Family photo archive
mobile auto-backup, server-side organization, browse decades of history
// official site: immich.app ↗
PRODUCTIVITY · PRO TIER
Immichpro
Immich is the self-hosted Google Photos replacement — a high-performance photo and video management platform with mobile apps (iOS + Android), automatic phone backup, ML-based face recognition, object detection, smart search, and shared albums. Built for users who refuse to hand their family memories to Google.
// What it is
A closer look.
Immich is the self-hosted Google Photos replacement — a high-performance photo and video management platform with mobile apps (iOS + Android), automatic phone backup, ML-based face recognition, object detection, smart search, and shared albums. Built for users who refuse to hand their family memories to Google.
Reached production-grade stability in 2025 with v1.x — the project that finally made "leave Google Photos" a non-painful migration.
// Use cases
What it's for.
Concrete scenarios where teams pick Immich over the SaaS alternative.
Privacy-first photo storage
GDPR-compliant, on your own infrastructure, no telemetry
Shared albums for events
weddings, vacations, school groups, without Meta / Google account
AI search without cloud
"photos of dogs on a beach" via local CLIP model, no upload to Google
Multi-user households
separate libraries with shared spaces
// Who it's for
Built for these teams.
If your team profile matches one of these, Immich is a strong fit out of the box.
Privacy-conscious families
Google Photos UX without giving Google ML access to your kids' photos
Photographers & videographers
self-hosted asset library with RAW support, fast browsing of large archives
Households with mixed iOS + Android
single backup target both platforms hit reliably
Journalists, activists, gov staff
source-protection workflows where US cloud storage is a non-starter
Storage-rich self-hosters
NAS or large-disk VPS owners wanting consumer-grade UI for personal media
// Differentiators
Why teams pick Immich.
When evaluating self-hosted options for this category, here are the dimensions on which Immich consistently lands above the alternatives.
- ✓Real mobile parity — iOS + Android native apps with auto-backup, not a half-baked web shell
- ✓ML pipeline — face clustering, object detection, OCR, smart search via Open CLIP
- ✓External library support — point at existing folder structures, no forced re-import
- ✓Memories — "On this day", year reviews, photo carousels matching Google Photos UX
- ✓Active development — weekly releases, ~50k+ GitHub stars
- ✓AGPLv3 license — commercial use clear
// Integrations
Connects to.
The stack you'll plug Immich into — services, protocols, and adjacent apps in the BluixApps catalog.
◇
Native mobile apps
iOS (App Store) + Android (Play Store + F-Droid) with auto-backup
◈
External libraries
read-only mount of existing /photos folder structures, no import needed
◆
Object storage
S3-compatible backend for offloading originals (MinIO, Backblaze B2, R2, AWS S3)
▣
Identity
OAuth (Google, GitHub, Microsoft, Authelia, Authentik)
▦
Desktop sync
WebDAV protocol for any client (CyberDuck, FileZilla, native OS mounts)
▩
ML providers
local CLIP for object/face; optional Whisper for video transcription
▼
API
REST + WebSocket for custom integrations / scripts / dashboards
// Adoption & deployment
Notable users & community
- 50k+ GitHub stars (one of the top self-host project of 2024-2025)
- Featured constantly on r/selfhosted as "the project that made me leave Google Photos"
- Strong Discord, active reddit, regular release cadence with public roadmap
- Acquired by FUTO foundation (2024) — sustainable funding without compromising open-source
- Multi-language UI maintained by community across 20+ locales
What we ship
- Docker compose: Immich server + ML container + Postgres (with pgvecto.rs) + Redis
- Pinned
ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-server:v1.123.0, weekly upstream tracking - Storage volume at
/usr/src/app/upload— sized per your VPS disk allocation - HTTPS via Let's Encrypt; mobile apps work via the same hostname
- Admin user with random password on first boot
- ML container runs CPU-friendly by default; GPU accel available on Dedicated tier
- Backup hook covers Postgres + the upload volume (the photo originals — opt-in due to size)
// Tips & operations
Run it properly.
Operational guidance from running this in production — what to lock down, what surprises people.
// PERFORMANCE
Mobile auto-backup defaults to WiFi-only
explain to users to avoid mobile-data shock when phones backup gigabytes
// SECURITY
ML container CPU-only OK up to ~50k photos
beyond that, GPU acceleration (CUDA) becomes mandatory for tolerable face/object processing
// OPERATIONS
Use pgvecto.rs not pgvector
Immich >= 1.118 requires the pgvecto.rs Postgres extension; default Postgres image won't work
// RELIABILITY
External library = read-only mode
useful for legacy /photos archives mounted without import; doesn't risk modifying files
// DEPLOYMENT
Backup hook covers DB only by default
opt-in for the upload volume (originals can be 100s of GB; sized differently from app-state)
// SCALING
Enable HEIC transcoding
iPhone HEIC isn't browser-friendly; the ImageMagick fallback transcodes on demand if enabled
8192
// min ram (MB)
50
// min disk (GB)
2283
// access port
http
// protocol
pro
// bluixapps tier
// Alternatives in Productivity
Compare with
Project resources
Official siteimmich.app ↗