Immich vs PhotoPrism
Both are alternatives to Google Photos. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as PhotoPrism vs Immich — same comparison, one verdict.
Immich
TOP PICKA self-hosted photo and video backup that feels like Google Photos.
Immich is an open-source, self-hosted photo and video platform built specifically as a Google Photos-style experience you run yourself. Its mobile apps back up your camera roll automatically in the background, and the web app offers timeline browsing, albums, sharing, map view, and on-device-style machine learning for face grouping and object/text search. Your photos are stored as ordinary files on your own server, so you keep full ownership; the trade-off is that you operate the stack (server, database, and backups) yourself.
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
| Immich | PhotoPrism | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty Score | 94 | 88 |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Local-first | Yes | Yes |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Pricing | Free and open-source (self-host); you provide the hardware and storage | Free and open-source (self-host); optional paid membership funds development and unlocks some extras |
Immich is Macrostack's recommended Google Photos alternative, so it's our pick here.
Immich
Strengths
- +Closest Google Photos-like experience among the open options
- +Automatic background camera-roll backup on iOS and Android
- +Fully open-source (AGPL-3.0), backed by FUTO
- +Photos stored as normal files on hardware you own
- +Very active development and a large community
Trade-offs
- −You run and back up the server, database, and storage
- −Fast release pace means occasional breaking changes to watch for on upgrade
- −Machine-learning features (face/object search) want a few GB of RAM to run smoothly
- −No hosted option — self-hosting is the only path
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
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Facts verified 2026-07-05. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.