Photoview

A self-hosted photo gallery that turns existing folders into albums, with maps and shared links.

FreeOpen sourceWebSelf-hosted
Official websitephotoview.github.ioDocumentationphotoview.github.io

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About Photoview

Photoview is a web photo gallery for personal servers. You point it at directories on the file system and it turns folders into albums, rescanning for new photos and videos. The files can come from Samba or FTP shares or a Nextcloud instance, so you keep your own folder structure.

Multiple users each get their own directory. Albums and photos can be shared through public or password-protected links. EXIF data is shown next to photos, and GPS coordinates place them on a map. The official iOS app is no longer maintained.

Strengths

  • Uses your existing folder structure as albums
  • Multiple users with separate photo directories
  • Public or password-protected sharing links
  • Map view from photo GPS data

Limitations

  • Official iOS app is no longer maintained
  • Requires running your own server

Details

Pricing
FreeFree and open source.
License
GPL-3.0
Developer
The Photoview contributors
Platforms
Web, Self-hosted
How it runs
Self-hosted
Best suited for
Browsing a folder-organized photo collection on a home server
Last verified
Added
Provenance
Facts checked against the developer's own pages and store listings, 1 sources on file.

Alternatives to Photoview

Compare all

Software that can replace Photoview for an important use case, and what changes if you switch.

  • PiGallery2

    A fast directory-first photo gallery website designed for low-resource servers such as a Raspberry Pi.

    FreeProprietaryWebSelf-hosted

    PiGallery2 also follows your existing folder layout and is designed to run well on a Raspberry Pi, but it is not open source, unlike Photoview's GPL-3.0 license.

  • PhotoPrism

    A self-hosted photo library that tags pictures and recognises faces on your own hardware, not a company's.

    FreemiumOpen sourceSelf-hostedWeb

    PhotoPrism adds automatic labelling, face recognition and combined search on your own server, but indexing is demanding and some features are reserved for sponsors.

  • HomeGallery

    A self-hosted, open-source web gallery for browsing your own photo and video folders.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinuxWebSelf-hosted

    HomeGallery keeps your existing folder structure and adds similar-image search and face recognition, and it can run via Docker or natively on Windows, macOS and Linux.

  • Lychee

    Open-source, self-hosted photo management server for uploading, organizing and sharing photo albums.

    FreeOpen sourceWebSelf-hosted

    Lychee is an open-source self-hosted server that focuses on uploading and organizing albums with public and password-protected sharing, rather than using your folder structure as albums.

  • Immich

    A self-hosted photo and video backup platform with mobile apps, aimed at replacing Google Photos.

    FreeOpen sourceSelf-hostedWebAndroidiOS

    Immich adds automatic phone backup, face recognition and CLIP search, but its server needs Docker with at least 6 GB RAM.

  • Photofield

    A self-hosted single-binary photo gallery built for speed and for leaving your files untouched.

    FreeProprietaryWebSelf-hosted

    Photofield is a single-binary gallery built for fast browsing of large libraries without modifying files, but it is not open source and is a smaller project.

  • LibrePhotos

    A self-hosted photo service with face recognition and automatic event albums, all processed locally.

    FreeOpen sourceSelf-hostedWeb

    LibrePhotos adds local face recognition and automatic event albums, but it is described as early stage and needs a multi-container Docker setup.

  • Piwigo

    Open-source photo library and digital asset management software, self-hosted or used as a hosted service.

    FreemiumOpen sourceWebSelf-hosted

    Piwigo is an open-source photo library with a plugin system and API, and it can be self-hosted or used as a paid hosted service.

Photoview as an alternative

Listings that name Photoview as an alternative.

  • Chevereto

    Self-hosted image and video hosting software for running your own media sharing site.

    FreemiumProprietaryWebSelf-hosted

    Photoview is a free GPL-3.0 self-hosted gallery that turns existing folders into albums, with multiple users, sharing links and a map view.

  • Damselfly

    A server-based photo management system for large folder-based collections, with fast search and keyword tagging.

    FreeProprietaryWebSelf-hosted

    Photoview is a GPL-3.0 self-hosted gallery that uses your folder structure as albums, with a map view and sharing links but no built-in object detection.

  • Memories

    A free, open-source photo management app for Nextcloud with a timeline, albums and automatic tagging.

    FreeOpen sourceAndroidWebSelf-hosted

    Photoview is GPL-3.0 and turns existing folders into albums with maps and share links, but lacks automatic phone upload and face tagging.

  • QuMagie

    A photo management app for QNAP NAS devices that organizes photos by people, things and places.

    FreeProprietaryWebSelf-hosted

    Photoview is an open-source self-hosted gallery that turns existing folders into albums with maps and sharing, but it lacks AI grouping by things.

Similar software

Related functionality, not necessarily a direct replacement.

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