Immich vs Piwigo: Which Should You Self-Host?
Quick Verdict
Immich is the better choice for personal photo backup and management — it’s a modern Google Photos replacement with mobile auto-upload and AI features. Piwigo is better for organizations and photographers who need a traditional gallery with fine-grained permissions, plugins, and a 20+ year track record of stability.
Overview
Immich is a modern, fast-moving self-hosted photo platform built to replace Google Photos. It offers native mobile apps with background upload, facial recognition, map view, and ML-powered search. Development is rapid, with weekly releases and a large contributor base.
Piwigo is one of the oldest self-hosted photo gallery platforms, first released in 2002. It’s a mature, plugin-extensible gallery system designed for organizing and sharing large photo collections. It has official mobile apps with auto-upload and a thriving plugin ecosystem.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Immich | Piwigo |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile app | Native iOS & Android (background upload) | Official iOS & Android (auto-upload) |
| Auto-upload from phone | Yes | Yes |
| AI facial recognition | Yes (built-in) | Via plugin only |
| AI search | Yes (CLIP-based object/scene search) | No |
| Map view (GPS) | Yes | Via plugin |
| Album organization | Albums, smart albums | Albums, sub-albums, tags, smart albums |
| User permissions | Per-album sharing | Fine-grained per-album, per-group permissions |
| Plugin system | No | Yes (300+ plugins) |
| Theme system | No (single UI) | Yes (customizable themes) |
| Batch operations | Yes | Yes (extensive) |
| Video support | Full (transcoding) | Basic |
| API | REST API | REST API |
| Multi-site | No | No (but multi-user with groups) |
| Docker complexity | High (6+ containers) | Low (2 containers) |
| RAM usage | 2-4 GB | 256-512 MB |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
Installation Complexity
Immich requires PostgreSQL with pgvecto.rs, Redis, and multiple application containers (server, microservices, ML). The Docker Compose has 5-6 services and demands 4+ GB RAM. First startup downloads ~1.5 GB of ML models.
Piwigo needs just two containers: the app (LinuxServer.io image) and MariaDB. Database configuration happens through the web UI setup wizard rather than environment variables — unusual for Docker apps but straightforward. Runs on 512 MB of RAM.
Performance and Resource Usage
| Resource | Immich | Piwigo |
|---|---|---|
| Idle RAM | ~1.5 GB | ~100 MB |
| Active RAM | 2-4 GB+ | 256-512 MB |
| Disk (app only) | ~2 GB (ML models) | ~50 MB |
| Minimum server | 4 GB RAM, 2 cores | 1 GB RAM, 1 core |
| Indexing speed | Slow (ML processing per photo) | Fast (metadata only) |
Piwigo is significantly lighter. It doesn’t run machine learning models, so it indexes photos quickly and uses minimal resources. Immich trades resources for intelligence — facial recognition and scene search are worth the overhead for many users.
Community and Support
Immich: 60,000+ GitHub stars, very active community, weekly releases, fast-moving development. Still pre-1.0, with occasional breaking changes.
Piwigo: 20+ years of development history, 3,300+ GitHub stars, active forums and documentation. Extremely stable — breaking changes are rare. The commercial Piwigo.com hosted version funds continued open-source development.
Use Cases
Choose Immich If…
- You want a Google Photos replacement with AI features
- Facial recognition and smart search matter to you
- You have 4+ GB RAM available
- You want the most modern, feature-rich option
- You’re comfortable with rapid development and occasional breaking changes
Choose Piwigo If…
- You need fine-grained user permissions (organizations, clubs, families)
- You want a proven, stable platform with 20+ years of history
- Plugin extensibility is important
- You need lightweight resource usage
- You manage a structured gallery (categories, sub-albums)
- You want theme customization for the public-facing gallery
Final Verdict
Immich wins for personal photo management. If you’re backing up your phone photos and want Google Photos-like features, Immich is the clear choice. The AI capabilities, mobile experience, and rapid development make it the most compelling self-hosted photo platform today.
Piwigo wins for organizational use and structured galleries. If you’re running a photography club, family sharing hub, or any scenario where permissions and album hierarchy matter, Piwigo’s maturity and plugin ecosystem are unmatched. It’s battle-tested in ways Immich hasn’t had time to be.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Piwigo have facial recognition?
Not built-in, but there’s a community plugin for face detection. It’s not as polished or accurate as Immich’s native implementation, which uses modern ML models.
Can Immich handle 100,000+ photos?
Yes, but initial indexing will take time (days for ML processing at that scale). Once indexed, the experience is smooth. Piwigo handles large libraries with less resource overhead since it doesn’t run ML inference.
Can I use both Immich and Piwigo?
Yes. Some users run Immich as their phone backup/daily driver and Piwigo as a curated gallery for sharing. They serve different purposes well.
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