What it is

foss_photo_libraries is a free and open-source comparison project for photo libraries and digital asset management tools. It is an MIT-licensed Python repository that maintains a public list of alternatives, including Chevereto, Damselfly, Ente, Foldergram, HomeGallery, Immich, Librephotos, Lychee, Nextcloud Photos, Nextcloud Memories, Photonix, Photofield, PiGallery2, PhotoPrism, Photoview, Piwigo, and Snapcrescent.

The project solves the problem of choosing among many free, open-source, closed-source, and paid photo library options. It focuses on gratis open-source photo libraries, while libre projects are also welcome through pull requests because testing each project takes significant time. The comparison tracks feature sets across projects so users can see which alternatives exist and how complete they appear.

Key capabilities

• It compares feature sets across free and open-source photo libraries, including cross-platform options indicated by the repository topics.
• It records feature status as present in a limited form, potentially impractical or unreleased, absent, or rated on a subjective quality scale from 0 to 10.
• It shows GitHub star counts for each compared project, giving readers a basic signal of repository visibility.
• It maintains a public comparison table for a named set of photo library projects.
• It accepts libre photo library submissions through pull requests rather than automatically treating every open-source project as fully tested.
• It provides a homepage where the comparison can be viewed as a browsable project list.

Who uses it and how

• People use it when they want to replace closed-source or paid photo software with a free and open-source alternative.
• Readers browse the comparison table to evaluate feature availability, subjective quality scores, and project popularity.
• Contributors submit new libre projects through pull requests, and the repository owner may adjust those submissions.
• Users inspect the list to identify candidate projects such as Immich, PhotoPrism, Lychee, Piwigo, or Nextcloud Photos.

Getting started

The README does not provide installation, runtime, or deployment instructions for this comparison repository; users view the project through its homepage at https://meichthys.github.io/foss_photo_libraries/. Contributors update or add entries by submitting pull requests to the GitHub repository.

When to use it — and when not to

Use this project when you need a broad feature comparison among free and open-source photo libraries, especially if you want to identify gratis alternatives to closed-source or paid tools. Do not rely on it as an operational guide, because it does not describe database, storage, SMTP, or hosting requirements for the compared applications. The comparison mixes objective and subjective measures, the repository has 27 open issues, and the repository owner reserves the right to change pull requests, so final selection should be verified against each project's documentation.

✅ = Feature exists in at least a limited fashion
🚧 = Feature may exist but may not be practical or officially released
❌ = Feature does not yet exist
#️⃣ = Subjective measure of feature quality (on scale of 0-10)
Tip: Hover over emoji for additional information (🔗 link to related issue, 🔑 demo credentials, etc)