How much RAM does Immich need?

The project's stated minimum is 6 GB, with 8 GB recommended, mainly because of the machine-learning container that powers face recognition and smart search. It runs on a 4 GB VPS in practice, and you can even run it on 2-4 GB by disabling the machine-learning service — upload, albums, browsing and manual search keep working, you just lose the AI features. The AI container also needs an x86-64-v2 CPU (most CPUs from ~2012 onward).

Do I need a domain name to use Immich?

Yes, in practice. The port is published on the server's loopback interface only: nothing answers on the raw IP, whatever port you try. Attach a domain and an nginx vhost is installed in front of Immich with a TLS certificate: the server URL becomes https:// , with no port number, which is exactly the stable, encrypted URL the mobile apps need. Without a domain the only way in is an SSH tunnel — `ssh -L 2283:127.0.0.1:2283 root@ ` — then http://localhost:2283 in your browser; enough to look around from a laptop, but a phone cannot back up through it.

Why does Immich use a special Postgres image?

Immich stores search and face-recognition vectors directly in Postgres using the VectorChord / pgvecto.rs extension, so it ships a purpose-built Postgres image (ghcr.io/immich-app/postgres) with that extension pre-installed. You cannot swap in a plain postgres image — the pinned Immich database image is required for smart search and face grouping to work.

Can I migrate my existing Google Photos or iCloud library into Immich?

Yes. Export your library with Google Takeout or from iCloud, then import it into Immich — either with the official immich-go CLI tool (which understands Google Takeout structure, including album membership and metadata) or via the web uploader. Once imported, Immich re-runs thumbnail generation, face recognition and smart-search indexing over your whole history.

Is my data private with Immich?

Completely. Immich is AGPL-3.0 open source, self-hosted, and the machine-learning features run locally on your VPS — your photos are never sent to a third-party AI service for indexing. There is no mandatory telemetry. You own the disk, the backups and the retention policy, which is the whole point of running it on infrastructure you control rather than a US cloud provider.

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Immich

Self-hosted photo and video backup — a private, full-featured Google Photos alternative with native mobile apps, running on infrastructure you own.

4 GB (6-8 GB recommended) RAM 2 vCPU Port 2283 Available

Source code

Tech stack

DockerNode.jsPython (ML)PostgreSQL pgvectorValkey/Redis

Minimum RAM4 GB (6-8 GB recommended)

Minimum CPU2 vCPU

Default port2283

Compatible OSubuntu-24.04

Immich is an open-source, self-hosted photo and video management platform built to replace Google Photos, iCloud and Amazon Photos. Its native iOS and Android apps automatically back up every photo and video you take the moment you are on Wi-Fi — the same background upload experience as the big cloud providers, except the files land on your own VPS instead of a US datacentre.

Deployed on a ServOrbit VPS, Immich gives your household or team unlimited storage bounded only by your disk, a fast web timeline with map and album views, and on-device-quality AI features — face recognition that groups people automatically, object and scene detection, and natural-language search ("beach sunset 2024") — all computed locally by the bundled machine-learning container. No per-gigabyte subscription, no USD billing, no third party scanning your family photos. Immich is heavy by design (the AI model container is the resource-hungry part), so it is best run on a VPS with at least 4 GB of RAM, ideally 6-8 GB once machine learning is enabled.

Key features

Native iOS and Android apps with automatic background backup of photos and videos — the Google Photos experience, on your own server

Local AI: face recognition, object/scene detection and natural-language smart search, all computed on-box by the machine-learning container (no cloud, no third-party scanning)

Fast web timeline with albums, shared albums, a map view of geotagged media, favourites and a memories feature

Multi-user with per-user libraries and quotas — one Immich instance for the whole family or a small team

RAW, live photos, motion photos, 360° and video support with automatic thumbnail and preview generation

AGPL-3.0, fully self-hosted, no telemetry required and no per-gigabyte subscription — storage is bounded only by your VPS disk

When to use this solution?

1

Private family photo cloud

Install the Immich app on every phone in the household, point it at your VPS, and every new photo backs up automatically over Wi-Fi. Create one user per family member, share albums between them, and browse the whole library from the web — a complete Google Photos replacement where the files never leave a server you control.

2

Ditch the Google Photos / iCloud subscription

Stop paying a monthly USD fee that scales with your storage. A single fixed-cost VPS with a large disk holds tens of thousands of photos, and you can grow the volume when you need to. Immich imports your existing Google Takeout / iCloud export so you can migrate your entire history in one pass.

3

Local AI search without sending photos to the cloud

Immich's machine-learning container runs face recognition and CLIP-based smart search on your own VPS. Type "passport", "whiteboard" or "my daughter at the beach" and get results in seconds — the models run locally, so your private images are never uploaded to a third-party AI service for indexing.

Deploy Immich on your VPS

Guide optimized for ServOrbit Cloud VPS.

01

Order a VPS

Pick a ServOrbit VPS with at least 4 GB RAM (6-8 GB recommended once machine learning is active) and generous disk for your photo library. Ubuntu 22.04, Docker pre-installed by the provisioner. The immich-machine-learning container is the heavy part — on a strict 2-4 GB box you can drop it and keep upload, albums and browsing.

02

Deploy the Immich stack

The provisioner brings up four containers with Docker Compose: immich-server (the web app and API on port 2283), immich-machine-learning (local AI), a valkey (Redis) cache, and a pinned pgvector-enabled Postgres for the search index. Set a strong DB_PASSWORD before the first boot — it initialises the database and cannot be changed afterwards without a reset.

03

Open the web app and create the admin account

Browse to https://<your-domain>: the nginx vhost installed with the app proxies to Immich and terminates TLS, so the URL carries no port number. On first launch Immich shows a setup wizard: create the admin user, then add additional users (one per family member) from the admin panel. If you have not attached a domain yet, reach the wizard through an SSH tunnel — ssh -L 2283:127.0.0.1:2283 root@<your-vps-ip> — then open http://localhost:2283 (2283 is the default port; use the one shown on your app's card in the client area).

04

Install the mobile app and start backing up

Install Immich from the App Store or Google Play, enter your server URL (https://<your-domain>, with no port number) and log in. Enable automatic backup and choose which albums to sync. From now on every photo and video you take uploads to your VPS in the background over Wi-Fi. This step needs the domain: a phone cannot reach an SSH tunnel opened on your computer.

05

Add a domain and HTTPS (recommended)

Create an A record such as photos.yourdomain.com pointing at the VPS IP, then attach that domain to the app from your ServOrbit client area. ServOrbit installs the nginx vhost and issues the TLS certificate: there is no reverse proxy to install and no certificate to renew. It is also the only way to reach Immich from outside, because port 2283 is published on the server's loopback only — nothing answers on the public IP, whatever port you try.

Frequently asked questions

Yes. Immich covers the core Google Photos experience end to end: native iOS and Android apps with automatic background backup, a web and mobile timeline, albums and shared albums, a map view, memories, face recognition and natural-language smart search. The key difference is that every photo and video lives on your own VPS instead of a cloud provider's servers, with no per-gigabyte subscription.

Yes, in practice. The port is published on the server's loopback interface only: nothing answers on the raw IP, whatever port you try. Attach a domain and an nginx vhost is installed in front of Immich with a TLS certificate: the server URL becomes https://<your-domain>, with no port number, which is exactly the stable, encrypted URL the mobile apps need. Without a domain the only way in is an SSH tunnel — ssh -L 2283:127.0.0.1:2283 root@<your-vps-ip> — then http://localhost:2283 in your browser; enough to look around from a laptop, but a phone cannot back up through it.

Embed the deploy button

Maintaining a project that uses Immich? This button lets your readers deploy it on a VPS in one click, without reading Docker documentation.

Markdown

[![Deploy Immich on ServOrbit](https://servorbit.com/brand/deploy/button.svg)](https://servorbit.com/vps-cloud?template=immich&utm_source=deploy-badge&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=immich)

HTML

<a href="https://servorbit.com/vps-cloud?template=immich&utm_source=deploy-badge&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=immich"><img src="https://servorbit.com/brand/deploy/button.svg" alt="Deploy Immich on ServOrbit" height="40"></a>

The button points to a VPS order with the template preselected. The image is served from servorbit.com — nothing to host on your side.

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