fgallery vs Piwigo
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted photo management options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Piwigo
Open-source photo gallery for the web
| Feature | fgallery | Piwigo |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 9 · At risk | 87 · Excellent |
| Status | Archived | Actively maintained |
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | JavaScript | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 248 | ★ 3,862 |
| First released | 2013 | 2002 |
| Replaces | Flickr, Google Photos | Flickr, Google Photos |
What are fgallery and Piwigo?
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
Piwigo
Piwigo is a mature open-source photo gallery application for organizing, sharing, and showcasing photo collections. It targets photographers and organizations managing large galleries. It is deployed via Docker or a PHP stack.
- Large gallery management
- Plugin and theme ecosystem
- Granular access control
- Upload from desktop and mobile
fgallery vs Piwigo: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: fgallery's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Piwigo is actively maintained. Fgallery is written in JavaScript, while Piwigo is built with PHP. Licensing differs — MIT for fgallery versus GPL-2.0 for Piwigo. Fgallery is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Piwigo. Piwigo is the more established project (first released 2002), while fgallery arrived in 2013. Piwigo has the considerably larger community, at 3,862 GitHub stars versus 248. Piwigo 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 Piwigo if…
- Very mature and stable
- Extensible
- Good for big collections
Watch out for
- Interface feels classic
- No modern AI search
Frequently asked questions
Is fgallery or Piwigo better?
Neither is universally better. Piwigo has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are fgallery and Piwigo free and open-source?
Yes. fgallery is licensed under MIT and Piwigo under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run fgallery and Piwigo with Docker?
fgallery: check the project docs for container support. Piwigo: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, fgallery or Piwigo?
fgallery has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Piwigo. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.