PhotoSync vs Recallio

PhotoSync transfers and backs up photos and videos among mobile devices, computers, NAS devices, and cloud services. Mobile devices and computers can exchange files over local Wi-Fi; the maker says those transfers stay on the local network rather than going over the Internet. The free PhotoSync Companion supports transfers between iPhone, iPad, or Android devices and Windows PCs or Macs. Linux connections use SFTP, FTP, or SMB, while NAS and personal-cloud transfers can use FTP, SFTP, SMB, or WebDAV. Listed destinations include Synology, QNAP, ownCloud, Nextcloud, Dropbox, Google Photos, Google Drive, Amazon S3, and OneDrive. Autotransfer can back up new media to supported destinations, though iOS triggers are limited to location-based transfer and charging. PhotoSync preserves EXIF, GPS, and IPTC metadata and supports RAW transfers. It can also transfer media directly between iOS and Android over Wi-Fi when both devices have the app and share a network. A free plan covers basic transfers; full-size, RAW, NAS, and cloud features are listed as paid features.

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.