darktable vs Piwigo
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
Piwigo
Open-source photo gallery for the web
| Feature | darktable | Piwigo |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| 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 | ★ 3,836 |
| First released | 2009 | 2002 |
| Replaces | Adobe Lightroom | Flickr, Google Photos |
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 Piwigo better?
Neither is universally better. darktable has the larger community, while Piwigo is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are darktable and Piwigo free and open-source?
Yes. darktable is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Piwigo under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run darktable and Piwigo with Docker?
darktable: check the project docs for container support. Piwigo: yes.