# Immich 296 Hacker News commenters recommended Immich and 65 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 1 years (33 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** A self-hosted Google Photos replacement with automatic phone backup and strong natural-language search, though mobile apps can be glitchy and face recognition trails Google's. ## Why people recommend it - Close Google Photos replacement (4 comments): "I have not a single problem, which is quite incredible for a software that basically has all features that Google Photos has." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46172905)) "It's a fantastic self hosted replacement for Google photos. They have pretty much perfectly replicated the UI." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47785468)) "I love this project — I replaced Apple photos with it and it's been smooth sailing the whole way through." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49539027)) - Excellent semantic, natural-language search (4 comments): "the thing I particularly enjoy about immich is that it's semantic searching is leagues better than any of the proprietary solutions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49546139)) "Immich put the joy back in photography for me, it's so easy to find anything, even with just searching with natural language." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46170261)) "Immich has nice features like face detection, search by content, GPS, etc. but it is not suitable for front end." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47755243)) - Reliable automatic photo backup (3 comments): "I've not actually had an issue with Immich ever while doing it this way and I manage about 10TB of photos and videos currently in Immich." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46175288)) "Yes, it does silently and reliably upload all my photos to my server. That's like, the entire selling point of the app?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46171267)) "I take a picture, and it’s nearly immediately available in the same way across all my devices and the web." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46177685)) - Easy Docker setup and upgrades (3 comments): "It is literally just start the container and forget. When upgrading it is change the version tag and restart the container." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46172914)) "my effort was essentially pointing Claude at the Docker image and remembering a port number for setting up my phone." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49538993)) "When I'm pissed off by Immich or something better comes along, I destroy the Immich containers and it's gone." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46842533)) ## What people warn about - Mobile apps feel buggy, unpolished (2 comments): "I think Immich is very good, and I use it myself. But there is something about the design and performance in the mobile app that still makes it feel "not quite there yet" on iOS at least." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46172322)) "The Android app is good but does quite often fail to open, just getting stuck on the splash screen indefinitely." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46171438)) - Face recognition weaker than Google (2 comments): "I setup immich on my macbook to do this but sadly I found the face recognition is nowhere near as good as Google Photos." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48775491)) "immich identifying things like statues or paintings as people, and not dealing with people (especially kids) aging" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46175560)) - Missing restore, import, editing features (5 comments): "The only thing that's really missing is a feature on the mobile app to delete local copies of uploaded assets" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46171091)) "Would be great if Immmich iOS app had a restore functionality as convenient as existing backup functionality." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48772351)) "But it's not editor. You don't have manual export, you crop/rotate thumbnails which might not be suitable for print for example." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48771260)) - Failures happen silently (3 comments): "the export failure wasn't incredibly loud. I don't think it notified and screamed at me that it wasn't working" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46175344)) "they offer all bells and whistles while completely dropping the ball at making you feel those photos are well taken care of" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48772394)) "Immich taking zero responsibility for possibly causing damages in hundreds of dollars and not warning their uses" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47132052)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Google Photos](https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-photos.md): 73 recommend - [Apple Photos](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-photos.md): 66 recommend - [PhotoPrism](https://hackerapproved.com/p/photoprism.md): 10 recommend - [digiKam](https://hackerapproved.com/p/digikam.md): 8 recommend - [Nextcloud Memories](https://hackerapproved.com/p/memories.md): 5 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Immich", https://hackerapproved.com/p/immich/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).