SHSelfHostIndex

Damselfly vs HomeGallery

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?
DA Damselfly Server-based photo management for large libraries VS HO HomeGallery Self-hosted browsable photo and video gallery with similarity search
FeatureDamselflyHomeGallery
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score80 · Excellent72 · Good
CategoryPhoto ManagementPhoto Management
LicenseGPL-3.0MIT
LanguageC#JavaScript
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM1,024 MB1,024 MB
Deploymentdockerdocker, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 1,787★ 1,185
First released20202020
ReplacesGoogle PhotosGoogle Photos

What are Damselfly and HomeGallery?

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

Read the full Damselfly guide →

HomeGallery

HomeGallery is a self-hosted web gallery that indexes photos and videos and offers fast browsing, similarity search, and face detection. It builds an offline-capable database from your existing media folders.

  • Similarity search
  • Face detection
  • Video support
  • Offline-capable database

Read the full HomeGallery guide →

Damselfly vs HomeGallery: key differences

Damselfly is written in C#, while HomeGallery is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Damselfly versus MIT for HomeGallery.

Why pick each one

Choose Damselfly if…

  • Handles huge archives
  • Non-destructive indexing
  • Good search

Watch out for

  • Niche tool
  • Smaller community
Damselfly details

Choose HomeGallery if…

  • Fast browsing
  • Reads existing folders

Watch out for

  • Indexing can be slow
  • No upload from app
HomeGallery details

Frequently asked questions

Is Damselfly or HomeGallery better?

Neither is universally better. Damselfly has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Damselfly and HomeGallery free and open-source?

Yes. Damselfly is licensed under GPL-3.0 and HomeGallery under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Damselfly and HomeGallery with Docker?

Damselfly: yes. HomeGallery: yes.

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