Alternatives to Google Photos
Keep your pictures backed up and findable without handing them to an advertiser.
Ranked by score out of 30, most convivial first.
digiKam
A desktop photo manager that keeps your library on your own disk.
Ente Photos
End-to-end encrypted photo backup and sharing.
Piwigo
A web gallery for sharing and organising a large photo collection.
Immich
A self-hosted photo and video library that backs up your phone to a server you run.
PhotoPrism
A photo library you host, with search that sorts pictures by place and subject.
For comparison
The big names these tools are measured against. We review them as benchmarks, so they sit outside the directory.
About these tools
A photo library is a lifetime of your life in one place, so who can read it matters. Ente Photos encrypts your photos before they leave your phone, Immich backs your phone up to a server you run, PhotoPrism and Piwigo give you a library or gallery on your own server, and digiKam keeps everything in folders on your computer.
The scores differ a lot between phone backup and desktop tools, which is the point of scoring them.
How to choose
Ask who can read your photos, what happens if you stop paying or stop running the server, and whether your pictures stay ordinary files you can move. Phone backup that just works usually costs money or time, and you decide which to spend.
Frequently asked questions
What is a private alternative to Google Photos?
Ente Photos backs up and shares photos with end-to-end encryption, and its apps are open source. Storage plans are paid. Immich stores your library on a server you run, which is free but takes some setup.
Can I keep my photos on my own computer?
Yes. digiKam organises a large library in ordinary folders, with tags and face detection, and nothing is locked inside it.
What if I do not want to run a server?
Use Ente Photos, which hosts for you, or a desktop tool like digiKam. Self-hosting Immich, PhotoPrism or Piwigo is more work, and the work is yours.