SHSelfHostIndex

Magic Wormhole vs Photoview

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
MA Magic Wormhole Get things from one computer to another, safely VS PH Photoview Simple photo gallery for personal servers
FeatureMagic WormholePhotoview
CategoryFile Sync & StoragePhoto Management
LicenseMITAGPL-3.0
LanguagePythonGo
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM32 MB512 MB
Deploymentbinarydocker
GitHub stars★ 22,792★ 6,496
First released20162019
ReplacesWeTransfer, AirDropGoogle Photos

Why pick each one

Choose Magic Wormhole if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Mature project with 22.8k GitHub stars
  • Written in Python
Magic Wormhole details

Choose Photoview if…

  • Uses your folder structure
  • Lightweight
  • Easy setup
Photoview details

Frequently asked questions

Is Magic Wormhole or Photoview better?

Neither is universally better. Magic Wormhole has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Magic Wormhole and Photoview free and open-source?

Yes. Magic Wormhole is licensed under MIT and Photoview under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Magic Wormhole and Photoview with Docker?

Magic Wormhole: check the project docs for container support. Photoview: yes.

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