darktable vs Lychee
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?
darktable
Open-source photography workflow and RAW developer
VS
Lychee
Self-hosted photo management made easy
| Feature | darktable | Lychee |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | C | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, binary, snap | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 12,904 | ★ 4,255 |
| First released | 2009 | 2012 |
| Replaces | Adobe Lightroom | Google Photos, Flickr |
Why pick each one
Choose darktable if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Mature project with 12.9k GitHub stars
- Written in C
Frequently asked questions
Is darktable or Lychee better?
Neither is universally better. darktable has the larger community, while Lychee is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are darktable and Lychee free and open-source?
Yes. darktable is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Lychee under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run darktable and Lychee with Docker?
darktable: check the project docs for container support. Lychee: yes.