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Damselfly vs Hydrus Network: catalog facts
Damselfly	Hydrus Network
Free Free to use; the developer accepts donations through Buy Me a Coffee.	Free Free, with source published on GitHub.
Web, Self-hosted	Windows, macOS, Linux, Self-hosted
Works on an existing folder-based photo collection Face, object detection and image classification built in	Tag-based search across very large collections Imports files and tags from disk and websites
Full facial recognition depends on an Azure Face Services account Needs a server to run	Takes time to learn compared with ordinary photo libraries Interface is dense and built for power users
Self-hosted	Downloadable app, Self-hosted
Closed source	Closed source
License not stated	License: WTFPL
Not stated if an account is needed	No account needed
Not stated if it works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 24, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.