfly is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Damselfly and Ente Photos free and open-source?
Yes. Damselfly is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Ente Photos under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Damselfly and Ente Photos with Docker?
Damselfly: yes. Ente Photos: yes.