digiKam vs HomeGallery
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?
digiKam
Professional photo management with advanced metadata tools
VS
HomeGallery
Self-hosted browsable photo and video gallery with similarity search
| Feature | digiKam | HomeGallery |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | GPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | C++ | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, binary | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,200 | ★ 1,170 |
| First released | 2002 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Adobe Lightroom, Google Photos | Google Photos |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is digiKam or HomeGallery better?
Neither is universally better. digiKam has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are digiKam and HomeGallery free and open-source?
Yes. digiKam is licensed under GPL-2.0 and HomeGallery under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run digiKam and HomeGallery with Docker?
digiKam: check the project docs for container support. HomeGallery: yes.