ArkCentral vs PhotoPrism
ArkCentral
arkcentral.com
PhotoPrism
photoprism.appSide by side
| Figure | ArkCentral | PhotoPrism |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 7 |
| Spec score · Photo Storage Services | 8.4 (#12) | 8.3 (#16) |
| Headquarters | Sheridan, Wyoming, United States | Berlin, Germany |
| Integrations | The product is presented as a private alternative for family chats and photos scattered across services such as WhatsApp, Google Photos, Drive, and iCloud. | PhotoSync can back up iOS and Android phones, while WebDAV clients such as Windows Explorer and Finder can connect to PhotoPrism. |
| Privacy | The maker says family data is held on the home device rather than a third-party server, and ArkCentral does not hold messages, files, contacts, or history. | PhotoPrism says it will not sell user data or share it with Google, Amazon, Microsoft, or Apple unless users intentionally upload files to those services. |
| Product | The Ark is a private home device for storing family photos, videos, files, and messages on hardware the buyer owns. | PhotoPrism is an AI-powered app for browsing, organizing, and sharing photos and videos, available self-hosted or in the cloud. |
| Support | The company lists [email protected] as its support contact. | Community users can get help through public forums and community chat; Plus includes private chat, and team plans list email and chat or SLA support. |
Plans
PhotoPrism
- CommunityFree
- Essentials€2 a year
- Plus€6 a year
- PikaPods$6.50 a month
- Starter€79 a month
- Business€219 a month
- Enterprise€1,499 a month
In their own words
ArkCentral
ArkCentral has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
PhotoPrism
PhotoPrism is a photo and video manager for browsing, organizing, and sharing collections, available in the cloud or self-hosted. It classifies images by content and location and recognizes faces; combined search filters and six high-resolution world maps help users explore them. The app indexes, displays, and converts common image, video, and RAW formats, including JPEG, PNG, HEIF, HEIC, MP4, MOV, WebP, and WebM. It also combines Exif, XMP, and other metadata, including Google Photos JSON. Albums can be shared through secret links that may expire, without recipients needing an account or app. PhotoSync can back up phones, and WebDAV clients such as Finder and Windows Explorer can connect. The Community Edition runs on Mac, Linux, and Windows via Docker, with other listed options including Raspberry Pi and NAS devices. Platforms include Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows, web, and self-hosting. Community is free; Essentials is €2/mo billed annually. PhotoPrism is based in Berlin, Germany.