Immich Kiosk vs Thumbor
| Tagline | Lightweight Immich-powered photo slideshow for kiosk displays and browsers | On-demand smart image cropping, resizing, and optimization service |
| Category | Photo Management | Photo Management |
| Replaces | Google Photos, iCloud Photos | Google Photos, iCloud Photos |
| GitHub stars | 1.6k | 10k |
| Language | Docker | Python |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Self-host difficulty | 2/5 Easy | 3/5 Moderate |
| Deploy options | Docker | Docker Docker Compose Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | today | 12 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.
Immich Kiosk
- Requires a running Immich server — not a standalone photo solution
- No built-in photo management, editing, or upload capabilities
- Slideshow customisation is limited to what Immich exposes via its API
- No offline mode; depends entirely on network access to the Immich backend
Thumbor
- Not a photo gallery or backup tool; serves only image transformation/CDN use cases
- Requires a reverse proxy and optional object storage for production-grade deployments
- No web UI for photo browsing, albums, or user management
- Documentation and ecosystem are less active compared to commercial image CDNs like Cloudinary
Bottom line
Choose Immich Kiosk if you want the lower-effort setup; choose Thumbor for the larger community and ecosystem. Immich Kiosk has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.
Immich Kiosk
Lightweight Immich-powered photo slideshow for kiosk displays and browsers