Self-host your photos with Immich

Most photo libraries live in Google Photos or iCloud, and for most people that's the right answer. It works, it syncs, it's convenient.

But maybe you'd rather keep your photos in your own hands. Because you want to know exactly where they are, because the monthly fee for your own memories started to feel odd, or simply because you like running your own things. These days there's a genuinely good way to do that: Immich.

What Immich is

Immich is free, open source software that gives you your own photo app. A timeline, albums, search, face recognition, sharing, and automatic backup from your phone. It looks and works like Google Photos, with one difference: it runs on a server that's yours.

A photo opened in Immich, with its date, camera and location

What you need

A server sounds heavy, but you rent one the way you rent storage: a small monthly fee, cancel any time. Hosting companies call it a VPS. Two things matter when you pick one.

Where it stands. Choose a provider in a country you're comfortable with. In the Netherlands there are hosts that run on their own hardware in Dutch datacenters, so your photos stay in the EU. In the US, DigitalOcean is the familiar name.

How big it is. Immich asks for at least 6 GB of memory (8 runs nicer), two processor cores, and more disk space than your photo library. Starting small is fine; resizing later is a button, not a move.

Setting it up

Your provider gives you a terminal for your server, usually one click in their dashboard. It looks more intimidating than it is: you paste two lines. The first installs Docker, the second is Immich's own install script.

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/immich-app/immich/main/install.sh | bash

When it finishes, open http://your-server-address:2283 in your browser and make your account. Then install the Immich app on your phone, point it at that address, and your camera roll starts backing up to your own server.

The Immich app on your phone: timeline, search and albums

If terminals aren't your thing

You don't need to know what those lines mean. Keep an AI chat open next to it (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, take your pick) and paste along: every step, every question, every error message. It will tell you exactly what to type next.

Or let the AI sit in the terminal itself. Gemini CLI is Google's free AI helper that runs on the server (a normal Google account is enough), can run commands for you, and asks before it does. Ask your AI chat how to install it, then tell it what you want in plain words: "set up Immich on this server". It does the steps and explains them as it goes.

The honest part

Your own server means your own responsibility. An update now and then, and a second copy of your photos somewhere else, because one copy is never a backup. Immich's docs cover both. If that sounds like a satisfying hobby, it is one. If it sounds like homework, iCloud and Google Photos are perfectly good homes.

The paper part

Wherever your photos live, the good ones deserve to leave the server now and then. When you want them as a printed book, bring them to foto foto: we pick the best ones and design the book for you.