OwnPhotos vs Piwigo
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted photo management options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
OwnPhotos
Self-hosted Google Photos clone with face recognition
VS
Piwigo
Open-source photo gallery for the web
| Feature | OwnPhotos | Piwigo |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Jupyter Notebook | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,760 | ★ 3,836 |
| First released | 2017 | 2002 |
| Replaces | Google Photos | Flickr, Google Photos |
Why pick each one
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
Frequently asked questions
Is OwnPhotos or Piwigo better?
Piwigo is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider OwnPhotos if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are OwnPhotos and Piwigo free and open-source?
Yes. OwnPhotos is licensed under MIT and Piwigo under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run OwnPhotos and Piwigo with Docker?
OwnPhotos: yes. Piwigo: yes.