Immich vs PhotoPrism vs LibrePhotos: a private home for your family photos
You want your family photos out of Google Photos without losing the good parts: automatic phone backup, faces, maps, search. Three open-source apps on BespokeAI do this, and they are genuinely different products. Pick by where your photos live today and how your family takes them.
The short version
- Immich - the phone-first one: the closest thing to Google Photos' backup-and-timeline experience, run on your own server.
- PhotoPrism - the library one: turn an existing folder of a lifetime's photos into a browsable, searchable archive, with sharing links for relatives.
- LibrePhotos - the folder-purist one: it scans the folders you already have, changes nothing underneath, and its edits can be written back into your files.
Immich: backup first, library second
Immich's phone app backs up new pictures automatically - in the background, not only when you open the app - and the web app gives you the familiar timeline, world map, people view and search for things like "beach" or "dog". Shared albums work for relatives, and Live Photos and videos are first-class citizens. The project's own README still warns that it is under active development and to keep a 3-2-1 backup of your originals: honest advice worth repeating.
Strengths: the best phone experience of the three; active, fast-moving project; AGPL licence; public demo you can try in two minutes. Hosted option from $6.80/month.
Honest downsides: the heaviest setup here - four moving parts (server, web, phone app, machine-learning service) and at least 6 GB of RAM, so the catalogue rates it "advanced". And because it moves fast, upgrades need attention; this is not an install-and-forget app.
PhotoPrism: a lifetime of photos, sorted
PhotoPrism points at a folder - an external drive, a NAS, years of exports - and indexes it into a browsable library: by date, on six world maps, by faces, by labels like "dog" or "beach". Sharing is excellent: create a secret link to an album (with an optional expiry date) and relatives can view and download without an account; photos you marked private never leave. It is modest on hardware - two CPU cores and 3 GB of RAM will do, and it runs on a Raspberry Pi.
Strengths: the most polished browsing and sharing for a big existing collection; long-established project; AGPL licence; official public demo. Hosted option from $7.50/month.
Honest downsides: there is no Immich-style automatic phone backup. Phones upload through the web app or a third-party sync app such as PhotoSync (a separate product), so it suits an archive better than a daily backup habit. Some extras are reserved for paying members, and a modified copy you share may not use the PhotoPrism brand. The catalogue rates it "advanced" to set up.
LibrePhotos: your folders stay yours
LibrePhotos scans the folders you already have - it does not import them into a new structure - then finds faces, places and events and makes everything searchable with filters for people, camera, date, place, rating and file type. Albums can be grouped into collections, and archived photos leave the timeline while staying in their albums. Unusually, edits you make inside it (a fixed date, a corrected place) can be written back into the photo files themselves, so your improvements survive outside the app.
Strengths: the most permissive licence of the three (MIT - do anything, keep the copyright notice); respects an existing folder layout; edits written to your files; nothing sent to a third party.
Honest downsides: the roughest edges of the three - it expects 8 GB or more of RAM and a Docker setup ("advanced"), and there is no one-click hosted partner in the catalogue, so running it means your own server. The phone experience is a companion app rather than a polished backup flow.
Side by side
| Immich | PhotoPrism | LibrePhotos | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best at | Automatic phone backup + timeline | Browsing and sharing a big existing library | Scanning folders you keep organised yourself |
| Phone backup | Automatic, in the background | Web upload or third-party sync app | Companion app, not a backup flow |
| Sharing | Shared albums | Secret links with optional expiry | Albums and sharing |
| Edits reach your files | No | No | Yes, optionally |
| Hardware appetite | Heavy (6 GB+ RAM) | Modest (3 GB, runs on a Pi) | Heavy (8 GB+ RAM) |
| Setup effort | Advanced | Advanced | Advanced |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 (brand restricted) | MIT |
| Easiest hosted start | PikaPods from $6.80/month | PikaPods from $7.50/month | No hosted partner listed - your own server |
Which one is yours?
- Your photos are mostly on phones and you want the Google Photos habit back, privately: Immich.
- You have a drive full of a decade's photos and want to browse, find and share them: PhotoPrism.
- You already keep a tidy folder structure and want smart features layered on top, files untouched: LibrePhotos.
Try it with your AI
Each app page on BespokeAI has a "Tell my AI" button: it hands your AI a pinned project pack - one exact version of the app, with setup notes, licence and customisation points - plus a short guide for the conversation. Your AI asks what you need and works through setup with you step by step, or you start with a hosted trial and move later.