Lychee vs Sigal
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted photo management options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Lychee | Sigal |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 89 · Excellent | 78 · Good |
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | PHP | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,303 | ★ 945 |
| First released | 2012 | 2012 |
| Replaces | Google Photos, Flickr | Flickr |
What are Lychee and Sigal?
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
Sigal
Sigal is a simple static gallery generator that builds a browsable photo and video website from a folder of images. The output is plain HTML and works with several themes.
- Static gallery generation
- Multiple themes
- Plugin system
- Video thumbnail support
Lychee vs Sigal: key differences
Lychee is written in PHP, while Sigal is built with JavaScript. Sigal is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Lychee. Lychee has the considerably larger community, at 4,303 GitHub stars versus 945. Lychee lists first-class Docker deployment; Sigal does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Lychee if…
- Simple and attractive
- Easy to host
- Lightweight
Watch out for
- No AI features
- Basic search
Choose Sigal if…
- Very lightweight
- Easy to host
Watch out for
- No uploads or editing
- Static output only
Frequently asked questions
Is Lychee or Sigal 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 Sigal free and open-source?
Yes. Lychee is licensed under MIT and Sigal under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Lychee and Sigal with Docker?
Lychee: yes. Sigal: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Lychee or Sigal?
Sigal has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Lychee. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.