Damselfly vs Immich
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted photo management options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Immich
High-performance self-hosted photo and video backup
| Feature | Damselfly | Immich |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | ≈5-minute setup |
| Health score | 80 · Excellent | 100 · Excellent |
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | C# | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,788 | ★ 114,847 |
| First released | 2020 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Google Photos | Google Photos, iCloud Photos |
What are Damselfly and Immich?
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
Immich
Immich is a high-performance, self-hosted photo and video backup solution with mobile apps, AI search, and face recognition. It targets users wanting a private Google Photos alternative. It is deployed via Docker Compose.
- Automatic phone backup
- AI-powered search and face recognition
- Timeline and album views
- Multi-user with sharing
Damselfly vs Immich: key differences
Damselfly is written in C#, while Immich is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Damselfly versus AGPL-3.0 for Immich. Damselfly is the lighter option, starting around 1,024 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Immich. Damselfly is the more established project (first released 2020), while Immich arrived in 2022. Immich has the considerably larger community, at 114,847 GitHub stars versus 1,788.
Why pick each one
Choose Damselfly if…
- Handles huge archives
- Non-destructive indexing
- Good search
Watch out for
- Niche tool
- Smaller community
Choose Immich if…
- Excellent mobile apps
- Fast and feature-rich
- Very active development
Watch out for
- Resource intensive
- Breaking changes still occur
Frequently asked questions
Is Damselfly or Immich better?
Neither is universally better. Immich has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Damselfly and Immich free and open-source?
Yes. Damselfly is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Immich under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Damselfly and Immich with Docker?
Damselfly: yes. Immich: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Damselfly or Immich?
Damselfly has the smaller minimum footprint at 1,024 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Immich. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.