What is Pho used for?

Pho is a photo viewer and uploader app that replaces a phone's gallery and syncs pictures to your own Samba, WebDAV or NFS storage without a server or database. It is a good fit for backing up phone photos to a home NAS and replacing a cloud photo service with own storage.

Yes. Pho is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at fregie/pho and is written mainly in Dart.

Yes. Pho is open source, so the software itself is free to use. Paid plans are also available, starting at $1.99 per month.

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

What is Pho an alternative to?

Pho is an open-source alternative to Google Photos. Other open-source alternatives to Google Photos include Immich, PhotoPrism and Ente.

Is Pho actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Pho was on 20 August 2026, and the latest release is v1.5.0, published on 29 July 2026. The project has 1.2k stars on GitHub.

Pho: open-source alternative to Google Photos

About Pho

Pho is a mobile app for browsing photos on your phone and in your network storage, and for syncing new pictures to that storage. It is meant to replace the built-in gallery with a simple tool, and its topics describe it as a Google Photos alternative for homelab and NAS users. There is no separate server or database to install.

Core features include local and cloud photo viewing, incremental sync to the cloud and periodic background sync. Files are stored in a deliberately plain structure organized by date, using original file names, with generated thumbnails kept in a hidden folder, so your backups stay usable without the app. The open-source edition supports Samba, WebDAV and NFS and ships as an Android APK.

A paid Pro edition, not open source, is sold on the App Store and Google Play. It adds AES encryption of uploads, parallel upload tuning, file filters, folder structure options, theme colors and Baidu Netdisk support, with a free trial of the basic functions. The app is built with Flutter and an embedded Go service and is licensed under GPL-3.0.

Key features

Local and cloud photo viewing
Incremental sync to Samba, WebDAV or NFS
Periodic background sync
No server or database required
Date-based folder structure with plain files
Pro edition with AES encryption on iOS and Android

Good fit for

→Backing up phone photos to a home NAS
→Replacing a cloud photo service with own storage

Built with: Dart; Go; Flutter
Tags: photos; backup; nas; webdav; smb; nfs; flutter; self-hosted; photo-sync

Pho: questions and answers

What is Pho used for?: Pho is a photo viewer and uploader app that replaces a phone's gallery and syncs pictures to your own Samba, WebDAV or NFS storage without a server or database. It is a good fit for backing up phone photos to a home NAS and replacing a cloud photo service with own storage.
Is Pho open source?: Yes. Pho is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at fregie/pho and is written mainly in Dart.
Is Pho free?: Yes. Pho is open source, so the software itself is free to use. Paid plans are also available, starting at $1.99 per month.
Can I self-host Pho?: Yes. Pho can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is Pho an alternative to?: Pho is an open-source alternative to Google Photos. Other open-source alternatives to Google Photos include Immich, PhotoPrism and Ente.
Is Pho actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Pho was on 20 August 2026, and the latest release is v1.5.0, published on 29 July 2026. The project has 1.2k stars on GitHub.