Immich vs OwnPhotos
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
OwnPhotos
Self-hosted Google Photos clone with face recognition
| Feature | Immich | OwnPhotos |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | ≈5-minute setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 100 · Excellent | 22 · At risk |
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | Jupyter Notebook |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 114,920 | ★ 2,758 |
| First released | 2022 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Google Photos, iCloud Photos | Google Photos |
What are Immich and OwnPhotos?
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
OwnPhotos
OwnPhotos is a self-hosted alternative to Google Photos with automatic face recognition and object detection. It builds albums based on people, places, and things found in your library.
- Face recognition
- Object detection
- Auto-generated albums
- Self-hosted Google Photos clone
Immich vs OwnPhotos: key differences
Immich is written in TypeScript, while OwnPhotos is built with Jupyter Notebook. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Immich versus MIT for OwnPhotos. OwnPhotos is the more established project (first released 2017), while Immich arrived in 2022. Immich has the considerably larger community, at 114,920 GitHub stars versus 2,758.
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 OwnPhotos if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2.8k GitHub stars)
- Written in Jupyter Notebook
Watch out for
- Project is now inactive
- Predecessor to LibrePhotos
Frequently asked questions
Is Immich or OwnPhotos better?
Neither is universally better. Immich has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Immich and OwnPhotos free and open-source?
Yes. Immich is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and OwnPhotos under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Immich and OwnPhotos with Docker?
Immich: yes. OwnPhotos: yes.