Damselfly vs Piwigo
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted photo management options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Piwigo
Open-source photo gallery for the web
| Feature | Damselfly | Piwigo |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 80 · Excellent | 87 · Excellent |
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | C# | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,788 | ★ 3,862 |
| First released | 2020 | 2002 |
| Replaces | Google Photos | Flickr, Google Photos |
What are Damselfly and Piwigo?
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
Piwigo
Piwigo is a mature open-source photo gallery application for organizing, sharing, and showcasing photo collections. It targets photographers and organizations managing large galleries. It is deployed via Docker or a PHP stack.
- Large gallery management
- Plugin and theme ecosystem
- Granular access control
- Upload from desktop and mobile
Damselfly vs Piwigo: key differences
Damselfly is written in C#, while Piwigo is built with PHP. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Damselfly versus GPL-2.0 for Piwigo. Piwigo is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Damselfly. Piwigo is the more established project (first released 2002), while Damselfly arrived in 2020. Piwigo has the considerably larger community, at 3,862 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 Piwigo if…
- Very mature and stable
- Extensible
- Good for big collections
Watch out for
- Interface feels classic
- No modern AI search
Frequently asked questions
Is Damselfly or Piwigo better?
Piwigo is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Damselfly if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Damselfly and Piwigo free and open-source?
Yes. Damselfly is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Piwigo under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Damselfly and Piwigo with Docker?
Damselfly: yes. Piwigo: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Damselfly or Piwigo?
Piwigo has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Damselfly. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.