Deploy and Host self hosted Immich Shared Albums (Photo Sharing and Public Links) on Railway

This template deploys Immich on Railway for sharing albums, partner libraries and public links with expiry dates and passwords.

About Hosting Immich Shared Albums open-source software on Railway (self hosted Immich shared albums, partner sharing and public links template)

This template runs the full Immich stack on Railway: immich-server, immich-machine-learning, Postgres with the VectorChord extension, and Valkey as the job queue.

Railway handles provisioning and keeping containers running.

Why Deploy Immich Shared Albums, the Google Photos alternative on Railway (Railway Free Trial)

Google Photos ties your library and sharing rules to a Google account.

Railway is a singular platform to deploy your infrastructure stack. Railway will host your infrastructure so you don't have to deal with configuration, while allowing you to vertically and horizontally scale it.

By deploying Immich Shared Albums on Railway, you are one step closer to supporting a complete full-stack application with minimal burden. Host your servers, databases, AI agents, and more on Railway.

Railway vs Other Hosting Providers and VPS for Immich Shared Albums self hosting

Railway gives you the four Immich services and a public URL for sharing without building the stack yourself. This table compares that with a raw server.

Provider	What You Get with Railway	What You Get with the Other Provider
DigitalOcean	Four services from one template, with the immich-server domain ready for share links.	A Droplet you size and secure, plus Docker Compose and a reverse proxy before links work over HTTPS.
AWS	Pre-wired services and volumes, with no VPC or load balancer to set up first.	Full EC2 and EBS control, with more setup before expiring links behave as expected.
Hetzner	A managed deploy with the external domain and volumes handled for you.	Cheap hardware with generous RAM, but updates, backups, and the public domain are yours.

Railway trades some cost control for a faster path to a working shared link.

Common Use Cases for hosted Immich Shared Albums

Holiday album for relatives: Create an album, share it with your aunt and cousins as viewers, and they get read-only access to the photos without a copy landing in their own libraries.
Partner sees your whole library: Set up partner sharing so your partner can browse everything you have, including metadata and GPS. Remember it is one-way, so they need to share back before you see their photos.
Password-protected client link: Send a client a public link with a password and an expiry date so the proofs stop working on the date you choose, and you can revoke the link any time.
Event guest uploads: Use a public link that lets a non-Immich guest upload from the event straight into your account, which saves you chasing photos from everyone's phone afterward.
Sharing setup comparison: Weigh how this compares with Google Photos, iCloud Shared Albums, PhotoPrism and Ente before you choose, since each handles viewers, links and expiry differently.

Dependencies for Immich Shared Albums Docker hosted on Railway

This template runs four services: immich-server, immich-machine-learning, Postgres and Valkey.

Deployment Dependencies for Managed Immich Shared Albums Service (Photo Management)

Each service pulls a pinned image and keeps its state on a volume. immich-server uses ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-server:v3.3.3 with /data for the library and backups. immich-machine-learning uses ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-machine-learning:v3.3.3, stays private on port 3003 and mounts /cache.

Implementation Details for Immich Shared Albums (Using Immich official docker image)

On immich-server, set PORT and IMMICH_PORT to 2283, the DB_ variables from Postgres, REDIS_HOSTNAME, REDIS_PORT=6379 and REDIS_PASSWORD from Valkey, IMMICH_MACHINE_LEARNING_URL pointing at the ML private domain on port 3003, and TZ for your zone.

How does Immich Shared Albums compare against other ways to share photos from a self-hosted Immich library

Immich Shared Albums vs Google Photos (Google Photos Alternative)

Where Immich wins: Shared albums, partner sharing and public links run on your own server, so nobody scans your photos for ad targeting.
Sharing model: Public links can carry an expiry date and a password that you control on the server side.
Where Google wins: Storage, uptime and the Google account everyone already has are hard to beat, and you never touch a volume or backup job.

Immich Shared Albums vs iCloud Shared Albums (Apple iCloud Alternative)

Where Immich wins: Guests do not need an Apple ID, and a public link works in any browser on any platform.
Partner sharing: Immich can share your whole non-archived library with a partner, which iCloud Shared Albums does not do.
Where iCloud wins: Integration with iPhone, Mac and the Photos app is smooth if your household lives in Apple devices.

Immich Shared Albums vs PhotoPrism (PhotoPrism Alternative)

Where Immich wins: The mobile app handles automatic backup well, and album sharing with editor or viewer roles is built in.
Where PhotoPrism wins: Browsing and AI tagging are its strength, which suits people organizing a large archive more than sharing it.
Trade-off: Pick Immich if sharing matters more to you, and PhotoPrism if browsing does.

Immich Shared Albums vs Ente (Ente Photos Alternative)

Where Immich wins: You control the server and database, and the External domain setting points shared links at your own host.
Where Ente wins: End-to-end encryption means the operator cannot read your photos, which Immich cannot offer because the server processes images for search and faces.
Trade-off: Ente runs the hosting for you, while on Railway you own uptime, volume backups and upgrades.

How to use Immich Shared Albums (the OSS photo management app)?

Open your Railway immich-server domain and create the first account, which becomes admin.
Go to Administration, Settings, Server and set the External domain to your Railway URL or custom domain before sharing anything.
Create an album, open the share icon, select users, and assign editor or viewer.
For a partner, go to Account Settings Partner Sharing and share with them, then enable Show in timeline on the web or toggle the button in the mobile app.
For a public link, select photos or videos or use the share icon on an album, then set the expiration date and password in the link options. The link looks like https://my.immich.app/share/ followed by a random token, and on your deployment your own domain replaces my.immich.app.

How to self host Immich Shared Albums on other VPS Services (Immich self hosting guide)

Running Immich on your own VPS means you control the sharing setup, including the domain your links use. The upstream compose file is the simplest path.

Clone the Repository

Download the official compose file and example env from the latest Immich release, then save the example as .env.

mkdir immich-app && cd immich-app
wget https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/latest/download/docker-compose.yml
wget https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/latest/download/example.env -O .env

Install Dependencies

Install Docker and the Compose plugin on a host with at least 6 GB RAM and 2 CPU cores, with 8 GB and 4 cores recommended.

Configure Environment Variables

Set UPLOAD_LOCATION, DB_DATA_LOCATION, TZ and an alphanumeric DB_PASSWORD in .env.

Start the Immich Shared Albums Application

Run the stack, open port 2283, and create the first account right away, since it becomes the admin.

docker compose up -d

Railway handles the four services, private networking and the public domain for you, while on a VPS you manage the host, backups and reverse proxy yourself.

Official Pricing of Immich Shared Albums (Immich pricing)

Immich is free and open source under AGPL-3.0, and there is no paid tier or hosted cloud from the project.

Immich Shared Albums cloud vs self hosted comparison (Pricing, features, costs, and more)

Immich is free to run yourself, so the real comparison is what you pay in time and infrastructure versus what you give up in convenience.

Monthly cost of self hosting Immich Shared Albums on Railway

Expect roughly $20-40 per month in compute for light family use, based on about 4 GB RAM across the four services, plus volume storage billed per GB-month for your library.

System Requirements for Hosting Immich Shared Albums on a VPS

Upstream Immich asks for a minimum of 6 GB RAM and 2 CPU cores, with 8 GB and 4 cores recommended.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Do shared album members need an Immich account?

Yes, an album shared with another user means that person needs a login on your Immich server.

How does partner sharing differ from a shared album?

A shared album covers only the photos you put in it, while partner sharing gives a user access to your entire library.

Can a public link let someone upload photos?

Yes, a public link can be set up to let a non-Immich user upload into your account. Turn that on only for events where you actually want guests adding photos.

Why do duplicates show up after partner sharing?

Immich detects duplicates per user, not across accounts, so a photo that exists in both libraries can appear twice on your timeline.

How do I revoke or expire a public link?

Set an expiration date and password in the link options, or delete the link entirely to revoke it.

Does the External domain setting change the link URL?

Setting the External domain under Administration, Settings, Server makes shared links point at your Railway URL or custom domain.