Immich vs Lychee
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted photo management options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Immich
High-performance self-hosted photo and video backup
VS
Lychee
Self-hosted photo management made easy
| Feature | Immich | Lychee |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | ≈5-minute setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 100 · Excellent | 89 · Excellent |
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 114,920 | ★ 4,303 |
| First released | 2022 | 2012 |
| Replaces | Google Photos, iCloud Photos | Google Photos, Flickr |
What are Immich and Lychee?
Immich
Immich is a high-performance, self-hosted photo and video backup solution with mobile apps, AI search, and face recognition. It targets users wanting a private Google Photos alternative. It is deployed via Docker Compose.
- Automatic phone backup
- AI-powered search and face recognition
- Timeline and album views
- Multi-user with sharing
Lychee
Lychee is a self-hosted photo management tool focused on simple, attractive galleries with quick uploads and sharing. It targets users who want a straightforward photo gallery. It is deployed via Docker or a PHP stack.
- Clean photo galleries
- Quick upload and sharing
- Albums and tags
- EXIF metadata display
Immich vs Lychee: key differences
Immich is written in TypeScript, while Lychee is built with PHP. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Immich versus MIT for Lychee. Lychee is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Immich. Lychee is the more established project (first released 2012), while Immich arrived in 2022. Immich has the considerably larger community, at 114,920 GitHub stars versus 4,303.
Why pick each one
Choose Immich if…
- Excellent mobile apps
- Fast and feature-rich
- Very active development
Watch out for
- Resource intensive
- Breaking changes still occur
Choose Lychee if…
- Simple and attractive
- Easy to host
- Lightweight
Watch out for
- No AI features
- Basic search
Frequently asked questions
Is Immich or Lychee better?
Neither is universally better. Immich has the larger community, while Lychee is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Immich and Lychee free and open-source?
Yes. Immich is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Lychee under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Immich and Lychee with Docker?
Immich: yes. Lychee: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Immich or Lychee?
Lychee has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Immich. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.