Ente Photos: Fully open-source, end-to-end encrypted
Ente Photos is a self-hosted photos tool. Fully open-source, end-to-end encrypted alternative to Google Photos and Apple Photos.
Why self-host Ente Photos
Self-hosting Ente Photos removes the dependency on a third-party service. For anyone who values data ownership, that matters more than convenience in the long run.
What it does
Ente Photos falls into the Photos category of self-hosted software. It is designed to be deployed on your own infrastructure, whether that is a home server, a VPS, or a local machine running Docker.
Community traction
The project has 12k stars on GitHub, which is a reasonable proxy for how widely it is used. Active repositories tend to ship bug fixes faster and have better documentation than projects that stall after the initial release.
Deployment
Docker is the most common deployment path. If you are already running containers at home, adding Ente Photos to a compose file is a low-friction way to try it.
Alternatives
If Ente Photos does not fit your needs, common alternatives include Google Photos, iCloud. The self-hosted versions of these tools often differ in resource requirements and feature focus, so it is worth testing the one that matches your workload.
Maturity
The current version is 0.9.16, which means the project is still pre-1.0. That is not a disqualifier, but it is worth checking the changelog before upgrading in a setup where stability matters.
License
It is licensed under AGPL-3.0, making it freely available for personal and commercial use.
Links
Whether you are just starting with self-hosting or adding to an existing setup, Ente Photos is a reasonable pick in the photos space.