Lychee vs Piwigo
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted photo management options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Lychee | Piwigo |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 89 · Excellent | 87 · Excellent |
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | PHP | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,303 | ★ 3,862 |
| First released | 2012 | 2002 |
| Replaces | Google Photos, Flickr | Flickr, Google Photos |
What are Lychee and Piwigo?
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
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
Lychee vs Piwigo: key differences
Both projects are written in PHP. Licensing differs — MIT for Lychee versus GPL-2.0 for Piwigo. Piwigo is the more established project (first released 2002), while Lychee arrived in 2012.
Why pick each one
Choose Lychee if…
- Simple and attractive
- Easy to host
- Lightweight
Watch out for
- No AI features
- Basic search
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 Lychee or Piwigo better?
Neither is universally better. Lychee has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Lychee and Piwigo free and open-source?
Yes. Lychee is licensed under MIT and Piwigo under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Lychee and Piwigo with Docker?
Lychee: yes. Piwigo: yes.