Lychee vs OwnPhotos
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted photo management options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Lychee | OwnPhotos |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 89 · Excellent | 22 · At risk |
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | PHP | Jupyter Notebook |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,303 | ★ 2,758 |
| First released | 2012 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Google Photos, Flickr | Google Photos |
What are Lychee and OwnPhotos?
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
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
Lychee vs OwnPhotos: key differences
Lychee is written in PHP, while OwnPhotos is built with Jupyter Notebook. Lychee is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for OwnPhotos. Lychee is the more established project (first released 2012), while OwnPhotos arrived in 2017.
Why pick each one
Choose Lychee if…
- Simple and attractive
- Easy to host
- Lightweight
Watch out for
- No AI features
- Basic search
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 Lychee or OwnPhotos better?
Lychee is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider OwnPhotos if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Lychee and OwnPhotos free and open-source?
Yes. Lychee is licensed under MIT and OwnPhotos under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Lychee and OwnPhotos with Docker?
Lychee: yes. OwnPhotos: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Lychee or OwnPhotos?
Lychee has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for OwnPhotos. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.