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
    11·
    2 months 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

    • warmaster@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      2 months 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
        2·
        2 months 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
        1·
        2 months 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…

    • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 months 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
        1·
        2 months 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