Memories vs thumbsup
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
thumbsup
Static photo and video gallery generator
| Feature | Memories | thumbsup |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 88 · Excellent | 56 · Fair |
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | PHP | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | bare-metal, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,843 | ★ 865 |
| First released | 2022 | 2016 |
| Replaces | Google Photos, iCloud Photos | Google Photos, Flickr |
What are Memories and thumbsup?
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
thumbsup
thumbsup is a tool that builds a static HTML gallery from your photos and videos, requiring no server-side runtime. The generated site can be hosted anywhere and includes thumbnails, albums, and metadata.
- Static gallery generation
- No server runtime needed
- Thumbnails and albums
- Host anywhere
Memories vs thumbsup: key differences
Memories is written in PHP, while thumbsup is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Memories versus MIT for thumbsup. Thumbsup is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Memories. Thumbsup is the more established project (first released 2016), while Memories arrived in 2022. Memories has the considerably larger community, at 3,843 GitHub stars versus 865. Memories lists first-class Docker deployment; thumbsup does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Memories if…
- Leverages existing Nextcloud
- Polished mobile experience
Watch out for
- Requires Nextcloud
- AI features need extra setup
Choose thumbsup if…
- Extremely portable output
- No database
Watch out for
- No live uploads
- Regenerate to update
Frequently asked questions
Is Memories or thumbsup better?
Neither is universally better. Memories has the larger community, while thumbsup is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Memories and thumbsup free and open-source?
Yes. Memories is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and thumbsup under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Memories and thumbsup with Docker?
Memories: yes. thumbsup: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Memories or thumbsup?
thumbsup has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Memories. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.