Lychee
A clean self-hosted album gallery with metadata, passworded sharing, downloads, and a simple Docker setup; much less discovery machinery.
Technical Profile & Specs
verified 2026-08-11
- Cost
- $0 / forever (Open Source)
- License
- MIT
- Hosting Model
- Self-host (your server)
- Platforms
- webself-hosteddocker to self-host
- Installation
- Docker Compose with the Lychee image and MariaDB; prebuilt and source installs also exist
- Operational Setup
- Docker Compose, writable persistent volumes, a database, an APP_KEY, and domain/TLS setup for remote sharing
- Where Your Data Lives
- Uploaded originals and derivatives live in persistent uploads storage; albums, users, metadata and settings live in MariaDB (or another configured database), with separate logs and temporary-data volumes
- The Catch / Trade-off
- It publishes albums but offers far less automatic search and no Flickr social network, groups, discovery feed, comments community or built-in audience.
Replaces 3 paid apps
up to $40/mo ($480/yr) in subscriptions
Lychee FAQ
Common questions
Is Lychee free and open source?+
Lychee is an open-source tool licensed under MIT that runs on self-host. A clean self-hosted album gallery with metadata, passworded sharing, downloads, and a simple Docker setup; much less discovery machinery.
What paid software does Lychee replace?+
Lychee serves as a free replacement for 3 paid SaaS applications: Flickr Pro, SmugMug, Zenfolio, saving up to $40/month ($480/year) in subscription bills.
How do you install and set up Lychee?+
Installation: Docker Compose with the Lychee image and MariaDB; prebuilt and source installs also exist. Setup notes: Docker Compose, writable persistent volumes, a database, an APP_KEY, and domain/TLS setup for remote sharing
What is the catch or trade-off with Lychee?+
It publishes albums but offers far less automatic search and no Flickr social network, groups, discovery feed, comments community or built-in audience.