Permafiles vs PhotoStructure

Permafiles is managed cloud storage built on the open-source Nextcloud platform, for files, photos, and folders. Users can share family photos and set permissions controlling who may access, edit, or download them. Shared links can also have passwords and expiration dates. Nextcloud Office supports online editing of documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, while Nextcloud Talk provides calls with up to 10 people. The Nextcloud Mail app can connect to Gmail and other email services through IMAP and SMTP. Sync clients are listed for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS, with web access as well. Security measures described include HTTPS/TLS, two-factor authentication, brute-force and antivirus protection, and optional end-to-end encryption for supported folders and use cases. Permafiles says its server infrastructure is hosted in Germany, while customer file data is stored with third-party S3-compatible storage in the United Kingdom. It also says it makes daily offsite backups and can restore a complete server failure within a couple of hours. The free plan includes 5 GB. Paid plans range from £1.99 per month for 64 GB to £27.99 per month for 3 TB.

PhotoStructure is a personal digital asset manager for organizing, browsing and sharing photos and videos, with desktop and self-hosted editions. It scans drives, sorts files into a folder structure you choose and watches for new arrivals. Duplicate copies, edits, resized versions and related burst photos can be grouped into a single library entry. Browsing pages surface random samples and provide facets for dates, locations, camera details, folders and people tags. The software supports several hundred photo and video formats and creates web-friendly previews. Tags, captions, corrected dates and locations can be saved in files or XMP sidecars; metadata can also be imported from Apple Photos libraries and read from sidecars or Google Takeout JSON files. Installers are available for Windows, macOS and Linux, while server editions support Docker or Node.js on a home server, NAS or VPS. The maker says the application does not upload photo or video libraries, though optional error reports may include system information, paths, logs and error details. Lite is free; Plus is $5 a month and includes a 15-day trial.