Ente Photos End-to-End Encrypted Album

Ente Photos is one of the few open-source albums with true end-to-end encryption. Photos are encrypted on the device before upload; the server only stores ciphertext, so even the administrator cannot see your pictures. The mobile experience is close to iCloud Photos, with family sharing, collaborative albums and on-device face recognition — the right choice for privacy-first households.

What it does well

• End-to-end encryption: zero-knowledge server, keys stay on user devices.
• Every platform: iOS, Android, web and desktop clients connect directly to your instance.
• Family sharing: shared albums, collaborative albums and shared storage quotas.
• Auditable: AGPL-3.0, with server, web and mobile code all open.

Images and ports

Server ghcr.io/ente-io/server, web ghcr.io/ente/web, plus PostgreSQL and MinIO (the official quickstart uses pgsty/silo). Ports: Photos web 3000, API 8080, public albums 3002, object storage 3200.

Deployment cost

2 vCPU / 4 GB to start, with object storage on its own disk. Installation is not the hard part — domains and HTTPS are. The mobile app requires HTTPS, and it is best to give the API and the Photos web app separate subdomains. In production, replace MinIO with external S3 and back up both the database and museum.yaml.

Full walkthrough: Self-hosting Ente Photos with Docker.