HomeGallery vs Memories
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted photo management options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Memories
Photo management app for Nextcloud with timeline and AI
| Feature | HomeGallery | Memories |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 72 · Good | 88 · Excellent |
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | JavaScript | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,185 | ★ 3,843 |
| First released | 2020 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Google Photos | Google Photos, iCloud Photos |
What are HomeGallery and Memories?
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
Memories
Memories is a photo and video management application that runs as a Nextcloud app, offering a fast timeline view of your media. It supports face recognition, maps, albums, and metadata-aware search.
- Fast timeline view
- Face recognition and maps
- Albums and tagging
- Nextcloud integration
HomeGallery vs Memories: key differences
HomeGallery is written in JavaScript, while Memories is built with PHP. Licensing differs — MIT for HomeGallery versus AGPL-3.0 for Memories. HomeGallery is the more established project (first released 2020), while Memories arrived in 2022. Memories has the considerably larger community, at 3,843 GitHub stars versus 1,185.
Why pick each one
Choose HomeGallery if…
- Fast browsing
- Reads existing folders
Watch out for
- Indexing can be slow
- No upload from app
Choose Memories if…
- Leverages existing Nextcloud
- Polished mobile experience
Watch out for
- Requires Nextcloud
- AI features need extra setup
Frequently asked questions
Is HomeGallery or Memories better?
Neither is universally better. Memories has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are HomeGallery and Memories free and open-source?
Yes. HomeGallery is licensed under MIT and Memories under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run HomeGallery and Memories with Docker?
HomeGallery: yes. Memories: yes.