Ente Photos vs LibrePhotos
Both are alternatives to Google Photos. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as LibrePhotos vs Ente Photos — same comparison, one verdict.
Ente Photos
End-to-end encrypted photo backup, open-source and self-hostable.
Ente Photos is an open-source photo service whose defining feature is end-to-end encryption: your library is encrypted on your device before it ever reaches a server, so even the host cannot see your photos. It offers polished apps across iOS, Android, web, macOS, Windows, and Linux with automatic background backup, face recognition, albums, and shared links. Most people use Ente's audited paid cloud, but the same server is fully open-source and can be self-hosted for those who want to run everything themselves.
LibrePhotos
A permissively licensed, fully self-hosted photo manager.
LibrePhotos is a self-hosted photo management service, originally inspired by the discontinued Google PhotoScan/Google Photos experience, offering timeline browsing, face recognition, object and scene tagging, and search over your own library. Its MIT license makes it the most permissively licensed option here, and it is a community-driven project. It is capable but less polished than Immich or PhotoPrism, with a smaller community and a slower development pace.
Side by side
| Ente Photos | LibrePhotos | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty Score | 90 | 80 |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Local-first | No | Yes |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Pricing | 10 GB free on the hosted cloud; paid plans for more storage; self-host free and open-source | Free and open-source (self-host) |
Ente Photos edges it on the Sovereignty Score, but the right pick depends on the trade-offs below.
Ente Photos
Strengths
- +End-to-end encrypted by design — the host cannot read your photos
- +Independently audited (Cure53, Symbolic Software, Fallible)
- +Polished apps on every major platform with automatic backup
- +Fully open-source (AGPL-3.0) and self-hostable
Trade-offs
- −Self-hosting is more involved — multiple containers plus object storage
- −The most frictionless path is the paid hosted cloud, not self-hosting
- −Encrypted design means photos aren't plain browsable files on disk
- −Free hosted tier is 10 GB
LibrePhotos
Strengths
- +Permissive MIT license
- +Face recognition, tagging, and search on your own server
- +Photos remain files on hardware you own
- +Community-driven and free to run
Trade-offs
- −Smaller community and slower development than Immich or PhotoPrism
- −Rougher, less polished interface
- −Resource-hungry during initial scanning and training
- −No first-party mobile backup app as seamless as Immich's
More Google Photos head-to-heads
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Facts verified 2026-07-05. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.