110k stars · AGPL-3.0 · v3.2.2 (2026-09-15), read from /releases/latest; the GitHub date carried no year and falls in the past, so it is this year · Track this in Scout
A photo and video library you run on your own server, with real iOS and Android apps that upload in the background and search that works on what is in the picture.
▶Repo detailsthe review · specs · pros & cons · install
What it is
A self-hosted photo and video manager. It has a server, a web interface and real apps for iOS and Android that upload new pictures in the background. A machine-learning part recognises faces, objects and text inside pictures so that search works on what is in the image rather than only on the file name. It has albums, shared albums, a map, and partner sharing between two accounts.What it is good for. Anyone with a monthly bill for phone backup and enough room on a server. The problem it removes is renting space for photographs you already own. There is no connection to Grasppy, ScalpingMate or the channel, and it is here because it is one of the best pieces of self-hosted software on GitHub, which is the only reason it needs.
- The phone apps are the real thing, with background upload, so it can actually replace what you are paying for.
- Search works on what is in the picture, and face recognition runs on your own machine rather than on somebody's service.
- 110,000 stars and a release most weeks, which is an unusual amount of attention for self-hosted software.
- AGPL-3.0 licence, which is fine for running it and matters if you want to build a product on it.
- It runs several containers at once, including a machine-learning one, so it is the heaviest entry in this edition. Do not put it on a small server.
- Once your photographs are only here, this is your only copy. Back up its storage folder and its database, and test the restore.
- photoprism/photoprism
The older self-hosted photo library, lighter to run and without the polished automatic phone backup.
Track this in Scout - LibrePhotos/librephotos
Face recognition and automatic albums under a more permissive licence and with a much smaller team behind it.
Track this in Scout - jellyfin/jellyfin
The same idea for films and television rather than personal photographs, and it pairs with Navidrome from Edition 23 for music.
Track this in Scout
mkdir ./immich && cd ./immich wget -O docker-compose.yml https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/latest/download/docker-compose.yml wget -O .env https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/latest/download/example.env # Edit .env: set UPLOAD_LOCATION to a folder with a lot of free space, # and set DB_PASSWORD to something of your own. docker compose up -d # It is on http://<your-server>:2283 — the first account you create is the admin.
