Who should pick it
Immich
Pick Immich if your VPS meets its official 8 GB recommended spec and you want a photo and video management solution whose RAM and CPU rows are fully published — no estimates in those rows.
Comparison · self-hosted photo libraries
Immich vs PhotoPrism
Immich: High performance self-hosted photo and video management solution.
PhotoPrism: AI-powered photos app for browsing organizing and sharing photos and videos.
Requirements
Side-by-side VPS specs
Every value is taken from each app’s RunOnVPS dataset entry. Badges show whether a figure is an official project figure or a RunOnVPS estimate — never compare the two as if they were equal.
| Resource | Immich | PhotoPrism |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum RAM | 6GB Official | 3GB Official |
| Minimum CPU | 2 Official | 2 Official |
| Minimum disk | 20GB Estimated | 10GB Estimated |
| Recommended RAM | 8GB Official | 4GB Official |
| Recommended CPU | 4 Official | 2 Official |
| Recommended disk | Not stated Not stated | Not stated Not stated |
| Suggested VPS tier (our sizing) | 8 GB RAM tier | 4 GB RAM tier |
| GPU | Optional | Optional |
| Docker support | Yes | Yes |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| GitHub stars | 117030 | 40349 |
| Commercial alternative | Google Photos | Google Photos |
| Category | Media / Photos / Files | Media / Photos / Files |
Disk figures describe the application footprint recorded in the dataset. Personal media, documents, backups and other user data can require substantially more storage. Full source notes: Immich requirements · PhotoPrism requirements.
Who should pick it
PhotoPrism
Pick PhotoPrism if you want an AI-powered photos app that officially runs on a smaller server (3 GB minimum) and you can give it the swap and local SSD its setup page asks for.
Verdict
The short version
- On published RAM figures, PhotoPrism is the lighter install: 3 GB official minimum / 4 GB recommended, against Immich’s 6 GB / 8 GB. In our sizing that maps PhotoPrism to the 4 GB tier and Immich to the 8 GB tier.
- Both projects are AGPL-3.0 and both list a GPU as optional — neither needs one.
- Storage caveats differ in detail: Immich’s docs put its Postgres database (typically 1–3 GB) on local SSD and add roughly 10–20% on top of your library for thumbnails and transcoded video; PhotoPrism asks for at least 4 GB of swap and local SSD for its database and cache. Either way, your library — not the app footprint — dominates disk.
- Immich has the larger GitHub audience in our dataset (~117k vs ~40k stars, checked 2026-10-24).
Neither verdict nor table scores the apps against each other — the right pick depends on the job, the licence you can accept, and how much of the spec is published rather than estimated. If you plan to run either alongside other apps, add it to a multi-app VPS estimate →