fgallery vs thumbsup

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?
Featurefgallerythumbsup
Deploy effortRead-the-docs projectRead-the-docs project
Health score9 · At risk56 · Fair
StatusArchivedActively maintained
CategoryPhoto ManagementPhoto Management
LicenseMITMIT
LanguageJavaScriptJavaScript
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM128 MB256 MB
Deploymentbare-metal, sourcebare-metal, binary
GitHub stars★ 248★ 865
First released20132016
ReplacesFlickr, Google PhotosGoogle Photos, Flickr

What are fgallery and thumbsup?

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

thumbsup

thumbsup is a tool that builds a static HTML gallery from your photos and videos, requiring no server-side runtime. The generated site can be hosted anywhere and includes thumbnails, albums, and metadata.

  • Static gallery generation
  • No server runtime needed
  • Thumbnails and albums
  • Host anywhere

fgallery vs thumbsup: key differences

The biggest difference is maintenance: fgallery's repository is archived and no longer developed, while thumbsup is actively maintained. Both projects are written in JavaScript. Fgallery is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for thumbsup. Fgallery is the more established project (first released 2013), while thumbsup arrived in 2016. Thumbsup has the considerably larger community, at 865 GitHub stars versus 248.

Why pick each one

Choose fgallery if…

  • Clean simple design
  • Privacy respecting

Watch out for

  • Command-line only
  • Minimal features
fgallery details

Choose thumbsup if…

  • Extremely portable output
  • No database

Watch out for

  • No live uploads
  • Regenerate to update
thumbsup details

Frequently asked questions

Is fgallery or thumbsup better?

Neither is universally better. thumbsup has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are fgallery and thumbsup free and open-source?

Yes. fgallery is licensed under MIT and thumbsup under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run fgallery and thumbsup with Docker?

fgallery: check the project docs for container support. thumbsup: check the project docs for container support.

Which is lighter on resources, fgallery or thumbsup?

fgallery has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for thumbsup. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.

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