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Immich: Self-Hosted Google Photos Replacement for Your Homelab

guides 2026-02-27 · 4 min read immich photo management self-hosted docker google photos alternative
By HomeLab Starter Editorial Team — Home lab enthusiasts covering hardware setup, networking, and self-hosted services for home and small office environments.

Google Photos offers 15GB free and then charges you monthly for the privilege of hosting your own memories on someone else's servers. Immich is the self-hosted alternative that gives you full control — no subscription, no data mining, no storage limits beyond your own hardware.

Photo by Shubham Dhage on Unsplash

What Immich Does

Immich is a full-featured photo and video management platform:

It's not a clone — it's a genuinely well-designed application that happens to feel familiar to Google Photos users.

Hardware Requirements

Immich is resource-intensive compared to simpler self-hosted apps, primarily due to machine learning:

Minimum:

Recommended for ML features:

The machine learning container handles:

If your server is limited on resources, you can disable ML entirely in the config — Immich works fine without it.

Deployment with Docker Compose

Immich's official deployment method is Docker Compose. It runs multiple containers:

  1. immich-server — the main API server
  2. immich-microservices — background job processing
  3. immich-machine-learning — ML inference
  4. postgres — database
  5. redis — caching and job queues

Download the official compose files:

mkdir ~/immich && cd ~/immich
wget -O docker-compose.yml https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/latest/download/docker-compose.yml
wget -O .env https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/latest/download/example.env

Edit .env to configure:

# Database password — change this
DB_PASSWORD=yourSecurePassword

# Where to store your photos
UPLOAD_LOCATION=/mnt/photos/immich

# Where to store the database
DB_DATA_LOCATION=/var/lib/immich/postgres

# Your local timezone
TZ=America/New_York

# Immich version (use release tags for stability)
IMMICH_VERSION=release

Start Immich:

docker compose up -d

Access the web UI at http://your-server:2283.

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Initial Setup

On first launch:

  1. Create your admin account
  2. Configure external libraries (if you have existing photos on your server)
  3. Install the mobile app and point it to your server URL
  4. Enable HTTPS if exposing externally (strongly recommended)

External library setup lets Immich read photos stored elsewhere (existing Lightroom catalogs, NAS shares) without moving them. Immich indexes them but doesn't copy them.

Uploaded/backed-up photos go to the UPLOAD_LOCATION directory, organized by date.

Mobile App Configuration

Available for iOS and Android:

  1. Open the app
  2. Enter your server URL (e.g., https://photos.yourdomain.com or http://192.168.1.100:2283)
  3. Log in with your credentials
  4. Enable background backup
  5. Choose backup settings: WiFi only, charging only, resolution, video quality

The app monitors your camera roll and automatically uploads new photos. It can optionally delete local copies after backup to free phone storage.

Reverse Proxy and HTTPS

For mobile app backup outside your home network, you need HTTPS. Using Nginx Proxy Manager or Traefik:

Nginx Proxy Manager example:

Key requirement: Immich requires WebSocket support in your reverse proxy configuration. Without it, real-time features like upload progress won't work.

Machine Learning Configuration

Immich's ML container handles multiple models:

CLIP (semantic search): Find photos by description, e.g., "sunset at the beach" — even without tags. This is the most useful ML feature.

Facial recognition: Groups photos by person. You name one face, it finds all photos of that person.

Smart Search: Combines CLIP embeddings with metadata for powerful search.

To configure the ML model (lighter = faster, heavier = more accurate): Navigate to Admin → Machine Learning in the web UI.

For low-power servers, consider using the ViT-B-32 CLIP model instead of the larger default. For higher accuracy, ViT-H-14 is the top tier.

Storage Considerations

Immich stores:

Plan for roughly 1.5-2x your library size total with all derivatives.

For large libraries (100,000+ photos), consider:

Upgrades

Immich releases updates frequently. The recommended upgrade process:

cd ~/immich
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

Check the Immich GitHub releases for any migration notes before upgrading between major versions.

Important: The project is under active development. Don't skip major versions when upgrading — breaking changes can cause data migration issues if you jump multiple versions.

Backup Strategy

The data that must be backed up:

  1. UPLOAD_LOCATION — your photos (most important)
  2. DB_DATA_LOCATION — the PostgreSQL database
  3. Immich also has a built-in backup export for the database

Don't rely on your original phone photos as a backup to Immich. Back up Immich independently — backup your UPLOAD_LOCATION to a second drive or offsite storage.

Alternative: Photoprism vs. Immich

PhotoPrism is the other major self-hosted Google Photos alternative. How they compare:

Feature Immich PhotoPrism
Mobile backup app Yes (native) No (third-party)
Active development Very active Active
ML features Strong Strong
Resource usage Higher Moderate
UI feel Modern, familiar Different style
Multi-user Yes Limited (free)

For most homelabbers who want automatic phone backup, Immich wins on the mobile app experience.

Getting Started

The Immich project has excellent documentation at immich.app. The Discord community is active and helpful for troubleshooting.

Self-hosting your photos means your memories stay yours — no algorithm deciding what to show you, no subscription to keep, no risk of Google changing the terms.

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