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Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

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Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#61

Post by raybb »

vishnumohandas wrote: post #27

Hey, over the last year we've been building ente[1], an end-to-end encrypted alternative to Google Photos. We have shipped open-source[2] web and mobile apps that have preserved 180,000+ files. Apart from cross-device sync, you can share your albums end-to-end encrypted, and filter photos by location and time. We recently had a "successful" launch on r/degoogle[3]. We wanted to Show HN after incorporating the feedbac…

What's your strategy to get enough users so that you become financially sustainable?

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#62

Post by Mister_Snuggles »

For backing up photos, I've used two solutions:

1. PhotoSync[0] - it can your photos and videos to a local NAS. It has a ton of options for how to connect to a local NAS, plus it will connect to a variety of cloud services. It is very configurable. This used to be my primary way to transfer photos to my NAS, but I've since started using iCloud which does everything I need.

2. iCloud - Turn it on, sign up for the appropriate storage plan, it basically just works, and I can access my photos from all of my devices. Obviously only useful if you're in the Apple ecosystem.

For sharing photos, I like SmugMug[1].

[0] https://www.photosync-app.com/home.html

[1] https://www.smugmug.com/

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#63

Post by hanniabu »

mtlynch wrote: post #22

If you're willing to self-host, Photoprism[0] is pretty nice and easy to get up and running. It has the flavor of Google Photos, but it's definitely a step down in UX. One of the features I really love about Google Photos is the ability to jump quickly through time. Like if I'm looking for a photo I took around June 2018, I can get to it in I didn't realize what a magical feature it is until I tried looking for it wi…

Do you know if they have a portable option so i can keep it on my external drive that i have all my media on?

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#64

Post by vishnumohandas »

raybb wrote: post #61
vishnumohandas wrote: post #27

Hey, over the last year we've been building ente[1], an end-to-end encrypted alternative to Google Photos. We have shipped open-source[2] web and mobile apps that have preserved 180,000+ files. Apart from cross-device sync, you can share your albums end-to-end encrypted, and filter photos by location and time. We recently had a "successful" launch on r/degoogle[3]. We wanted to Show HN after incorporating the feedbac…

What's your strategy to get enough users so that you become financially sustainable?

The current set of paid users are sufficient to break-even on the infrastructure costs.

As for personnel costs, a few more hundred paying users and we'll be set. Feedback from existing users have been positive, and we should be able to reach that point by end of the year.

It helps that we're living in one of the cheaper parts of the globe, and are not motivated by money. We're building this because an easy to use, privacy friendly alternative needs to exist.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#65

Post by LegitShady »

umvi wrote: post #58

OneDrive. If you can get 5 other people to go in on a family plan with you, it's $17/year for 1TB storage. You can get OneDrive app for your phones and tablets to auto sync camera roll, etc. to OneDrive. As an added bonus, OneDrive is really well integrated with Windows 10 (if you are a windows user) so your pictures will just magically show up on your system as files you can drag and drop.

That's what I did. The 6 copies of office + 6x1tb cloud storage is hard to beat, especially if your employer is part of the HUP or you get it at a good discount otherwise.

I looked into other services but nobody seemed to compete, especially since I needed ~250gb minimum.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#66

Post by stevage »

chomp wrote: post #56
ping_pong wrote: post #50

To be honest, $2/month isn't that unreasonable from a useful service. I would definitely class Google Photos as useful, especially its ability to search for pictures. I personally use iCloud, and back everything to a Synology.

It is not, however for some of us, there was an implicit “I let you datamine my images, you host them” relationship. Having to pay google tips the scales, so why not spend your $2 on a more privacy oriented service?

Because most competitors are much more than $2/mo.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#68

Post by quyleanh »

You can take a look at this repo [1]

Self-hosted

- Photoprism [2] - Feature rich server-based application for browsing, organizing and sharing your personal photo collection. The most similar to Google Photos.

- Photoview [3] - Photo gallery for self-hosted personal servers with Facial Recognition.

- Photostructure [4] - Self-hosted photo library that makes browsing and sharing a lifetime of memories delightful.

- LibrePhotos [5] - Active OwnPhotos [6] fork. Self hosted alternative to Google Photos.

- Nextcloud [7] - The open source self-hosted productivity platform that keeps you in control. It has a Photos plugin to help you organize and visualize your photos.

Third-party

- Stingle Photos [8] - Open source solution that provides strong security, privacy and encryption to backup your photos.

- Crypt.ee [9] - A private and encrypted place for all your photos, documents, notes and more.

- Ente [10] - Encrypted backups for your photos, videos and memories.

Local

- DigiKam [11] - Awesome Professional Photo Management with the Power of Open Source.

[1] https://github.com/pluja/awesome-privacy#photo-storage

[2] https://photoprism.app/

[3] https://photoview.github.io/

[4] https://photostructure.com/

[5] https://github.com/LibrePhotos/librephotos

[6] https://github.com/hooram/ownphotos

[7] https://nextcloud.com/

[8] https://stingle.org/

[9] https://crypt.ee/

[10] https://ente.io/

[11] https://www.digikam.org/

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#69

Post by akkartik »

I'm in the market for this, albeit for different reasons. Perhaps coincidentally, right after Google announced ending their free storage their sync started acting up for me. Even though I'm a _paying_ customer. In that circumstance the usual Google lack of support becomes quite unacceptable.

For me the key feature is partner sharing. My wife and I take lots of baby photos. We see each other's photos as if we took them. This is the critical feature, and there is I think a large market for it. Even the slick ability to browse photos on the phone is nice but non-essential. Sync two people's photos reliably to a common S3 bucket, and even a janky web interface (+API) will suffice to get us to migrate. Convincing just one partner is easy.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to Google Photos?

#70

Post by ghjjjgv »

arriu wrote: post #42
joshmn wrote: post #20

I use a Synology[0] NAS and use their Photos software with an additional backup to both rsync.net and BackBlaze, in addition to using Google Photos — which I'll happily pay for. (humor my redundancy: I'm extra paranoid about losing memories of my mother.) [0] https://www.synology.com

I second this recommendation. I've done the whole DIY NAS thing a number of times but the Synology solution is just far more convenient and usually just works. Additionally, the there are so many other benefits to running a NAS, like the opportunity to plug in a set of IP cameras for security... Also, the OP doesn't need to get rid of Google Photos. They can keep Google Photos as a off-site back-up.

Also there the Moments app by Synology that automatically backs up your photos to your NAS.

I third this recommendation.

I use the pointy clicky AWS Glacier backups app in case everything goes sideways.

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