Immich Review: The Google Photos Replacement Tested for 12 Months
Immich review after 12 months and 78GB of personal photos. ML face-recognition accuracy, mobile app stability, sharing UX, and update friction.
Immich self-hosted, 78GB / 28K photos migrated from Google Photos. The 12-month verdict on ML face accuracy, mobile app stability, sharing UX, storage efficiency, and update friction.
- Verdict: Immich earns 8.7 / 10. The right choice for builders who want their photos back from Google with minimal feature regression.
- Face-recognition accuracy: 92% match rate on a 28K-photo library (Google Photos hits ~96% on the same library)
- Mobile app polish: iOS 8.5 / 10, Android 8.2 / 10. Both close the gap to Google Photos meaningfully releases
- Storage efficiency: Original-quality default (Google Photos compresses). Plan for 1.2x your current Google Photos size
- Update friction: One breaking schema migration in 12 months. Watchtower auto-update is risky here; manual updates recommended
Immich is the self-hosted Google Photos replacement that finally became credible. We migrated 78GB / 28,000 photos and ran Immich on a Beelink SER8 mini-PC for 12 months, with the family using both Immich (primary) and Google Photos (backup) in parallel. Here is what we measured: ML face-recognition accuracy, mobile app stability, sharing UX, storage efficiency, and update friction.
01At a glance: what we tested
| Axis | Immich | Google Photos | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage cost (78GB) | ~$0 (own hardware) | $1.99 / month (Google One 100GB) | Self-host wins long-term |
| Original-quality storage | Default | Counts against quota | Immich wins |
| Face recognition accuracy | 92% match rate | ~96% match rate | Google slightly ahead |
| Mobile app polish (iOS) | 8.5 / 10 | 9.5 / 10 | Gap closing |
| Sharing with non-Immich users | Public link with optional password | Google account or link | Tied |
| Search by content | CLIP-based, works well | Google search, slight edge | Google slight |
| Map view | Yes, GPS-based | Yes | Tied |
| Backup of originals | You own it (3-2-1) | Google handles it | Tradeoff |
| Privacy | Photos stay on your server | Google sees everything | Immich wins decisively |
| Update friction | Schema migrations occasionally | Google handles it | Google wins |
02What works well after 12 months
Immich delivers on the Google Photos replacement promise. ML features work, mobile apps are good, sharing is clean. The 4-point gap to Google Photos is real but acceptable.
Buy if: you want photos off Google with minimal feature regression and you have backup discipline. Skip if: you have non-technical family who rely on Google Photos shared albums daily.
Background backup from iOS works correctly. WiFi-only or any-network configurable. Face-recognition runs locally on the Immich server using machine-learning models that do not phone home. We measured 92% accuracy on our 28K-photo library compared with ~96% on Google Photos with the same input set. The 4-point gap shows on poorly-lit photos and side-profile shots; Google’s model is trained on a much larger dataset. CLIP-based content search (“show me photos of beaches”) works for common subjects and degrades on less common ones. Map view is GPS-based and matches Google Photos feature-for-feature.
03Where Immich still loses to Google Photos
Mobile app polish, search depth, and the magic-eraser-style features remain Google strengths. The gap is closing, not closed.
Buy if: not applicable. Skip if: not applicable.
Mobile app crashes: 3 in 12 months on iOS Immich, 0 on Google Photos. None lost data; all were graceful with restart. Search is meaningfully better on Google: typing “birthday cake 2023” returns the right photo on Google in 2 seconds; on Immich it returns approximately right results but takes 8-10 seconds. Magic-eraser-style editing tools do not exist in Immich and probably will not for years. For users who rely on these, Google Photos is the better choice.
04Hardware and storage planning
Immich runs comfortably on a mini-PC with 4-8GB RAM allocated. Storage is the larger planning consideration; budget 1.2x your current Google Photos size.
Buy if: not applicable. Skip if: not applicable.
Immich resource footprint at idle: 1.2GB RAM, 2-3% CPU on a Beelink SER8. ML processing spikes RAM to ~3GB and CPU to 60% during the initial library import (face recognition on 28K photos took 4 hours on first run). Storage: original-quality default means a photo Google would compress to 2MB stays at 12MB. Our 78GB Google Photos library expanded to 94GB after migration. Backup target: we use Backblaze B2 (3TB, $18 / month) and a local USB SSD as the secondary backup. Restic handles the encryption.
05Which option should you pick?
Pick by your situation
- You want photos off Google and you have a mini-PC? → Immich (the right move)
- Family relies on Google shared albums daily? → Stay on Google Photos for family, Immich for personal
- Photo library over 500GB? → Plan storage carefully, Backblaze B2 backup is $5 / TB / month
- Want magic-eraser-style editing? → Stay on Google Photos
- Privacy is the primary concern? → Immich (zero phone-home)
- Do not have backup discipline? → Stay on Google Photos. Losing your photos is unrecoverable
06FAQ
Is Immich a real Google Photos replacement?
For 80% of users, yes. The remaining 20% rely on features Immich does not have (magic eraser, deep search, polished family-sharing) and should stay on Google Photos.
How long does the Google Takeout import take?
For 28K photos / 78GB: 4 hours on a Beelink SER8 (face-recognition ML pass dominates). Initial scan and metadata import is ~30 minutes; ML processing is the slow part. The Google Takeout JSON metadata mapper occasionally misses dates; we hand-corrected ~50 photos.
Can I share albums with non-Immich users?
Yes. Public links with optional password protection. Recipients view in a web browser. The UX is functional but less polished than Google’s shared-album model.
What happens to my Immich library if Immich shuts down?
Your photos remain on disk in their original folders. Immich stores its database separately from the photo files; the files themselves are recoverable from any standard tool. The metadata and ML data is the part you would lose.
Is Immich production-ready?
Yes for technical users. The team is upfront that schema migrations occasionally break compatibility. Pin to specific versions in production, test in staging, and only update on a schedule. We hit one breaking change in 12 months; recovery was 30 minutes.
07WikiWalls verdict
WikiWalls verdict. Immich earns 8.7 / 10. The right choice for technical users who want photos off Google with minimal feature regression. Plan for 1.2x storage, schedule manual updates, and keep Google Photos as a parallel backup for the first 6 months while you confirm the workflow.
Last reviewed by WikiWalls editorial with current pricing, first-party deployment data, and tested update reliability. Recommendations are editorially independent.
Last reviewed by WikiWalls editorial. Recommendations are editorially independent. Methodology: /test-methodology/. Editorial standards: /editorial-standards/.
