Immich vs Piwigo
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
Piwigo
Open-source photo gallery for the web
| Feature | Immich | Piwigo |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | ≈5-minute setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 100 · Excellent | 87 · Excellent |
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 114,920 | ★ 3,862 |
| First released | 2022 | 2002 |
| Replaces | Google Photos, iCloud Photos | Flickr, Google Photos |
What are Immich and Piwigo?
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
Piwigo
Piwigo is a mature open-source photo gallery application for organizing, sharing, and showcasing photo collections. It targets photographers and organizations managing large galleries. It is deployed via Docker or a PHP stack.
- Large gallery management
- Plugin and theme ecosystem
- Granular access control
- Upload from desktop and mobile
Immich vs Piwigo: key differences
Immich is written in TypeScript, while Piwigo is built with PHP. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Immich versus GPL-2.0 for Piwigo. Piwigo is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Immich. Piwigo is the more established project (first released 2002), while Immich arrived in 2022. Immich has the considerably larger community, at 114,920 GitHub stars versus 3,862.
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 Piwigo if…
- Very mature and stable
- Extensible
- Good for big collections
Watch out for
- Interface feels classic
- No modern AI search
Frequently asked questions
Is Immich or Piwigo better?
Neither is universally better. Immich has the larger community, while Piwigo is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Immich and Piwigo free and open-source?
Yes. Immich is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Piwigo under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Immich and Piwigo with Docker?
Immich: yes. Piwigo: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Immich or Piwigo?
Piwigo 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.