Last verified: September 2026
Ente Photos and Immich are both open-source photo management services built with privacy in mind, but they take fundamentally different approaches.
A key difference is how they are designed to be used: Ente is a managed, end-to-end encrypted photo storage and backup service, while Immich is primarily a self-hosted photo and video management service that you run on your own infrastructure.
Ente encrypts photos on your device before they are uploaded, so the server cannot access their contents. Immich gives you direct control over where your photos are stored, with privacy depending on the security of the server and infrastructure you manage.
Ente can also be self-hosted while retaining its end-to-end encryption model.
Quick Comparison
Questions | Ente Photos | Immich |
|---|---|---|
Are my photos end-to-end encrypted? | Yes, by default | No |
Is it open source? | Yes, client and server | Yes |
Is it designed specifically for photos? | Yes | Yes |
Does it recognize faces? | Yes, on-device | Yes, server-side |
Can I search photos using descriptions? | Yes, on-device | Yes |
Does it have photo albums? | Yes | Yes |
Does it have memories? | Yes | Yes |
Does it have map/location features? | Yes | Yes |
Can I automatically back up phone photos? | Yes | Yes |
Do I need to run my own server? | No | Yes |
Can I self-host it? | Yes | Yes |
Does it have an official desktop app? | Windows, macOS, Linux | Primarily web-based |
Privacy & Security
Both Ente and Immich are open source and designed to give users greater control over their photos, but their privacy models are different.
With Ente, your photos are end-to-end encrypted on your device before upload. Ente does not have the keys required to decrypt your photos, so it cannot access the contents of your photo library.
Read about Ente's encryption architecture →
Ente's apps and server are open source, and its architecture and source code have undergone independent security audits.
Read about Ente's security audit →
Immich is also fully open source, but it does not use end-to-end encryption for the photo library. Instead, your photos are stored on infrastructure you control. The server needs access to your photos to provide its photo-management functionality.
Read more about Immich's architecture →
Features, AI & Sharing
Both Ente and Immich provide extensive tools for organizing and rediscovering large photo libraries.
Ente includes face recognition, Magic Search, similar-image detection, memories, map views, albums, and organization by date and location. Face recognition and Magic Search run locally on your device.
Learn more about Ente's features →
Immich also provides face recognition, contextual search, albums, memories, map views, and other photo-management features. Unlike Ente's on-device machine-learning approach, Immich performs its machine-learning processing through the server you operate.
Learn more about Immich's features →
Photo management
Both services are designed specifically around photo and video libraries.
Ente provides people, albums, memories, dates, locations, Magic Search, and other discovery tools through its apps.
Immich provides timeline browsing, albums, facial recognition, search, memories, and location-based organization for a self-hosted photo library.
Sharing & collaboration
Both Ente and Immich allow you to share photos and albums with other people.
Ente supports end-to-end encrypted shared and collaborative albums, comments and likes, Collect links, Trip layouts, embedded albums, and custom domains. Albums can be shared without requiring you to make your own server publicly accessible.
With Immich, sharing is handled through your self-hosted server. How recipients access shared content therefore depends on how your Immich instance is configured and made accessible.
Pricing & Storage
Plan | Ente Photos | Immich |
|---|---|---|
Software | Free and paid plans | Free |
Storage | Included with selected plan | Uses your own storage |
Infrastructure | Managed by Ente | Managed by you |
Family sharing | Up to 6 people total | Users managed through your server |
Data replication | 3 copies across 3 cloud providers in the EU | Depends on your setup |
Maintenance | Managed by Ente | Managed by you |
Customer support | Human support team | Community/self-hosted support model |
Pricing, storage requirements, and product features can change over time.
Check current information: Ente | Immich
How does storage differ between Ente and Immich?
Ente's managed service includes cloud storage with your selected plan. Ente maintains 3 copies of your encrypted data across 3 different cloud providers in the EU, so users do not need to build their own storage redundancy.
Learn more about Ente's reliability and replication →
Immich primarily uses storage that you provide and manage yourself. This could be a home server, NAS, or other infrastructure depending on your setup.
Learn more about Immich's storage template→
Backup & Data Quality
Both Ente and Immich support automatic photo and video backup from mobile devices.
Ente handles the storage infrastructure behind your backups and provides apps across Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux, and the web.
Learn more about backup and sync with Ente →
Immich also supports automatic mobile backup, but backups depend on the availability of your Immich server, network connection, and storage.
Learn more about backup on mobile with Immich →
If your server is unavailable or its storage is full, new photos cannot be backed up until the underlying issue is resolved.
Setup & Maintenance
This is one of the biggest differences between Ente and Immich.
Ente's managed service does not require you to operate a server. You can install the app, create an account, select the photos you want backed up, and let Ente manage the underlying infrastructure.
Immich is designed primarily around self-hosting. You are responsible for deploying and maintaining the server, managing storage, applying updates, configuring networking, and creating an appropriate backup and disaster-recovery strategy.
Learn more about installing and managing Immich →
For users who already operate a home server or homelab, Immich provides direct control over the underlying infrastructure. For users who prefer not to maintain that infrastructure, Ente provides a managed alternative.
Can Ente also be self-hosted?
Yes. Ente's server is open source and can be deployed on your own infrastructure.
Unlike Immich's standard architecture, Ente retains its end-to-end encryption model when self-hosted. Photos are encrypted by the client before reaching your server, so the server stores encrypted data rather than the unencrypted contents of your photo library.
Learn more about self-hosting Ente →
Data Portability & Export
Both Ente and Immich give you ways to maintain control over your photo library.
Ente lets you export your photo library through its desktop app or command-line tools, making it possible to maintain an independent local copy of your photos and videos.
Learn more about exporting from Ente →
With Immich, you control the underlying storage infrastructure itself. Your original photo and video files are stored on storage you manage, although maintaining independent backups and redundancy is your responsibility.
Ente Photos vs. Immich: Which Is Better for You?
Choose Ente Photos if:
- You want end-to-end encrypted photo and video storage.
- You don't want to run or maintain a server.
- You want on-device face recognition and Magic Search.
- You want managed storage, redundancy, and backups.
- You want encrypted sharing that doesn't depend on exposing your own server.
- You want official desktop apps for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
- You want both the client and server code to be open source.
- You want the option to self-host while retaining end-to-end encryption.
Choose Immich if:
- You specifically want to self-host your photo library.
- You already have a NAS, home server, VPS, or homelab.
- You want direct control over your storage infrastructure.
- You're comfortable managing updates, backups, networking, and storage.
- You want server-side face recognition and search.
- You want a Google Photos-like experience running on infrastructure you control.
- You prefer managing the underlying system yourself rather than using managed cloud storage.
Switching From Immich to Ente
You can move photos and videos stored in an Immich library to Ente by first making sure you have access to the original files from your Immich storage.
Once your photos and videos are available as local folders, you can import them into Ente through the desktop app. They are then uploaded to your end-to-end encrypted Ente library.
Learn how to import photos into Ente →
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Immich end-to-end encrypted?
No. Immich does not currently provide end-to-end encryption for the photo library. Instead, your photos are stored on infrastructure you control, and the Immich server needs access to them.
Ente encrypts photos on your device before upload, so the server cannot access the contents of your photo library.
Do I need to run my own server to use Immich?
Yes. Immich is primarily a self-hosted photo and video management service, so you need infrastructure on which to run it.
This can give you extensive control over your storage and deployment, but it also means you are responsible for maintaining the server.
Can I self-host Ente?
Yes. Ente's server is open source and can be self-hosted on your own infrastructure while retaining end-to-end encryption.
Learn more about self-hosting Ente →
Does Immich have face recognition?
Yes. Immich supports face recognition using machine-learning processing on your server.
Ente also provides face recognition, but the processing runs locally on your device.
Does Immich have photo search?
Yes. Both Ente and Immich provide search tools for finding photos using their contents.
Ente's Magic Search performs its machine-learning processing locally on your device, while Immich's machine-learning functionality runs through your self-hosted server.
Can Immich automatically back up my phone photos?
Yes. Immich supports automatic mobile backup.
Because Immich is self-hosted, backup availability depends on your server, network, and storage being accessible.
Which is more private, Ente or Immich?
They provide privacy in different ways.
Ente uses end-to-end encryption so that the server cannot access your photo contents. Immich gives you direct control over the server and storage where your photos live, but the server itself can access the library.
If you want both self-hosting and end-to-end encryption, Ente can also be self-hosted.
What happens if my Immich server fails?
Your ability to access and back up photos depends on your server and the backup strategy you have configured.
With Immich, you are responsible for storage redundancy, backups, and disaster recovery. Ente's managed service handles its storage infrastructure and maintains multiple encrypted copies of your data.
Can I move my photos from Immich to Ente?
Yes. Once your original photos and videos are available as local files, you can import the folders into Ente through its desktop app.
Ready to Try Ente for Your Photos?
Get 10 GB of free storage (20 GB with referral) and start building your end-to-end encrypted photo library.