Synology Photos vs Tonfotos
Synology Photos
synology.comTonfotos
tonfotos.comSide by side
| Figure | Synology Photos | Tonfotos |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 2 | 3 |
| Spec score · Photo Management Software | 8.3 (#12) | 8.7 (#8) |
| Face recognition | People albums use face recognition, and users can name, hide, or merge recognized faces. | Local neural-network face recognition finds people, learns from confirmed photos and can recognize partially visible faces. |
| Headquarters | Banqiao District, New Taipei City, Taiwan | Yerevan, Armenia |
| Notable news | Synology announced DSM 7.2.2 on August 28, 2024, describing client-side media processing through Image Assistant and reporting faster thumbnail processing in its stated test. | The vendor announced Tonfotos 1.0 as officially out of beta and retained a permanent free version limited by the number of people in the library. |
| Purpose | Synology Photos provides photo and video browsing, management, sharing, search, album grouping, upload, and preview workflows in DSM. | Tonfotos organizes photo and video collections, removes duplicates, recognizes people, and helps preserve family stories. |
| Rating on Apple App Store | 3.0 out of 5 from 574 ratings. | 5.0 out of 5 from 1 rating |
| System requirements | The package requires DSM 7.0 or later and a Synology NAS; its technical specification lists Node.js 12 and Synology Application Service as dependencies. | Official downloads list Windows 10/11 x64, macOS 10.15 or later with Intel or ARM installers, and Linux x64 DEB or RPM packages. |
Plans
Tonfotos
- Free licenseFree
- Personal license$59, paid once
- Family license$159, paid once
In their own words
Synology Photos
Synology Photos is a photo and video management service in DSM for browsing, organizing, searching, sharing, uploading, and previewing media. It requires a Synology NAS for private photo storage, and its mobile app can back up photos and videos to that NAS automatically. Users can share individual items or albums through links with passwords or expiration dates. Shared Space lets selected users collaborate, with access and editing rights assigned by folder. Organization tools include custom and conditional albums, automatic grouping, and facial and object recognition on supported NAS models. RAW files are supported; previews for HEIC/HEVC files and compressed videos require Synology Image Assistant. Mobile apps require iOS 16 or later or Android 11 or later; TV apps support Apple TV and Android TV. Chrome and Safari are recommended for web use. Synology Photos is free, with no paid premium tiers listed.
Tonfotos
Tonfotos organizes photo and video collections, removes duplicates, recognizes people, and helps preserve family histories. Its face recognition groups people and learns from identifications, including faces partly visible or shown at different ages. Users can record relationships and genealogical details, view family ties in a tree, and search an archive by people, events, tags, dates, or shooting locations. Archives can remain on a PC, NAS, or removable drive, with offline use described for disconnected drives or shared folders. TonfotosSync for iOS and Android sends new phone photos to a computer or NAS archive after QR-code pairing. The app can also download photos and videos shared with the user on Telegram. It indexes RAW and HEIC formats and can display HEIC without conversion to JPEG. Other tools include albums, slideshows, photo conversion, and duplicate removal. The free lifetime license has full functionality but limits the number of people in photos. The Personal license costs $59 once and supports unlimited people for one user or device.