Ente: Open-Source, E2E Encrypted, Google Photos Alternative

I'm glad that they chose the AGPL when open-sourcing their server. I don't see that many companies, especially ones offering a "product", open-sourcing their work with a copyleft license.

Why should I use this over Immich?

Looks like it's not really designed to be self hosted yet. So, if you're self hosting, Immich is still probably the way.

Almost impossible to google for german users.

- Alfred!

For now it seems like you need to modify and build the apps yourself to be able to use the newly open sourced backend server. This doesn't make it very realistic to use for self-hosters.

If they ever change that, it might be worth another look.

If they're nice enough to use the AGPL, I have some faith that they'll also improve it for self-hosting.

What's the benefit of this over shotwell?

Why does it need to be encrypted if it never leaves my device? I dont get it

It does leave your device, it's connecting to either self hosted server or paid service cloud

The amount of marketing on their pages is triggering my sus radar a bit.

Some kind of marketing is better than having some or no documentation what it even does.

To be fair though, calling an open-source project "product" is really weird and gives away how they see it. As long as it's free and the code is all there, the worst thing would be that the users have to migrate to a fork.

It is a paid service.

~~I'll give it a spin~~

Nevermind, this isn't self hosted. There is no way i upload all my pictures to anyone else, encrypted or not.

If anyone cares about a self-hosted solution: https://github.com/LibrePhotos/librephotos
- It was a paid service and it still is a paid service. However, now that they open-sourced the server, you can self-host.
- What are you talking about?
  
  https://github.com/ente-io/ente/blob/main/server/RUNNING.md
Also, this exact post, down to the word structure, shows up in these and similar communities every once in a while. I'm convinced this is a dark pattern marketing scheme - pretending to be a good faith user in these communities while secretly pushing this app as the prime directive.

This is probably the third or fourth time I'm seeing this post.

It's a paid service with free trial.

I'm looking a for photo-storage option for the long-run.

Open-source is not a must, but nice. E2E encryption is not a must, but nice.

I just want to place to store, edit(?), categorize, search, share my photos. And I don't want to the place to be Google, Apple, or Microsoft. So, this does look interesting.

However, I also want to low-maintenance, low-cost, stable long-term solution. I value convenience.

What options should I consider?

Immich is a perfect photos app, and although still under heavy development it is quite polished already.

Low maintenance depends on your definition I suppose. As it's under heavy development you do need to often change the config with a new update.

But it has a Google Photos like interface, facial recognition and object/scene recognition and searchability (all of this is done locally on the server), etc.
- Immich is absolutely not perfect yet for every use case. A lot of people are looking for a photo server that can be used together with an existing Digikam archive and while Immich has recently added a read-only mode it still does not have good support for hierarchical tags which is necessary for that use case. I hope they will add that feature soon.
- What would be the best way to set it up on a raspberry pi, keeping in mind privacy & security?
Proton Drive just added photo backup to their app. It's new, and lacking features, but automatic backups and sharing are working.

The whole proton suite is pretty good, I've been very pleased.
I’m looking a for photo-storage option for the long-run.

Open-source is not a must

If you're looking for anything "for the long run" then open source should be a must, because everything else will eventually become unsupported and without source code access you'd have no recourse to continue maintaining it.
- Agree for self-hosted apps. However I'm also looking for a service like that one by ente.io. Here it's more important that they continue to operate. Sure, with open-source you can self-host or find someone else, but this only works if the service is popular. Less popular open source apps disappaer when the developer gives up. The code would still available, but no one will keep it up-to-date.