# Alternatives to LibrePhotos

Self-hosted photo management fork.

LibrePhotos ranks #7 of 7 in Photo storage, with an Alt Score of 68. It is licensed under MIT, free from Free and available on Linux, Android and Web. 7 of 10 checklist rows are verified against a public source.

Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/librephotos/
Category: Photo storage

## Overview

- **Who it's for**: Privacy-conscious individuals, families, or small teams who want a self-hosted alternative to Google Photos and are willing to run and maintain their own Docker-based server.
- **What you get**: Automatic face recognition and clustering, scene and object detection, semantic (natural-language) photo search, and a timeline view with event-based albums. It handles RAW, HEIC/HEIF, and video files, supports multiple user accounts, and includes reverse geocoding and EXIF-based metadata search.
- **How it works**: You deploy LibrePhotos on your own server via Docker Compose (Django/PostgreSQL backend, React frontend), then point it at a photo directory or upload images; background ML jobs scan, tag, and organize the library, which you browse and search through the web interface from any device.

## Profile

- **License**: MIT (verified 2026-07-09)
- **Pricing model**: Free (verified 2026-07-09)
- **Starts at**: Free (verified 2026-07-09)
- **Platforms**: Linux, Android, Web
- **Status**: active (verified 2026-07-09)

## Ranked alternatives

| # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms |
|---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------|
| 1 | [Ente Photos](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/ente-photos.md) | 96 | AGPL-3.0 | Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS |
| 2 | [PhotoPrism](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/photoprism.md) | 91 | AGPL-3.0 | Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS |
| 3 | [Amazon Photos](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/amazon-photos.md) | 82 | Proprietary | Windows, macOS, iOS, Android |
| 4 | [Google Photos](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/google-photos.md) | 82 | Proprietary | Windows, macOS, iOS, Android |
| 5 | [iCloud Photos](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/icloud-photos.md) | 82 | Proprietary | Windows, macOS, iOS, Web |
| 6 | [Immich](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/immich.md) | 78 | AGPL-3.0 | iOS, Android, Web |

Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/

## Feature comparison

Legend: Yes / No / Partial / ? (not verified).

| Photo storage checklist | LibrePhotos | Ente Photos | PhotoPrism | Amazon Photos | Google Photos | iCloud Photos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free | OSS + paid hosting | OSS + paid hosting | Freemium | Freemium | Freemium |
| Starts at | Free | $2.99/mo | €2.00/mo | $1.99/mo | $1.99/mo | $0.99/mo |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Platforms | Linux, Android, Web | Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Web | Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Web | Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Web | Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Web | Windows, macOS, iOS, Web |
| Free storage amount | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Original quality kept | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AI search (faces, objects) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Albums & sharing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| E2E encrypted | ? | Yes | ? | No | ? | Partial |
| RAW support | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Auto-upload from phone | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Import from competitors | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial |
| Video support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |

## Sources

Sources for LibrePhotos. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.

- **Starts at**: Free — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LibrePhotos/librephotos/dev/LICENSE> (verified 2026-07-09)
  - Note: MIT-licensed OSS with no paid tier; self-hosted, so 'free' refers to the software, not hosting costs.
  - Quote: “Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software”
- **License**: MIT — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LibrePhotos/librephotos/dev/LICENSE> (verified 2026-07-09)
  - Quote: “MIT License Copyright (c) 2017 Hooram Nam”
- **Status**: active — <https://github.com/LibrePhotos/librephotos/releases> (verified 2026-07-09)
  - Quote: “1.0.3 - Fix user list popup for non-admin users”
- **Pricing model**: Free — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LibrePhotos/librephotos/dev/README.md> (verified 2026-07-09)
  - Quote: “A self-hosted, open-source photo management service with automatic face recognition, object detection, and semantic search”
- **Platforms**: Linux, Android, Web — <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LibrePhotos/librephotos/dev/README.md> (verified 2026-07-09)
  - Note: Web UI is the primary client; an official companion Android app exists.
  - Quote: “| OS       | Any Docker-compatible OS | Linux       |”
- **Original quality kept**: Yes — <https://docs.librephotos.com/docs/intro> (verified 2026-07-09)
  - Quote: “LibrePhotos keeps all your photos and metadata on your local machine. Your data is never sent to or stored on a 3rd party server.”
- **AI search (faces, objects)**: Yes — <https://docs.librephotos.com/docs/user-guide/search> (verified 2026-07-09)
  - Quote: “Semantic search uses AI (CLIP embeddings) to find photos by meaning rather than exact text matching.”
- **Albums & sharing**: Yes — <https://docs.librephotos.com/docs/user-guide/sharing> (verified 2026-07-09)
  - Quote: “LibrePhotos offers multiple ways to share your photos and albums — with other users on your instance, or publicly with anyone via a link.”
- **Self-hostable**: Yes — <https://docs.librephotos.com/docs/installation/standard-install> (verified 2026-07-09)
  - Quote: “Clone the repo: git clone https://github.com/LibrePhotos/librephotos.git ... Start LibrePhotos with docker-compose up -d”
- **RAW support**: Yes — <https://docs.librephotos.com/docs/intro> (verified 2026-07-09)
  - Quote: “Support for all types of photos, including raw photos”
- **Auto-upload from phone**: Partial — <https://docs.librephotos.com/docs/user-guide/mobile/librephotos-mobile/upload> (verified 2026-07-09)
  - Note: The official mobile app (proof-of-concept stage) backs up phone photos via a manual sync button, not automatic background upload.
  - Quote: “You can backup all photos by clicking on the Sync all images button in the settings.”
- **Video support**: Yes — <https://docs.librephotos.com/docs/intro> (verified 2026-07-09)
  - Quote: “Support for videos”

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Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/