What is Immich used for?

Immich is a self-hosted photo and video library with mobile auto-backup, face and object search, shared albums and multi-user support, often used in place of Google Photos. It is a good fit for replacing Google Photos on your own server, family photo sharing with private storage and backing up phone media automatically.

Is Immich open source?

Yes. Immich is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at immich-app/immich and is written mainly in TypeScript.

Yes. Immich is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host Immich?

Yes. Immich can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.

What is Immich an alternative to?

Immich is an open-source alternative to Google Photos, Amazon Photos, iCloud and Apple Photos. Other open-source alternatives to Google Photos include Ente, PhotoPrism and Lynavo Drive.

Is Immich actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Immich was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v3.2.4, published on 28 September 2026. The project has 115k stars on GitHub.

Immich: open-source alternative to Google Photos

About Immich

Immich is a self-hosted photo and video management server with companion mobile apps and a web interface. Your media stays on hardware you control while you still get automatic phone backup, a timeline view, albums and sharing, which is the role many people otherwise hand to Google Photos.

Search works on metadata, recognized objects, faces and CLIP-based natural language queries, and face recognition groups people into clusters. Other features include shared albums and partner sharing, a global map, memories, archive and favorites, RAW format support, LivePhoto and MotionPhoto handling, duplicate prevention, OAuth login, API keys and a user-defined storage structure. Background backup and selective album backup keep the mobile app flexible.

Immich is released under AGPL-3.0, and its documentation includes installation guides, a roadmap and a public demo. The maintainers stress following a 3-2-1 backup plan, since a self-hosted library is only as safe as the backups behind it. It suits households and small groups who want private, searchable photo storage.

Key features

Automatic photo and video backup from mobile
Face recognition and people clustering
Search by metadata, objects and CLIP
Shared albums and partner sharing
Multi-user support with OAuth login
RAW, LivePhoto and MotionPhoto support
Global map and memories views

Good fit for

→Replacing Google Photos on your own server
→Family photo sharing with private storage
→Backing up phone media automatically

Built with: TypeScript; Flutter; Node.js; Svelte; SvelteKit; JavaScript
Tags: photos; videos; self-hosted; backup; gallery; face-recognition; google-photos-alternative; mobile-app

Immich: questions and answers

What is Immich used for?: Immich is a self-hosted photo and video library with mobile auto-backup, face and object search, shared albums and multi-user support, often used in place of Google Photos. It is a good fit for replacing Google Photos on your own server, family photo sharing with private storage and backing up phone media automatically.
Is Immich open source?: Yes. Immich is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at immich-app/immich and is written mainly in TypeScript.
Is Immich free?: Yes. Immich is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host Immich?: Yes. Immich can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is Immich an alternative to?: Immich is an open-source alternative to Google Photos, Amazon Photos, iCloud and Apple Photos. Other open-source alternatives to Google Photos include Ente, PhotoPrism and Lynavo Drive.
Is Immich actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Immich was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v3.2.4, published on 28 September 2026. The project has 115k stars on GitHub.