submitted 4 days ago by florge@feddit.uk to c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk

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What are some google photos alternatives? I'm aware of Ente (not European), crypt.ee and zeitkapsl (saw someone mention it uses google apis). Also don't fancy going down the self-hosting route for the moment.

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[-] trapdoor@feddit.org 9 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Boomer me: get a 10TB drive and leave cloud services out of it

Otherwise Filen

[-] cabbage@piefed.social 9 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I used Google photos just to have my pictures and videos automatically uploaded from my phone when I took them and to the cloud, with the added perk that they could be viewed and shared online if I felt like it. I'm not sure if there's anything more to it?

If not, I recomend Nextcloud managed by some hosting provider. Hetzner is German and probably the cheapest option out there. I use Murena from France, as I'm fine paying a little more because they develop my phone OS. It's still a lot cheaper for me than my Dropbox subscription was, and I couldn't be happier with how Nextcloud works.

The fact that it's the same apps and functionality between different providers also makes it easier to switch down the road if necessary, whereas other providers might try to lock you into their app ecosystems in order to make you stick with them even as they increase prices or make their services worse.

[-] cile.sb@piefed.social 0 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

The albums are awesome too, since you can share them so all invited people can add their own photos. Perfect for weddings, birthday parties, and events in general.

[-] gjoel@programming.dev 14 points 4 days ago

I'm self hosting Immich. I honestly get much better results from their search than I do from Google photos. It's not quite as mature, but it's definitely good enough!

[-] Uriel_Copy@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

I searched my Immich instance for 'Camera obscura' because I knew I had a picture of one that I took years ago, but had no idea when... and it found it. Not sure Google would have been that good

[-] cile.sb@piefed.social 1 points 3 days ago

Immich

How do you self host? Do you use a NAS? What kind of backup system do you use?

[-] gjoel@programming.dev 2 points 2 days ago

I run it off my Home Assistant. The images are stored on my Western Digital MyCloud EX2 Ultra (which is kinda crap, but works) on a RAID1 volume, which is mirrored onto a similar NAS in the other end of the house. Ideally it should be off-site, but I haven't been able to find a good spot yet.

[-] cile.sb@piefed.social 1 points 3 days ago

I’ll consider self-hosting once I have a decent internet connection :D

[-] cabbage@piefed.social 1 points 4 days ago

Yeah, the machine learning functionality is missing in Nextcloud as far as I'm aware, and I remember it being pretty cool when it rolled out in Google photos (though that's also why I deleted all my stuff from there - I wear a tin foil hat). Personally I'm waiting for a good open source photo management software to handle it locally (I remember seeing Shotwell was working on face recognition), but that's hardly a solution at all.

[-] punkibas@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 days ago

Immich os what you need

[-] Kkk2237pl@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Im using synology nas

[-] kofzmann@toots.nu 1 points 3 days ago

@Kkk2237pl @florge me too, works great with Synology Photos. However it is also possible to use with Nextcloud Photos but haven't tried that

[-] Mosfar@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 days ago

Check immich for self hosted and proton drive for cloud storage

[-] Tja@programming.dev 6 points 4 days ago

OP explicitly said no self-hosted...

[-] schubidubiduba@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 days ago

There's also pixelunion.eu

Basically a hosted version of Immich. Since they offer ML models for face recognition etc., your files are not end-to-end encrypted. Though they are very transparent about this and apparently make sure nobody has access, and data is encrypted at rest.

If you're not bothered by this, it might be a good option

[-] ZkhqrD5o@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Nextcloud memories.

[-] artiman@piefed.social 3 points 4 days ago

I'm using nextcloud hosted by adminforge.de with the nextcloud memories app on android they also host ente photos and they are located in germany they host for free but also accept donations to keep the services running.

[-] sloelk@piefed.social 2 points 4 days ago

why not the official nextcloud app? Is this a limit from adminforge?

I have a hosted nextcloud instance from hetzner.de for around 5€/month with 2TB

[-] artiman@piefed.social 3 points 4 days ago

the nextcloud memories app is a way better gallery app than nextcloud

[-] sloelk@piefed.social 1 points 4 days ago

ok, maybe I‘ll have a look.

[-] mikedd@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago

I used Jottacloud in 2016-2017 and loved it. A couple of months ago I started using Proton which has photos backup+cloud just like Jottacloud but more recently I started self hosting Immich and I love it!

[-] p0ster@piefed.social 1 points 4 days ago

I use proton, what are the benefits of immich?

[-] mikedd@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Mainly the beauty of selfhosting. Also it has map features if your photos are geotagged, also facial recognition so you can categorize/group photos by people's faces. Also it gives you memories for any specific day.

[-] cile.sb@piefed.social 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Google Photos has a great search engine – I can look up “dog” and it will find all the photos with a dog in them, or search for a place and find all the shots from there. You can select a face in one photo, and it will find all the photos of that person.
The albums are awesome too, since you can share them so all invited people can add their own photos. Perfect for weddings, birthday parties, and events in general.

[-] whulum@piefed.social 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Proton drive or pcloud are two european options. Also E2E

[-] brainscan@piefed.social 2 points 4 days ago

I use proton drive, it works. I`m missing a proton drive on linux :(

[-] ellen@piefed.social 0 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I run it on linux? You can download it from their website..

Only thing for me is that proton doesn't support photo albums, so waiting for that before I can cancel my MS onedrive.

Edit: mixed things up here, I use pCloud, also Swiss

[-] brainscan@piefed.social 3 points 4 days ago

There is no drive for linux, I`m checking it weekly :)

[-] ellen@piefed.social 1 points 3 days ago

Ah you are right, I stand corrected. I use pcloud, also swiss, confused it with proton (as I use proton pass etc). Pcloud works like a charm on linux/android.

[-] whulum@piefed.social 1 points 3 days ago

Good to hear. Might have to gice it another go. Have 500gb permanent storage, but were never able to install it on my linux distro last time i tried

[-] bart@piefed.social 2 points 4 days ago

If it is storage you are looking for; Drime. Their mobile app will be updated later this month to allow for photo sync

[-] Blaze@piefed.zip 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I've seen good feedback about Jottacloud.

I personally use Ente as there is E2EE, waiting for a European entity to start their own service with the Ente software.

[-] arrrse@piefed.social 1 points 4 days ago

1st of all, if i would use cloud services for my photos/videos, i wouldn't and just get sd cards so I would actually have every single one on me physically. When one fills up, get another one and archive the last one with from - to dates

But my question is, what alternatives for files on the phone? My Nokia uses google photos / files and id like to change it. If possible an app that has nothing to do with internet

[-] Cyber@feddit.uk 1 points 3 days ago

If I understood correctly, for your usecase (not OPs), take a look at syncthing.

[-] brainscan@piefed.social 1 points 3 days ago

SD cards aren’t very reliable.

[-] Ash@piefed.social 1 points 4 days ago

kDrive - infomaniak - Swiss.

[-] infuziSporg@hexbear.net 1 points 4 days ago

Are you familiar with alternativeto.net? One of the most useful sites out there.

[-] neeeil@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 days ago

Filen has photos support and is E2EE

this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2026

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