Ente Photos vs HomeGallery
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted photo management options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Ente Photos
End-to-end encrypted photo storage and backup
VS
HomeGallery
Self-hosted browsable photo and video gallery with similarity search
| Feature | Ente Photos | HomeGallery |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 98 · Excellent | 72 · Good |
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Dart | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 29,050 | ★ 1,185 |
| First released | 2022 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Google Photos, iCloud Photos | Google Photos |
What are Ente Photos and HomeGallery?
Ente Photos
Ente is an end-to-end encrypted photo storage and backup service with apps across platforms and a self-hostable server. It targets privacy-focused users wanting encrypted photo backup. It is deployed via Docker.
- End-to-end encryption
- Apps for all platforms
- Self-hostable server
- Family sharing
HomeGallery
HomeGallery is a self-hosted web gallery that indexes photos and videos and offers fast browsing, similarity search, and face detection. It builds an offline-capable database from your existing media folders.
- Similarity search
- Face detection
- Video support
- Offline-capable database
Ente Photos vs HomeGallery: key differences
Ente Photos is written in Dart, while HomeGallery is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Ente Photos versus MIT for HomeGallery. HomeGallery is the more established project (first released 2020), while Ente Photos arrived in 2022. Ente Photos has the considerably larger community, at 29,050 GitHub stars versus 1,185.
Why pick each one
Choose Ente Photos if…
- Strong encryption
- Polished apps
- Privacy-first
Watch out for
- Self-hosting is advanced
- Server setup nontrivial
Choose HomeGallery if…
- Fast browsing
- Reads existing folders
Watch out for
- Indexing can be slow
- No upload from app
Frequently asked questions
Is Ente Photos or HomeGallery better?
Neither is universally better. Ente Photos has the larger community, while HomeGallery is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Ente Photos and HomeGallery free and open-source?
Yes. Ente Photos is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and HomeGallery under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Ente Photos and HomeGallery with Docker?
Ente Photos: yes. HomeGallery: yes.