Immich vs Photofield
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
Photofield
Fast experimental photo viewer for huge libraries
| Feature | Immich | Photofield |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | ≈5-minute setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 100 · Excellent | 79 · Good |
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 114,920 | ★ 608 |
| First released | 2022 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Google Photos, iCloud Photos | Google Photos |
What are Immich and Photofield?
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
Photofield
Photofield is an experimental, fast photo viewer designed to browse very large photo collections smoothly. It uses a tile-based layout to render hundreds of thousands of images without slowing down.
- Handles huge libraries
- Smooth tile-based viewing
- Fast indexing
- Low resource use
Immich vs Photofield: key differences
Immich is written in TypeScript, while Photofield is built with Go. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Immich versus MIT for Photofield. Photofield is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Immich. Immich has the considerably larger community, at 114,920 GitHub stars versus 608.
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 Photofield if…
- Excellent performance
- Simple deployment
Watch out for
- Viewer only, no editing
- Experimental status
Frequently asked questions
Is Immich or Photofield better?
Neither is universally better. Immich has the larger community, while Photofield is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Immich and Photofield free and open-source?
Yes. Immich is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Photofield under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Immich and Photofield with Docker?
Immich: yes. Photofield: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Immich or Photofield?
Photofield has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Immich. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.