Self-Hosted Google Photos Replacement with Immich on Raspberry Pi 4

self-hostedraspberry-pi

Google Photos is convenient but you are trusting your personal photos to a third party that can change their pricing or policies at any time. Immich is a self-hosted alternative that gives you the same experience – automatic phone backup, facial recognition, search – on your own hardware.

What Immich Provides

  • Automatic backup from iOS and Android
  • Timeline view with map
  • Facial recognition and people grouping
  • Smart search (find photos by content)
  • Album sharing
  • Partner sharing

All running on your own server, with your data staying on your hardware.

Running on Raspberry Pi 4

Immich requires a few containers: the main server, machine learning (for facial recognition), PostgreSQL, and Redis. On a RPi 4 4GB, this uses roughly 900MB RAM total.

immich-server:
  image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-server:release
  mem_limit: 512m

immich-machine-learning:
  image: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-machine-learning:release
  mem_limit: 256m

Setting memory limits is important to prevent Immich from taking too much from other services.

Performance Expectations

On RPi 4 with a USB SSD:

  • Photo browsing: fast, thumbnails load instantly
  • Initial ML indexing: takes several hours but runs in background
  • Backup speed: limited by your network, not the RPi
  • Search: works well once initial indexing is complete

With a 30GB photo library, day-to-day use feels responsive.

Storage

Immich stores originals plus thumbnails. Plan for roughly 1.5x your current photo library size. A 500GB USB SSD gives plenty of room for most personal collections.

Mobile App

The Immich iOS and Android apps work exactly like Google Photos – open the app, it backs up new photos automatically in the background. You can set it to backup only on WiFi to avoid using mobile data.

One Limitation

Immich does not have shared albums with external people (like Google Photos shared albums with non-Immich users). If you need to share photos with family members, they would need the Immich app too. For personal backup, it is perfect.

Conclusion

If you are already running a home server, Immich is worth adding. It is actively developed, the mobile apps are polished, and the self-hosted experience is genuinely comparable to Google Photos.