Memories vs OwnPhotos
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted photo management options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Memories
Photo management app for Nextcloud with timeline and AI
VS
OwnPhotos
Self-hosted Google Photos clone with face recognition
| Feature | Memories | OwnPhotos |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 88 · Excellent | 22 · At risk |
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | PHP | Jupyter Notebook |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,843 | ★ 2,758 |
| First released | 2022 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Google Photos, iCloud Photos | Google Photos |
What are Memories and OwnPhotos?
Memories
Memories is a photo and video management application that runs as a Nextcloud app, offering a fast timeline view of your media. It supports face recognition, maps, albums, and metadata-aware search.
- Fast timeline view
- Face recognition and maps
- Albums and tagging
- Nextcloud integration
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
Memories vs OwnPhotos: key differences
Memories is written in PHP, while OwnPhotos is built with Jupyter Notebook. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Memories versus MIT for OwnPhotos. Memories is the lighter option, starting around 1,024 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for OwnPhotos. OwnPhotos is the more established project (first released 2017), while Memories arrived in 2022.
Why pick each one
Choose Memories if…
- Leverages existing Nextcloud
- Polished mobile experience
Watch out for
- Requires Nextcloud
- AI features need extra setup
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 Memories or OwnPhotos better?
Neither is universally better. Memories has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Memories and OwnPhotos free and open-source?
Yes. Memories is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and OwnPhotos under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Memories and OwnPhotos with Docker?
Memories: yes. OwnPhotos: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Memories or OwnPhotos?
Memories has the smaller minimum footprint at 1,024 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for OwnPhotos. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.