# Ente Photos

> Ente Photos is the flagship app in the ente/ente monorepo (29k stars; Ente Auth, already listed, is a separate app). Photos and videos are end-to-end encrypted on your device and backed up in the background from Android and iOS, with desktop apps for Windows, macOS and Linux and a web app. It has face detection, semantic search and collaborative albums. The hosted service is paid beyond 10 GB free; the whole stack, server included, is AGPL-3.0 and can be self-hosted with Docker Compose on 1 GB RAM plus S3-compatible object storage.

- Repository: https://github.com/ente/ente
- Official docs: https://ente.com/help/self-hosting/
- Checked: 2026-10-16

## What it replaces
- Google Photos: Automatic phone photo and video backup, Search photos by faces, Shared albums and links (full). Encrypted backup, search and sharing; self-host it for free or use Ente's paid cloud.
- Dropbox: Mobile camera upload and backup (full). Replaces camera upload only.

## Facts, with sources

| Question | Status | Answer | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs on my machine? | Confirmed | Self-hosted server with Docker Compose, or Ente's hosted service | https://ente.com/help/self-hosting/ | 2026-10-16 |
| Code licence | Partial | AGPL-3.0 (copyleft) | https://github.com/ente/ente/blob/main/LICENSE | 2026-10-16 |
| Model weights licence | Unknown | Reviewed Photos ML documentation and model manifests identify on-device models, but do not provide a complete model-weight licence inventory; the app's AGPL licence is not treated as a verified grant for all weights | https://github.com/ente/ente/blob/main/docs/docs/photos/features/search-and-discovery/machine-learning.md | 2026-10-16 |
| Commercial use | Partial | AGPL-3.0; network copyleft applies to modified servers | https://github.com/ente/ente/blob/main/LICENSE | 2026-10-16 |
| Paid services needed? | Partial | None when self-hosting; Ente's hosted storage is paid beyond 10 GB free | https://github.com/ente/ente#ente-photos | 2026-10-16 |
| Hardware | Confirmed | Self-hosted server needs at least 1 GB RAM and 1 CPU core, plus object storage | https://ente.com/help/self-hosting/ | 2026-10-16 |
| Operating systems | Confirmed | Apps for iOS, Android (incl. F-Droid), web, Windows, macOS and Linux | https://github.com/ente/ente#readme | 2026-10-16 |
| Setup effort | Confirmed | Medium for self-hosting; one quickstart script sets up Docker containers. Easy if using the hosted apps | https://ente.com/help/self-hosting/ | 2026-10-16 |

GitHub: 29414 stars, 1863 forks, last push 2026-10-16, archived: no.
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Source: RepoQuarry (https://repoquarry.dev/projects/ente-photos). Data licence: CC BY 4.0. Quotes are from project documentation and belong to their authors.