Lychee
A stunning and user-friendly self-hosted photo management system. Upload, organize, and share your photos in seconds.
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Self-host beautiful photo albums with native-like ease, installable in seconds.
Core Features
- Install in seconds via Docker or direct deployment
- Intuitive album, tag, and search features, native-app feel
- Full data privacy – photos stay on your own server
- Free and open-source; Supporter Edition adds advanced features
- Automatic thumbnail generation, supports multiple storage backends
What It Can't Do
- •Version 7.0 introduces major Docker image changes – read the upgrade guide before updating. You must generate an APP_KEY (e.g., 'echo "base64:$(openssl rand -base64 32)"'). Requires MySQL/MariaDB. Use HTTPS and a reverse proxy in production.
Use Cases
- Personal/family private cloud photo library as Google Photos alternative
- Photographers managing large collections of RAW/JPEG images
- Small teams or organizations sharing images internally
Detailed Introduction
Lychee is a free, open-source photo-management tool that runs on your own server or web space. Installation is quick and easy, taking just seconds. With Lychee, you can upload, manage, and share your photos seamlessly, just like using a native application. It comes with all essential features—albums, tags, sharing, and more—while ensuring your photos are stored securely on your own infrastructure. The Docker deployment is especially simple, with a minimal compose file to get started in minutes. Lychee also offers a Supporter Edition (SE) with advanced features for those who need extra functionality. Built with PHP (Laravel) and supporting MySQL/MariaDB, it is lightweight yet feature-rich. Compared to alternatives like Piwigo or PhotoPrism, Lychee focuses on extreme ease of use and a beautiful, intuitive interface that feels like a native app.
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Getting Started
Download installer
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Install the software
Double-click the downloaded installer and follow the prompts
Quick Docker try: run 'curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LycheeOrg/Lychee/master/docker-compose.minimal.yaml' then 'docker compose -f docker-compose.minimal.yaml up -d'
Production Docker: Create a docker-compose.yml with DB and APP_KEY config, then 'docker compose up -d'
Open http://localhost:8000 and complete initial setup (create admin account)
- Quick Docker try: run 'curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LycheeOrg/Lychee/master/docker-compose.minimal.yaml' then 'docker compose -f docker-compose.minimal.yaml up -d'
- Production Docker: Create a docker-compose.yml with DB and APP_KEY config, then 'docker compose up -d'
- Open http://localhost:8000 and complete initial setup (create admin account)
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Open Source Transparency
View GitHub SourceUninstall Info
For Docker: run 'docker compose down -v' (volumes are deleted – backup first). For source: delete the web directory and drop the database.
No Extra Dependencies
Ready to use after download. No additional runtime required.
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