Lychee vs PhotoPrism
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted photo management options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
PhotoPrism
AI-powered photo app for the decentralized web
| Feature | Lychee | PhotoPrism |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 89 · Excellent | 99 · Excellent |
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | PHP | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,303 | ★ 40,233 |
| First released | 2012 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Google Photos, Flickr | Google Photos |
What are Lychee and PhotoPrism?
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
PhotoPrism
PhotoPrism is an AI-powered application for browsing, organizing, and sharing a personal photo collection with automatic tagging. It targets photographers and families wanting a private photo library. It is deployed via Docker.
- Automatic AI tagging and search
- Maps and faces
- RAW image support
- Works without an internet connection
Lychee vs PhotoPrism: key differences
Lychee is written in PHP, while PhotoPrism is built with Go. Licensing differs — MIT for Lychee versus AGPL-3.0 for PhotoPrism. Lychee is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for PhotoPrism. Lychee is the more established project (first released 2012), while PhotoPrism arrived in 2018. PhotoPrism has the considerably larger community, at 40,233 GitHub stars versus 4,303.
Why pick each one
Choose Lychee if…
- Simple and attractive
- Easy to host
- Lightweight
Watch out for
- No AI features
- Basic search
Choose PhotoPrism if…
- Strong local AI features
- Great RAW support
- Polished UI
Watch out for
- Indexing is resource heavy
- Mobile experience via PWA
Frequently asked questions
Is Lychee or PhotoPrism better?
Neither is universally better. PhotoPrism 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 Lychee and PhotoPrism free and open-source?
Yes. Lychee is licensed under MIT and PhotoPrism under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Lychee and PhotoPrism with Docker?
Lychee: yes. PhotoPrism: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Lychee or PhotoPrism?
Lychee has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for PhotoPrism. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.