--- title: I replaced Google Photos with Immich, and my entire... description: A personal account of migrating from Google Photos to Immich, a self-hosted, open-source photo and video platform that runs as a Docker stack with a Postgres... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-replaced-google-photos-with-immich-and-my-entire-photo-library-finally-stays-under-my-control-i3hrfiwq0 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I replaced Google Photos with Immich, and my entire photo library finally stays under my control | daily.dev og:description: A personal account of migrating from Google Photos to Immich, a self-hosted, open-source photo and video platform that runs as a Docker stack with a Postgres... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-replaced-google-photos-with-immich-and-my-entire-photo-library-finally-stays-under-my-control-i3hrfiwq0 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/I3HRfIwQ0.png og:image:alt: I replaced Google Photos with Immich, and my entire photo library finally stays under my control og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # I replaced Google Photos with Immich, and my entire photo library finally stays under my control **[XDA Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers)** · 4 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A personal account of migrating from Google Photos to Immich, a self-hosted, open-source photo and video platform that runs as a Docker stack with a Postgres database and machine-learning service for CLIP-based smart search. The switch was motivated by shrinking Google storage tiers, subscription costs, and concerns over Google using uploaded photos for AI training. Setup with Docker Compose was simple, though the author struggled with mixing Windows and WSL/Linux shell commands. Recommends 6-8GB RAM minimum, more for large libraries, and notes mobile apps support automatic uploads. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is Immich and how does it work as a self-hosted alternative to Google Photos? Immich is an open-source, self-hosted photo and video backup platform that runs as a Docker stack containing a server, a machine-learning service, a Postgres database, and a cache. It offers CLIP-based smart search that matches text queries to photo content, plus Android and iOS apps supporting automatic uploads to a self-hosted server. _Anyone weighing self-hosted tools against cloud services can compare real setups and trade-offs on daily.dev._ ### How much hardware do I need to self-host Immich for a large photo library? Immich recommends a minimum of 6GB-8GB of memory, but larger libraries with hundreds of thousands of assets need more than that minimum, along with multiple CPU cores and a dedicated, sizable drive for the database. Smaller libraries of a few thousand photos can run fine on an ordinary Windows PC. _Developers sizing self-hosted infrastructure can dig deeper into deployment guides on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [My family stopped using Google Photos and OneDrive after installing this container](https://daily.dev/posts/my-family-stopped-using-google-photos-and-onedrive-after-installing-this-container-kzhy4y2ww) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Self-hosting my photos with Immich](https://daily.dev/posts/self-hosting-my-photos-with-immich-xv9hvupn8) · Lobsters · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [I ditched Google Photos for Immich, but one feature pulled me back after a month](https://daily.dev/posts/i-ditched-google-photos-for-immich-but-one-feature-pulled-me-back-after-a-month-1j4piljxo) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I ditched Google One for self-hosted Immich on a mini PC, and photo backup is finally instant](https://daily.dev/posts/i-ditched-google-one-for-self-hosted-immich-on-a-mini-pc-and-photo-backup-is-finally-instant-vpqvqzpp0) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#docker](https://daily.dev/tags/docker), [#privacy](https://daily.dev/tags/privacy), [#self-hosting](https://daily.dev/tags/self-hosting) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-replaced-google-photos-with-immich-and-my-entire-photo-library-finally-stays-under-my-control-i3hrfiwq0) ```json 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