Your phone has 40,000 photos. Google has all of them. iCloud has all of them. You pay a monthly fee to whichever company you trust, and your memories live on someone else's servers under their terms of service.
Immich is the self-hosted alternative that has grown from a weekend project to 57,000 GitHub stars in three years. It has the mobile backup app. It has face recognition. It has the timeline view. It is free. The question is whether it is actually ready to replace the services millions of people use daily.
This comparison walks through what each option costs, what each does well, and who should use what.
Quick Comparison
| Immich | Google Photos | iCloud | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | $0 software + server | Free 15GB, $2/mo for 100GB | Free 5GB, $1/mo for 50GB |
| Mobile auto-backup | Yes (iOS + Android) | Yes (iOS + Android) | Yes (Apple devices) |
| Face recognition | Yes (on-device ML) | Yes | Yes |
| Smart search | Yes (CLIP semantic) | Yes (Google Lens) | Limited |
| Self-hosted | Yes | No | No |
| Android-native | Yes | Yes | Poor |
| Setup required | Docker Compose | Zero | Zero |
Immich: What It Actually Is
Immich launched in 2022 as one developer's Google Photos replacement and grew into a serious open-source project with a full team, weekly releases, and an active community of tens of thousands of users. The stack: TypeScript NestJS backend, Flutter mobile apps (iOS and Android), PostgreSQL, Redis, and separate machine learning microservices.
The mobile apps handle automatic background backup — connect to your Immich server and every photo taken gets uploaded without thinking about it. The web UI shows the familiar timeline view with date headers, the map view plots your photo locations, and albums work as expected including shared albums you can send to others.
The ML features are where Immich gets interesting:
- ▸Face recognition: clusters faces across your library, lets you assign names, and surfaces all photos of a person — exactly like Google Photos
- ▸CLIP-based semantic search: type "beach sunset" or "birthday cake" and find matching photos without relying on tags
- ▸Object detection: automatic labeling of scenes and objects for filtering
These features run locally on your server. Your photos do not leave your infrastructure. The ML services require 4GB+ of RAM and work faster with GPU acceleration (Intel QuickSync and Nvidia are both supported).
Immich pricing:
- ▸Software: Free, AGPLv3 license
- ▸Server cost: whatever you run it on — Raspberry Pi 4 ($80), a NAS, or a cheap VPS
Important caveat from the project's own README:
The Immich team is explicit: do not use Immich as your only backup. Breaking changes between major versions have caused database migration failures for some users. Run Immich alongside actual backup software (rsync, Restic, Backblaze B2) — treat it as your photo interface, not your sole insurance policy.
Setting up Immich:
```yaml
docker-compose.yml
services:
immich-server:
image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-server:release
volumes:
- /path/to/photos:/usr/src/app/upload
env_file: .env
depends_on:
- redis
- database
immich-machine-learning:
image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-machine-learning:release
volumes:
- model-cache:/cache
redis:
image: redis:6.2-alpine
database:
image: tensorchord/pgvecto-rs:pg14-v0.2.0
environment:
POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
POSTGRES_DB: ${DB_DATABASE_NAME}
volumes:
model-cache:
```
Add a .env file with database credentials, run docker compose up -d, and Immich is running. First-time setup including downloading ML models takes 10-15 minutes. The mobile app connects to your server address and starts backing up.
Google Photos: What You Are Paying For
Google Photos is the dominant photo backup service for a reason. It runs on everything (Android, iOS, web), needs zero setup, integrates with Google's search infrastructure, and has been continuously improved since 2015. The free tier's 15GB is shared with Gmail and Drive, which means most users exhaust it within 1-3 years of normal phone usage.
Google Photos pricing (Google One):
- ▸15GB: Free (shared with Gmail + Drive)
- ▸100GB: $1.99/month or $19.99/year
- ▸200GB: $2.99/month or $29.99/year
- ▸2TB: $9.99/month or $99.99/year
- ▸5TB+: higher tiers available
Family plans are available for 200GB and above, shareable with up to 5 people.
What Google Photos does better than Immich:
The search is better. Google's image recognition has been trained on billions of photos. Searching "dog at the beach" or "my daughter's first birthday" reliably finds what you are looking for. Immich's CLIP search is impressive for self-hosted software, but Google's years of training advantage shows.
Google Lens integration lets you point the camera at anything and get instant information, translate text in photos, or identify plants and animals. Immich has no equivalent.
Memories are polished. Google curates "one year ago today" and "best of last summer" collections with AI-selected highlights. Immich has a memories feature but it is simpler.
Zero setup and zero maintenance. You install the app and photos back up. No server updates, no Docker containers to manage, no disk space to monitor.
What Google Photos does that might concern you:
Your photos train Google's AI models unless you opt out (and the opt-out is buried). Google's terms of service give them a broad license to use your content. The business model depends on understanding what is in your photos to serve advertising elsewhere.
The free tier has not grown in years. 15GB goes fast when modern phones shoot 10-15MB photos. The jump from free to paid is unavoidable for most users within a few years.
iCloud: The Apple-Native Choice
iCloud Photos is the obvious choice for people entirely in the Apple ecosystem, iPhone, iPad, Mac. Photos shot on iPhone appear on your Mac in seconds without doing anything. iCloud Drive, iCloud Keychain, and iCloud Photos all share the same storage quota and billing.
iCloud pricing:
- ▸5GB: Free
- ▸50GB: $0.99/month
- ▸200GB: $2.99/month
- ▸2TB: $9.99/month
- ▸6TB: $29.99/month
- ▸12TB: $59.99/month
Family Sharing allows sharing 200GB and 2TB plans across up to 6 people, making the 200GB plan at $2.99/month a common choice for families.
Where iCloud works best:
The Apple device integration is unmatched. Live Photos, ProRAW, ProRes video, formats specific to iPhone, are preserved and viewable across all your Apple devices without conversion. The Memories and Shared Albums features work well within the Apple ecosystem.
iCloud Photos stores full-resolution originals in the cloud and can optimize local storage automatically, keeping full-resolution versions in iCloud while keeping compressed versions on device.
Where iCloud falls short:
Android does not exist to iCloud. There is no official Android app. If you have one Android user in a family, shared iCloud photos require workarounds.
The free tier is 5GB, the stingiest of the three options. Realistically, everyone with an iPhone needs to pay for at least 50GB ($0.99/month) almost immediately.
Smart search is weaker than Google Photos. Face recognition works but is less accurate than Google's on large libraries. There is no semantic text search comparable to Google Photos or Immich's CLIP search.
Cost Comparison at Scale
Solo user, 200GB photo library:
- ▸Google Photos: $2.99/month (200GB plan) = $35.88/year
- ▸iCloud: $2.99/month (200GB plan) = $35.88/year
- ▸Immich: $0 software + $5-10/month VPS with 500GB = $60-120/year (OR free on existing hardware)
Family of 4, 2TB total:
- ▸Google Photos: $9.99/month (2TB, shareable) = $119.88/year
- ▸iCloud: $9.99/month (2TB, Family Sharing) = $119.88/year
- ▸Immich: $0 software + $20-30/month VPS with 4TB = $240-360/year (OR free on a NAS you already own)
For users with a NAS or home server already running:
Immich software cost = $0. You are already paying for the electricity and hardware. The photos are an additional workload on existing infrastructure. The break-even versus Google/iCloud at that point is immediate.
For users buying hardware specifically for Immich:
- ▸Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB) + 4TB external drive: ~$180 one-time, $0/month recurring
- ▸Break-even vs. Google 2TB plan ($9.99/month): ~18 months
Feature Deep-Dive
Mobile Backup
All three have automatic background backup. The experience is:
- ▸Immich: Set the server URL, enable background backup, done. Works on iOS and Android. Videos up to 4K, RAW files, Live Photos all supported.
- ▸Google Photos: The most reliable mobile backup on Android (it is Google). iOS works well. Google handles background sync even in restrictive iOS power management.
- ▸iCloud: Native on iPhone. No setup required. Android has no official app.
Face Recognition
All three cluster faces automatically and let you search by person:
- ▸Immich: Local ML, respects privacy, works without internet after initial model download. Accuracy is good on large libraries with varied angles.
- ▸Google Photos: The most accurate of the three on diverse libraries. Handles aging, different lighting, partial faces better than local models.
- ▸iCloud: Good on Apple devices, syncs across your devices. Cannot search across shared albums by face.
Search
- ▸Immich: CLIP semantic search (type a description, find matching photos), object detection labels, face search. Surprisingly effective.
- ▸Google Photos: Most powerful. Google Lens, scene recognition, text in photos (OCR search), location search, Google Assistant integration.
- ▸iCloud: Basic metadata search plus Siri. Significantly behind the other two.
Sharing
- ▸Immich: Shared albums (users must have Immich accounts or you create guest access). No public sharing link for individual photos without configuration.
- ▸Google Photos: Public links, shared albums with or without Google accounts, built-in partner sharing for one person who sees everything.
- ▸iCloud: Shared Albums with non-Apple users via web link. Family Sharing for storage plans. Less flexible than Google for external sharing.
Who Should Use What
Use Immich when:
- ▸You have a NAS, home server, or are willing to run a cheap VPS
- ▸Privacy is a genuine concern, you do not want Apple or Google holding your family photos
- ▸You have an Android and Apple mix in your household (Immich works on both equally)
- ▸You want unlimited storage at $0 software cost for an existing server
- ▸You are a homelab person who enjoys running and maintaining self-hosted software
- ▸You use Google Photos now and want to migrate away
Use Google Photos when:
- ▸You want zero setup and zero maintenance
- ▸You have a large Android household
- ▸You rely on Google Photos' superior search (Lens, semantic search, text in photos)
- ▸You already pay for Google One for other reasons (Gmail storage, Drive)
- ▸You want the most polished memories and highlight features
Use iCloud when:
- ▸Your household is entirely Apple devices
- ▸iCloud storage covers multiple Apple services you already pay for (device backup, Drive)
- ▸You want the tightest iPhone integration (Live Photos, ProRAW, instant Mac sync)
- ▸You are already in the Apple ecosystem and switching costs are not worth it
Bottom Line
Google Photos and iCloud are the right answer for users who want something that works without thinking about it. The $2-10/month is real money but so is the zero-maintenance value.
Immich is the right answer if you already run home infrastructure, if privacy around your photos matters to you, or if you have a large family photo library where the cloud costs add up. The warning about not making it your only backup is real, treat it as your interface and keep actual backups elsewhere.
The experience gap has narrowed significantly. Immich in 2026 is not a "good for open-source" tool, it is a genuinely good photo management app that happens to run on your own hardware. Just keep a real backup alongside it.