Alternatives to Ente Photos
E2E encrypted photo backup
Ente Photos ranks #1 of 7 in Photo storage, with an Alt Score of 96. It is licensed under AGPL-3.0, open source with paid hosting from $2.99/mo and available on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android and Web. 10 of 10 checklist rows are verified against a public source.
People who want to back up and store their photo/video library privately, without giving the provider access to their content — including privacy-conscious individuals, families wanting shared albums, and technical users who prefer to self-host their own infrastructure.
Automatic backup of photos and videos from mobile, desktop, and web with full end-to-end encryption, including metadata and machine-learning features like face recognition and semantic search. Files are replicated across multiple storage locations for redundancy. You can create shared and collaborative albums, and set up family plans to pool storage across members. The apps and server are open-source (AGPL-3.0), so you can self-host the entire stack instead of using Ente's hosted service.
Install the Ente Photos app (iOS, Android, F-Droid, Windows, macOS, Linux, or web) and sign in; the app encrypts photos and videos on-device before uploading them to Ente's servers (or your own self-hosted instance) for backup. From there you can browse, search, and share albums with others, with all data remaining encrypted end-to-end throughout.
Why people leave Ente Photos
Dashed reasons are sourced facts; the rest are opinions. Vendors can dispute.
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Ranked alternatives
Ordered by Alt Score. Click any score to see the breakdown.
Feature comparison
Rows come from the Photo storage checklist (14 rows). Human-verified cells only. ? means the value has not been verified.
+ Add app
| Photo storage checklist | Ente Photos | PhotoPrism | Amazon Photos | Google Photos | iCloud Photos | Immich |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | ||||||
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| License | ||||||
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| Free storage amount | ||||||
| Original quality kept | ||||||
| AI search (faces, objects) | ||||||
| Albums & sharing | ||||||
| Self-hostable | ||||||
| E2E encrypted | ||||||
| RAW support | ||||||
| Auto-upload from phone | ||||||
| Import from competitors | ||||||
| Video support |
Every fact and feature listed for Ente Photos is verified against its own pages. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.
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Pricing model OSS + paid hosting verified 2026-07-09
Ente Photos is a paid service, but we offer 10GB of free storage. You can also clone this repository and choose to self-host.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ente/ente/main/README.md -
Platforms Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Web verified 2026-07-09
Web confirmed via the README web-app link to photos.ente.com.
macOS ... Windows ... Linux ... Android ... iOS
https://ente.com/download -
Status active verified 2026-07-09
pushed_at": "2026-07-09T13:23:56Z""
https://api.github.com/repos/ente/ente -
License AGPL-3.0 verified 2026-07-09
GNU AFFERO GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 3, 19 November 2007
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ente/ente/main/LICENSE -
Starts at $2.99/mo verified 2026-07-09
Starting paid plan | 50 GB - $2.99/month
https://ente.com/compare/ente-vs-google-photos/ -
Free storage amount Yes verified 2026-07-09
Yes, we offer 10 GB of storage for free, forever.
https://ente.com/help/photos/faq/storage-and-plans -
Original quality kept Yes verified 2026-07-09
Ente backs up your photos in original quality with no compression. The file size of your photos in Ente will be the same as the original file sizes.
https://ente.com/help/photos/faq/backup-and-sync -
AI search (faces, objects) Yes verified 2026-07-09
Magic search lets you find photos using natural language descriptions... The app uses on-device AI to understand the content of your photos and match your search queries.
https://ente.com/help/photos/faq/search-and-discovery -
Albums & sharing Yes verified 2026-07-09
share links to your albums, that are end-to-end encrypted. Viewers don't need an app or account
https://ente.com/features/ -
Self-hostable Yes verified 2026-07-09
You can also clone this repository and choose to self-host.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ente/ente/main/README.md -
E2E encrypted Yes verified 2026-07-09
Your data is end-to-end encrypted with Ente.
https://ente.com/architecture/ -
RAW support Partial verified 2026-07-09
RAW formats (limited support currently)
https://ente.com/help/photos/faq/backup-and-sync -
Auto-upload from phone Yes verified 2026-07-09
Same page notes background sync is not consistent on iOS and some Android devices.
Ente automatically syncs new photos and videos from those albums to the cloud. Backup happens in the background without needing to open the app.
https://ente.com/help/photos/faq/backup-and-sync -
Import from competitors Yes verified 2026-07-09
When importing your Google Photos Takeout into Ente, your storage usage is based on your actual Google Photos library size
https://ente.com/help/photos/faq/migration -
Video support Yes verified 2026-07-09
Ente supports all files with mime types of `image/*` or `video/*`, regardless of their specific format.
https://ente.com/help/photos/faq/backup-and-sync
FAQ
Yes. Amazon Photos, Google Photos and iCloud Photos have a free tier or are fully free. Free-tier limits in the comparison table are verified and dated.
PhotoPrism, Immich and LibrePhotos — every license claim links its source.