fgallery vs OwnPhotos
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted photo management options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | fgallery | OwnPhotos |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 9 · At risk | 22 · At risk |
| Status | Archived | Actively maintained |
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | JavaScript | Jupyter Notebook |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 248 | ★ 2,758 |
| First released | 2013 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Flickr, Google Photos | Google Photos |
What are fgallery and OwnPhotos?
fgallery
fgallery is a static photo gallery generator that produces a minimalist, self-contained HTML gallery from a folder of images. The generated gallery is fully static, privacy-respecting, and can be hosted on any web server.
- Minimalist static galleries
- Self-contained output
- Mobile friendly
- No tracking
OwnPhotos
OwnPhotos is a self-hosted alternative to Google Photos with automatic face recognition and object detection. It builds albums based on people, places, and things found in your library.
- Face recognition
- Object detection
- Auto-generated albums
- Self-hosted Google Photos clone
fgallery vs OwnPhotos: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: fgallery's repository is archived and no longer developed, while OwnPhotos is actively maintained. Fgallery is written in JavaScript, while OwnPhotos is built with Jupyter Notebook. Fgallery is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for OwnPhotos. Fgallery is the more established project (first released 2013), while OwnPhotos arrived in 2017. OwnPhotos has the considerably larger community, at 2,758 GitHub stars versus 248. OwnPhotos lists first-class Docker deployment; fgallery does not.
Why pick each one
Choose fgallery if…
- Clean simple design
- Privacy respecting
Watch out for
- Command-line only
- Minimal features
Choose OwnPhotos if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2.8k GitHub stars)
- Written in Jupyter Notebook
Watch out for
- Project is now inactive
- Predecessor to LibrePhotos
Frequently asked questions
Is fgallery or OwnPhotos better?
Neither is universally better. OwnPhotos has the larger community, while fgallery is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are fgallery and OwnPhotos free and open-source?
Yes. fgallery is licensed under MIT and OwnPhotos under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run fgallery and OwnPhotos with Docker?
fgallery: check the project docs for container support. OwnPhotos: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, fgallery or OwnPhotos?
fgallery has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for OwnPhotos. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.