FamilyAlbum vs Immich

FamilyAlbum is a private service for sharing family photos and videos, designed to help parents share children’s moments with loved ones. Uploads are arranged automatically into albums by month. Only family members invited by the user can view an album; they can comment, respond to reactions and communicate there, while album owners can check whether relatives viewed photos. The free plan includes unlimited photo and video storage and 11 free prints per family member each month. Users can follow suggested ideas for monthly photobooks or create their own. FamilyAlbum is available on Android, iOS and the web, with no desktop app listed. Paid plans begin at $2.99 a month: Premium One costs $2.99 a month, Premium Family is $5.99 a month or 59 USD per year, and Premium Family Pro is $10.99 a month or 109 USD per year. Premium plans add features such as computer uploads, longer or higher-quality video uploads, bulk downloads, search and TV casting. FamilyAlbum says transfers are encrypted and that it does not sell user data to third parties.

Immich is a free, open-source app for backing up photos and videos from Android and iOS devices to a server users manage themselves. Uploads can come through the mobile app, browser, or command-line interface; external libraries can be added as read-only folders. The web app opens in a browser at the server address on port 2283. Albums, hierarchical tags, maps, memories, favorites, and a folder view help organize media. Smart Search accepts natural-language phrases, and facial recognition detects and groups faces. Users can share libraries with friends and family, create public links for collections, or share with partners. Immich supports OAuth identity providers, API keys, and Prometheus monitoring. Deployment documentation covers Docker Compose and Kubernetes, with community NAS guides also available. The documentation recommends a 64-bit Linux or Unix-like system, requires Docker Compose, and gives minimum server resources of 6 GB RAM and 2 CPU cores. Automatic database backups contain metadata only, so uploaded photos and videos need separate backups. The listed plan is free, with a self-hosted server required.