# Immich

> A self hosted photo library that feels close to Google Photos

Category: Self hosted apps (https://aiarabicdev.com/self-hosted)
Canonical page: https://aiarabicdev.com/self-hosted/immich
Tags: photos, backup, mobile, docker, machine-learning

Immich backs up the photos and videos from your phone to your own server and gives you a timeline, albums, sharing, face recognition and search. It is AGPL-3.0 licensed and one of the most active projects in self hosting.

## Facts

- Licence: AGPL-3.0
- Language: TypeScript
- Cost: Free and open source
- Self hostable: yes
- Added: 2026-10-25
- Last checked: 2026-10-25

## Links

- Website: https://immich.app
- Source: https://github.com/immich-app/immich

## Why people switch to it

The phone apps do automatic background backup, which is the feature that makes a photo service usable at all. On top of that come a fast timeline, a map, shared albums, face grouping and search that understands what is in a picture, all computed on your hardware.

For anyone paying every month for more cloud photo storage, it turns a subscription into a disk you already own. It is also a gentle way into multi container apps, because the official Compose file is the documented install path.

## Costs you should plan for

It runs a server, a machine learning service, PostgreSQL and Redis. The machine learning part is what uses the most RAM and CPU, especially on the first import of a large library. Storage grows with every photo, and thumbnails and transcoded videos add to it.

Immich is not a backup by itself. If the server disk dies, your photos die with it, so you need a real backup of the upload folder and the database on another disk or another place. Read the release notes before updating, since breaking changes still happen.

## Reach for it when

- you want automatic phone photo backup to your own server
- you want to stop paying for cloud photo storage
- you want face and content search without sending photos to a third party

## Watch out for

- it is not a backup on its own, so the library needs a separate backup
- the machine learning service is heavy on RAM and CPU, especially during the first import
- updates sometimes need manual steps, so read the release notes every time

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