Ente Photos vs Recallio

Ente Photos is an end-to-end encrypted photo service for backing up and accessing images across devices. Its apps encrypt photos and metadata on the device before upload, and can back up new photos in the background. On-device AI recognizes faces and photo elements to support natural-language search. Users can revisit curated memories and share encrypted albums or browser links, with password and expiry options for links. Album owners can allow others to contribute photos, including people without an Ente account. Ente documents imports from Google Photos, Apple Photos, Amazon Photos, and local storage; its desktop app supports incremental export. The Free plan includes 10 GB and one replica. Paid plans start with Starter at $2.49 a month, which includes 50 GB. Paid subscribers can share storage with up to five family members, each with a private space. Ente says it stores three encrypted copies across providers and EU locations. It also says it cannot recover an account or data if a user loses both the password and recovery key while logged out of all devices.

Recallio is a self-hosted photo and video backup for phones, available on Android, Linux, web, and self-hosted deployments. After setup, its Android app backs up the phone’s library automatically. Media is stored on hardware the user controls, including a local disk, NAS, or USB drive. The server installer targets an Ubuntu home server and installs FFmpeg and Tailscale; encrypted device access uses Tailscale’s WireGuard mesh. The web library supports search, favorites, albums, grid browsing, lightbox previews, and full-resolution originals. Existing folders on internal or external drives can be added, with subfolders becoming albums. Deleted photos move to a configurable Bin, set to 10 days by default. The maker says there is no telemetry, advertising SDK, or content scanning, and media travels directly between devices. A 2 GB RAM server is stated as sufficient, with storage sized to the library. Nightly release checks and automatic updates run during a chosen window.