I have a docker compose immich that I somehow managed to kill fourteen minutes after convincing my wife to switch to it.
Tl;dr:
- PhotoPrism: Local AI with strong privacy but heavier setup.
- LibrePhotos: Same, but less polished, more community-built.
- Immich: Best self-hosted Google Photos alternative.
- Ente Photos: E2E encrypted, low-maintenance, most “plug and play”
I tried Photoprism, Ente and Immich.
Immich is by far the best. It has got an app that really does what it should do, has an AI that actually works and is easy to host and to update.
Last I tried Immich its background upload was horrible.
Some of that is definitely iOS being bad, but other apps at least semi-worked when Immich didn’t at all.
I might try it again, though. See if it’s improved.
They mentioned “better background backups” as a enhancement as since version 1.141.1 which was released on 9/8/2025. Personally I just started testing it after v2.0 so I’m not sure how bad it was previously but have not seen any significant issues with backup.
Why is this even a point of discussion? Immich, period. It’s like people NEED to make it more difficult and laborious than it has to be.
I’m super happy with self hosted Ente. It was really simple to setup, mobile app is perfect and local ML works great. I can recommend!
Does anyone know if any of these systems will interpret a Google takeout export from Photos? The data separation is brutal, I haven’t found something to pull it together yet.
Immich does
