Deploy and Host self hosted Immich vs Google Photos (Self-Hosted Google Photos Alternative) on Railway

Leaving Google Photos doesn't mean losing your dates, albums, or descriptions.

About Hosting Immich vs Google Photos open-source software on Railway (self hosted Immich as a Google Photos alternative template)

Immich is open-source photo and video library software under AGPL-3.0, so your originals, thumbnails and metadata stay on infrastructure you control instead of inside a Google account.

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

Google Photos keeps your library on Google's servers, with storage tied to your 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 vs Google Photos 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 vs Google Photos self hosting

Here is how this Immich stack on Railway compares with a general-purpose server for a Google Photos migration.

Provider	What You Get with Railway	What You Get with the Other Provider
DigitalOcean	Four services wired with private networking, generated passwords, and a library volume.	A Droplet with root access, where you write the compose file and handle updates.
AWS	Managed deploys and volumes in one project, with no VPC setup to start.	Deep control over EC2 and EBS, but much more setup before your first import.
Hetzner	A fast path to a running server with a public domain and no SSH work.	Cheap CPU and disk, but you own backups, patching, and Postgres VectorChord setup.

Pick Railway when you want your family library imported quickly, and a VPS when you want to tune every layer yourself.

Common Use Cases for hosted Immich vs Google Photos

Moving a family library off Google Photos: You export your Takeout archive once, run immich-go against your Railway URL, and the whole family's photos land on a server you control.
Keeping albums and dates from Takeout: The JSON sidecars carry capture times, descriptions, GPS locations and album names, so immich-go can rebuild your albums and timeline instead of dumping everything into one pile.
Phone backup to your own server: Install the Immich mobile app, point it at your domain, and turn on backup so new photos from every phone go straight to your library.
Shared albums with relatives: Create a shared album and send a link to grandparents or cousins without moving your originals into anyone else's cloud.
Smart search without sending photos to Google: The machine-learning service runs CLIP search and face recognition on your own container, so searches like "beach 2019" never leave your project.

Dependencies for Immich vs Google Photos Docker hosted on Railway

This template runs Immich as four services: the immich-server API and web UI, a CPU machine-learning worker, a Postgres database with the VectorChord extension, and a Valkey queue.

Deployment Dependencies for Managed Immich vs Google Photos Service (Photo Library)

immich-server: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-server:v3.3.3, public on port 2283, health check at /api/server/ping, volume at /data.
immich-machine-learning: ghcr.io/immich-app/immich-machine-learning:v3.3.3 (CPU), private on port 3003, volume at /cache.
Postgres: ghcr.io/immich-app/postgres:14-vectorchord0.4.3-pgvectors0.2.0, private, with its own volume. Plain Railway Postgres will not work.
Valkey 9.1.2: private Redis-compatible queue, volume at /data, password required.

Implementation Details for Immich vs Google Photos (Using Immich official docker image)

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

How does Immich vs Google Photos compare against other Google Photos alternatives

Immich vs Google Photos (Self-Hosted Google Photos Alternative)

Ownership: Your originals sit on your own Railway volume, so nothing depends on a Google account staying in good standing. Google Photos is easier since there is no server to maintain.
Migration: Takeout plus immich-go restores dates, albums and descriptions from the JSON sidecars. Google Photos has no built-in export to another service, so you depend on the export.
Search: Smart search and face recognition run on the machine-learning service. Google's models are still stronger.

Immich vs iCloud Photos (Self-Hosted Google Photos Alternative)

Platform: Immich works in any browser and has Android and iOS apps. iCloud Photos is tightly tied to Apple devices, a clear win if your family is all Apple.
Storage: You pay Railway for the volume space you size yourself. iCloud Photos bills through iCloud+ tiers, which is simpler to budget.
Sharing: Immich covers shared albums and partner sharing well. iCloud's sharing feels smoother inside the Apple ecosystem.

Immich vs Ente (Self-Hosted Google Photos Alternative)

Encryption: Ente encrypts end to end by default, so the server never sees plaintext. Immich stores your library unencrypted on your volume, so you must trust the host.
Hosting: Ente offers a hosted service as well as self-hosting. Immich is self-hosted only, which keeps the model simple but leaves the running to you.
Maturity: Immich has a larger feature set for photos and video. Ente is newer and narrower, though its privacy design is a strong point.

Immich vs Synology Photos (Self-Hosted Google Photos Alternative)

Hardware: Synology Photos needs a Synology NAS, which many home users already own. Immich runs on Railway or any VPS, so you skip that hardware.
Integration: Synology Photos fits neatly into a Synology setup. Immich is standalone and easier to move between hosts.
Mobile backup: Immich's apps are built around automatic backup from the start. Synology Photos is solid too, but Immich's backup flow is more polished.

How to use Immich vs Google Photos (the OSS photo and video library)?

Request a Google Takeout export of Google Photos as zip files. Keep the zips together, since the JSON sidecars hold the dates, locations and album names. 2. Open your Railway Immich domain and create the admin account. The first account becomes the admin. 3. Create an API key under Account Settings, API Keys, and copy it now. 4.

immich-go upload from-google-photos \
  --server=https://your-immich-domain \
  --api-key=your-api-key \
  /path/to/takeout-*.zip

Check a few albums and old photos to confirm the dates match the originals.
Install the Immich mobile app, log in and turn on backup.

How to self host Immich vs Google Photos on other VPS Services (Immich self hosting guide)

Run the official Docker Compose stack on any VPS with local SSD storage.

Clone the Repository

Immich publishes its compose file and example env in each release, so you download those instead of cloning the full source.

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

Install Dependencies

Docker and the Compose plugin are the only host requirements.

Configure Environment Variables

Copy the example to .env and set the key values.

cp example.env .env
# edit .env: UPLOAD_LOCATION, DB_DATA_LOCATION, DB_PASSWORD, TZ

Keep DB_DATA_LOCATION on local SSD, never a network share.

Start the Immich vs Google Photos Application

Bring the stack up in the background, then open port 2283 or your reverse proxy.

docker compose up -d

Railway handles the reverse proxy, TLS and service networking for you.

Official Pricing of Immich vs Google Photos (Immich pricing)

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

Immich vs Google Photos cloud vs self hosted comparison (Pricing, features, costs, and more)

Google Photos bills you through your Google account, while Immich runs on storage you control.

Monthly cost of self hosting Immich vs Google Photos on Railway

Expect roughly $20-40/mo for compute at light family use, covering about 4 GB RAM across the four services.

System Requirements for Hosting Immich vs Google Photos on a VPS

Upstream recommends at least 6 GB RAM and 2 CPU cores, with 8 GB and 4 cores preferred.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Do I keep my dates, albums, and descriptions when I import from Google Photos?

Yes, as long as you import the full Google Takeout export and not just the image files. immich-go reads the JSON sidecar files in the export to restore capture dates, descriptions, locations, and album membership.

How long does a big import take?

Expect hours rather than minutes for a large library, because the server generates thumbnails and the machine-learning service runs face recognition and smart search on CPU only.

Does Immich remove duplicates during import?

Immich detects duplicates by checksum, so identical files uploaded twice are not stored twice.

How much storage do I need?

Plan for your full Google Photos footprint plus headroom for thumbnails and database dumps.

Can I keep using Google Photos while I migrate?

Yes.

What happens to shared albums?

Immich has its own shared albums and shared links, so you'll need to recreate them and invite your relatives to the new server.