darktable vs nanogallery2

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted photo management options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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Featuredarktablenanogallery2
CategoryPhoto ManagementPhoto Management
LicenseGPL-3.0GPL-3.0
LanguageCJavaScript
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM2,048 MB64 MB
Deploymentbare-metal, binary, snapbare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 12,904★ 791
First released20092017
ReplacesAdobe LightroomFlickr, SmugMug

Why pick each one

Choose darktable if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • Mature project with 12.9k GitHub stars
  • Written in C
darktable details

Choose nanogallery2 if…

  • Fully client-side
  • Easy to embed
nanogallery2 details

Frequently asked questions

Is darktable or nanogallery2 better?

Neither is universally better. darktable has the larger community, while nanogallery2 is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are darktable and nanogallery2 free and open-source?

Yes. darktable is licensed under GPL-3.0 and nanogallery2 under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run darktable and nanogallery2 with Docker?

darktable: check the project docs for container support. nanogallery2: check the project docs for container support.

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