imaginary vs Immich Kiosk
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?
imaginary
Self-hosted microservice for on-demand image processing
VS
Immich Kiosk
Lightweight slideshow for running on kiosk devices and browsers that
| Feature | imaginary | Immich Kiosk |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, source | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 6,076 | ★ 1,622 |
| First released | 2015 | 2026 |
| Replaces | Cloudinary, imgix | — |
Why pick each one
Choose Immich Kiosk if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.6k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is imaginary or Immich Kiosk better?
Neither is universally better. imaginary has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are imaginary and Immich Kiosk free and open-source?
Yes. imaginary is licensed under MIT and Immich Kiosk under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run imaginary and Immich Kiosk with Docker?
imaginary: yes. Immich Kiosk: yes.