What is Lychee used for?

Lychee is a self-hosted photo management and sharing system built with PHP and Vue, installed on your own server or web space. It is a good fit for personal photo gallery on your own server and sharing albums without a third-party service.

Is Lychee open source?

Yes. Lychee is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at LycheeOrg/Lychee and is written mainly in PHP.

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

Can I self-host Lychee?

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

What is Lychee an alternative to?

Lychee is an open-source alternative to Google Photos, SmugMug, Flickr and 500px. Other open-source alternatives to Google Photos include Piwigo, Photoview and Immich.

Is Lychee actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Lychee was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v7.10.0, published on 28 September 2026. The project has 4.3k stars on GitHub.

Lychee: open-source alternative to Google Photos, SmugMug

About Lychee

Lychee is a free, open-source photo management tool that runs on your own server or web space. You can upload, manage and share photos through a web interface that is meant to feel like a native application, with the aim of keeping the photos stored securely.

Installation is described as quick, and the project provides Docker images, with version 7.0 bringing significant changes to the Docker image and an upgrade guide. Lychee requires PHP 8.4 or 8.5 and has documentation, a changelog and a Discord community. It is built with PHP, TypeScript and Vue.

Lychee is licensed under MIT. A Supporter Edition adds extra functionality for people who want more than the free version, and users can also support the team directly. Topics on the repository describe it as a photo gallery and photo management application.

Key features

Photo upload and management
Photo sharing from your own server
Gallery web interface
Docker image deployment
Supporter Edition with extra features

Good fit for

→Personal photo gallery on your own server
→Sharing albums without a third-party service

Built with: PHP; TypeScript; Vue
Tags: photos; photo-management; gallery; self-hosted; php; vuejs; docker; sharing

Lychee: questions and answers

What is Lychee used for?: Lychee is a self-hosted photo management and sharing system built with PHP and Vue, installed on your own server or web space. It is a good fit for personal photo gallery on your own server and sharing albums without a third-party service.
Is Lychee open source?: Yes. Lychee is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at LycheeOrg/Lychee and is written mainly in PHP.
Is Lychee free?: Yes. Lychee is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host Lychee?: Yes. Lychee can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is Lychee an alternative to?: Lychee is an open-source alternative to Google Photos, SmugMug, Flickr and 500px. Other open-source alternatives to Google Photos include Piwigo, Photoview and Immich.
Is Lychee actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Lychee was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v7.10.0, published on 28 September 2026. The project has 4.3k stars on GitHub.