Own photo and video storage as free iCloud alternative

As someone who cherishes their digital memories, I found myself in a predicament when I began to run out of space on iCloud, hitting my 2TB plan limit. This led me on a quest for a more reliable and cost-effective solution, and it was during this search that I discovered Immich — a great, powerful, free and open-source app that allows to have an own storage without the recurring costs.

Just take a look at this demo and see for yourself that I'm not exaggerating. Here is also a comparison between various open source photo storages (including Immich).

Installation

First of all, to install Immich you should have at least:

• Ubuntu or Debian. Windows and macOS are supported via Docker Desktop installed.


• 4GB RAM (recommended 6GB)


• 2 cores CPU (recommended 4 cores)

To install the app, follow this step-by-step guide.

After installing and starting Docker containers, open http://localhost:2283 and click Getting Started button to create an Admin account

Mobile app

Once you've set up Immich, the next step is to install the mobile app on your smartphone. Immich has apps for both iOS and Android.

Just install the app and use it in one of the following ways:

• if you're in local network, by specifiying your Server Endpoint URL as follows (replace with your local IP you installed Immich to):

• for external access, it is recommended using VPN connection to connect to your home network

Instead of Conclusion

In my opinion, Immich is a very perspective application with a large number of contributors and a rapidly growing community. If you like it, consider joining the contributors or translators to make Immich better.