Ente Photos vs PhotoPrism
Both are free/open-source alternatives to Google Photos. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
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.
PhotoPrism
AI-powered, self-hosted photo management for your own server.
PhotoPrism is an open-source, self-hosted photo manager that indexes an existing folder of photos and adds automatic tagging, face recognition, powerful search, maps, and albums. It is a strong fit when you already keep your photos as files and want a fast web gallery and organization layer on top, with your originals staying untouched on disk. It has no native background-backup app of its own; phone backup is handled by pointing a WebDAV-capable sync app (or Syncthing) at it.
Side by side
| Ente Photos | PhotoPrism | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty Score | 90 | 88 |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Local-first | No | Yes |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| 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); optional paid membership funds development and unlocks some extras |
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
PhotoPrism
Strengths
- +Works directly on your existing folders of photo files
- +Strong search, tagging, face recognition, and map view
- +Fully open-source (AGPL-3.0), mature and stable
- +Your original files stay as-is on disk
Trade-offs
- −No native mobile app for automatic background backup — relies on WebDAV sync apps or Syncthing
- −Some conveniences and early features are tied to a paid membership
- −Indexing large libraries and face recognition are resource-intensive
- −Less of a turnkey Google Photos replacement than Immich for phone backup
More Google Photos head-to-heads
Facts verified 2026-07-05. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.