Ente vs Lychee
| Tagline | End-to-end encrypted self-hosted photo backup with native mobile apps | Grid and album-based self-hosted photo management system |
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| Replaces | Google Photos, iCloud Photos | Google Photos, iCloud Photos |
| GitHub stars | 27k | 4.2k |
| Language | Docker | PHP |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Self-host difficulty | 3/5 Moderate | 3/5 Moderate |
| Deploy options | Docker Docker Compose | Docker Docker Compose Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | today | yesterday |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
Ente
- No AI-based automatic photo tagging, scene recognition, or search by content due to E2E encryption
- Self-hosted setup requires configuring S3-compatible object storage separately
- Smaller ecosystem of third-party integrations compared to Google Photos
- Collaborative album features are less mature than Google Photos shared libraries
Lychee
- No automatic mobile backup; photos must be uploaded manually via the web interface
- No AI-based tagging, face recognition, or semantic search
- Some advanced features (smart albums, U2F login) require the paid Supporter Edition
- No video transcoding; video support is limited to direct playback of uploaded files
Bottom line
Both are a similar lift to self-host; choose Ente for the larger community and ecosystem. Ente has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.