Chosing the right photo app for my family

So, Immich vs Ente, this is my last piece of the selfhosted puzzle. Please help me make an informed decision:

Immich

on the plus side, it seems to have more features and it has a gazillion integrations with other selfhosted software. Downside: breaking changes are fairly common AFAIK.

Ente

looks like the opposite, more mature, scoped and less integrated.

Am I reading this right? Am I missing something?

Edit: Thanks everyone, I’m going with immich!

  • 7U5K3N@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    37·
    13 hours ago

    I just moved from v2 immich to v3.

    Literally changed the version in my env file and then deleted all docker images.

    I then pulled all images and brought all containers online.

    0 issues.

    Immich has been running really well for us on my n100 for 10 months now. I did dual Google photos and immich for a 3 months and then exported out from gphotos.

    I started 2026 with immich only. Been rock solid the entire time.

    Of course that’s all anecdotal and ymmv. But immich is fantastic

    • Ghoelian@piefed.socialEnglish
      2·
      5 hours ago

      I’m running Immich as a TrueNAS app. Unfortunately after upgrading to v3 the immich container is stuck on starting, without outputting any logs. Haven’t had the time to debug yet though.

      • Ghoelian@piefed.socialEnglish
        2·
        3 hours ago

        Well the whole system just went down. So most likely not am Immich issue, but a weak ass server issue.

      • Thallium_X@feddit.orgEnglish
        1·
        3 hours ago

        You might need to changw the PostgreSQL Version if you are still on an oder one. Roll back to 2.x, make sure it runs, edit the App to use the new PG, Start, Update to 3.0

    • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      11 hours ago

      Pretty much the exact same experience here. I just removed my wife’s photo storage from Google completely as of this month 🎉. Don’t even need the security blanket anymore. Immich is it.

      I had a mini panic when moving from v2 to v3 was not automatic today, but it was a 15 minute fix, that was mostly just reading the step-by-step instructions for the update. Copy-pasted a handful of lines and we’re off!

      • 7U5K3N@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        3·
        10 hours ago

        Haha I had a much harder time with the compose formatting than I did with the actual upgrade.

        Line

        Or

        Line.?

        Either way fuck you compose. Haha

    • Faceman🇦🇺@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      2·
      9 hours ago

      Yea I changed over to v3 without issue recently too, I read the release notes and some of the issue conversations on github, so I knew what to expect.

      That’s something a lot of people dont do, if you are self hosting an open source project it’s on you to stay on top of those things, stay updated as much as possible but dont do major jumps blindly without backups.

      In my case, I went from a regular immich in a container to one with openVino built in for gpu accelerated image analysis and face detection, and I had to change my database container image. Then it fired straight up and everything seems to work 100% so far.

      • 7U5K3N@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        1·
        21 minutes ago

        You know… it’s hilarious you say that about staying on top of your selfhosted stuff.

        I learned that lesson not too long ago… I am self-hosting ubiquitys unifi network application.

        Apparently two years ago they split out the database from the app.

        I had no idea until my wifi abruptly stopped working. Haha

        Now I pay attention to that stuff a little more.

        Lmao

    • warmaster@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      3·
      11 hours ago

      Good to know. it’s very tempting. It has every feature we need, and it integrates to every other relevant app I selfhost.

      Do you keep a backup? How do you do it?

      • BartyDeCanter@piefed.socialEnglish
        3·
        10 hours ago

        Immich is great. I run a small friends and family instance on a NAS and I’ve never had a hiccup that took more than ten minutes to fix. My backup system is borg to a Hetzner storage box nightly with a healthchecks.io check set to email me if it goes more than 48 hours without a success. Cheap, reliable, and fast enough for me.

      • 7U5K3N@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        2·
        10 hours ago

        I’m super basic backup wise.

        I run a rsync command that backs up the database dump and all the immich assets to a USB hdd. I do that every couple of days or when I think about it haha

        I then back that USB drive up to another USB drive on my personal computer.

        These drives are wd Reds and in USB enclosure.

        My buddy has offered to host a off site backup but I have a toddler and as such 0 time.

        I probably should look into some cold storage or something but shits expensive these days and I’m currently satisfied with where I am.

        Knocks on wood

        Additional context… I’m running Debian with mergerfs across like 8 drives. So my photos are spread across several drives in my /storage/photos folder. So In oder to lose everything all at once. It would have to be a flood or house fire or something…