Chevereto Free vs Immich
| Tagline | Self-hosted image hosting and sharing platform with public/private albums | High-performance self-hosted photo and video backup, a Google Photos alternative |
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| Replaces | Google Photos | Google Photos, iCloud Photos |
| GitHub stars | 4.2k | 104k |
| Language | PHP | Docker |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Self-host difficulty | 3/5 Moderate | 3/5 Moderate |
| Deploy options | Docker Manual | Docker Docker Compose |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | 1 month ago | 5 days ago |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
Chevereto Free
- Free version is behind several major versions of the commercial product
- No timeline view or automatic organization
- No mobile backup apps
Immich
- Requires multi-container Docker Compose setup with GPU/CPU for ML; more resource-intensive than cloud alternatives
- Project is still pre-1.0 and explicitly warns against using as the sole backup solution
- No built-in CDN or geo-redundant storage; relies on local disk or manually configured object storage
- Collaborative shared albums lack the polish and third-party integrations of Google Photos
Bottom line
Both are a similar lift to self-host; choose Immich for the larger community and ecosystem. Immich has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.
Chevereto Free
Self-hosted image hosting and sharing platform with public/private albums
Immich
High-performance self-hosted photo and video backup, a Google Photos alternative