I stopped paying for Google Photos the moment I discovered this self-hosted alternative

Date:

The Sundarban The Sundarban Immich running on an Android phone.
Credit rating: Ismar Hrnjicevic / How-To Geek


The Sundarban 4

Printed Apr 17, 2026, 10:00 AM EDT

Ismar is a Senior Author at How-To Geek. He previously labored as a writer, editor, and general supervisor at a sing material company before joining the How-To Geek crew in 2023.

Ismar has been spherical Windows PCs since the age of three, so his guests and family chose him as the resident tech beef up. His tasks usually dangle tinkering, corresponding to disassembling mechanical keyboards and gaming mice to mod his preferred gear. He additionally enjoys pushing his hardware to the max through overclocking while staying on an cheap budget.

An avid gamer, Ismar has logged thousands of hours all over assorted genres, together with first-particular person shooters, RPGs, vehicle racing video games, and roguelites.

When he is now not at his desk, he is potentially exploring other folk’s telephones to search their quirks and parts. He additionally retains up with the most modern tech and actively follows the most modern AI trends.

He started his writing occupation in 2021 after completing a BA in English Language and Literature. To care for with his workload, he relies on as a lot as three cups of espresso a day. His cherish for the beverage impressed him to develop a weblog showcasing his current espresso mugs.

Previous How-To Geek, Ismar has contributed to Purple Stag Fulfillment and Authority Hacker. He has additionally labored on assorted site positioning tasks to serve customers beef up their search engine visibility.

In his free time, Ismar enjoys spending time with his most necessary other, understanding at the gymnasium, taking half in guitar and bass, cooking gourmet meals, and traveling. However most famous of all, he’s a proud cat owner.

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Self-web hosting opens up a world of probabilities, but if we’re being excellent, regarded as one of the most universal reasons folk stop up buying for a NAS is backup. Photos in particular are about a of the most famous files we retailer, but they usually flip into a massive number of thousands of unorganized photos which will be laborious to browse and really trip.

Fortunately, there’s an app that turns that agonize into one thing of path value building a NAS spherical.

The agonize with managing your possess report backups

Keeping all the pieces organized is a nightmare

The Sundarban A laptop hard drive attached to a USB to SATA adapter.
Credit rating: Jordan Gloor / How-To Geek

For most of us, photos are by some distance the most necessary files we now dangle. While losing one thing cherish every your ripped song and movie collections would suck, the overwhelming majority of them are exclusively replaceable. Whether it’s an musty, niche game, your current Metallica album, or a special lost episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, there’s usually a technique to search out a novel copy.

The photos you’ve taken over the years, nevertheless, are your long-established creations, and for these who’re now not careful, you may possibly simply easiest dangle one copy saved. Will dangle to you lose that one copy of your photos, they’re gone forever—predict me how I know.

The Sundarban How-To Geek
Quiz

8 Questions · Test Your Information

Cloud storage and self-web hosting
Trivialities grief

From Dropbox to your possess home server — how smartly enact you really know where your files are residing?

CloudSelf-HostingProtocolsSecuritySoftware

Originate

Which firm launched the first broadly smartly-liked consumer cloud storage carrier, debuting in 2007?

AGoogle DriveBMicrosoft OneDriveCDropboxDBox

Lawful! Dropbox launched in 2007 and is broadly credited with popularizing consumer cloud storage. Its easy file-syncing model plan the template that nearly every competitor would put together for years.

Not quite — the acknowledge is Dropbox, which launched in 2007. Google Drive did now not near unless 2012, and OneDrive (then known as SkyDrive) easiest turned smartly-known spherical the connected time.

Proceed

Nextcloud is most efficient described as which trend of application?

AA proprietary cloud backup machine made by MicrosoftBAn starting up-supply, self-hosted file sync and collaboration platformCA paid endeavor storage carrier with no self-web hosting optionDA Linux kernel module for managing network-hooked up storage

Lawful! Nextcloud is a free, starting up-supply platform you set as a lot as your possess server to assemble Dropbox-cherish parts without relying on a third social gathering. It supports file sync, calendars, contacts, and a complete bunch of neighborhood apps.

Not quite — Nextcloud is an starting up-supply, self-hosted platform. It change into once really forked from ownCloud in 2016 by founder Frank Karlitschek and has since change into regarded as one of the most smartly-liked self-web hosting tasks in the world.

Proceed

Which protocol does Nextcloud and heaps of other self-hosted storage instruments use to sync files between a server and client gadgets?

AFTPBSFTPCWebDAVDSMB

Lawful! WebDAV (Net Dispensed Authoring and Versioning) is an HTTP extension that enables customers to read and write files on faraway servers, making it a natural match for cloud-trend file sync functions.

Not quite — the acknowledge is WebDAV. While FTP, SFTP, and SMB are all right file-switch protocols, WebDAV is the connected earlier extinct by Nextcloud, ownCloud, and heaps of other web-based mostly storage platforms because it runs over connected earlier HTTP/HTTPS.

Proceed

What does stop-to-stop encryption (E2EE) imply in the context of cloud storage?

AFiles are encrypted easiest while being uploaded over the internetBThe storage provider encrypts files on their servers the utilization of their possess keysCFiles are encrypted on the user’s machine and the provider never holds the decryption keysDFiles are encrypted after being downloaded to the user’s native machine

Lawful! With correct E2EE, encryption and decryption happen on the user’s machine, so the cloud provider stores easiest ciphertext and may possibly now not read your files despite the indisputable truth that compelled to. Services cherish Proton Drive and Tresorit are identified for this formulation.

Not quite — E2EE methodology files are encrypted to your machine before they ever leave it, so the provider easiest ever sees unreadable ciphertext. This is varied from connected earlier server-aspect encryption, where the provider holds the keys and may possibly theoretically assemble entry to your records.

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