Damselfly

Web · Windows · Mac · Linux · Self-hosted

Freedom report

Three barsScore 6.5

Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
Runs widely4 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedPlans, terms and facts published

Damselfly is ranked #17 of 71 in photo storage services on Freedom251. It runs on Linux, macOS, Self-hosted, Web, Windows. There is a free plan.

Damselfly plans and pricing

All plans

Free and open-source Free Free software; open source damselfly.info · 11 Oct 2026

Compared on photo storage services

Free plan: Yes
Face search: Yes
Desktop app: Yes
Video backup: No

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The record

Product: Damselfly is a server-based photo management system for large, folder-based collections, focused on fast search and keyword tagging.
Image formats: It supports JPG, PNG, HEIC, TIFF, WebP, BMP, and several RAW formats, including DNG, CR2, and ORF.
Search: Features include full-text search with partial-word phrases and filters for dates, faces, objects, camera details, file size, and orientation.
AI features: It provides face detection, object detection and recognition, and image classification; the homepage says facial recognition requires a free Azure Face Services account.
Metadata: Keyword tagging writes metadata losslessly with ExifTool, so JPEGs are not re-encoded when tagged.
Multi-user: Damselfly supports user accounts and role-based permissions, including a ReadOnly role that prevents keyword tagging.
Exports: Users can select images in a basket for download or export, including watermarking, and the site lists WordPress upload as an option.
Desktop client: A desktop client for Windows, macOS, and Linux can save selected basket images to a local folder for editing.
Deployment: The maker recommends Docker for installation and documents Docker-based server deployment with a web UI.
Support limit: The maker says non-Docker installations are unsupported and intended for experts.
Performance limit: The maker notes that initial thumbnail generation and AI processing can be CPU-intensive and may take substantial time on large libraries.
Privacy: The project release notes say the current face detection and recognition engine runs locally without submitting faces to cloud services.
Intended user: The maker says the project was built for managing a very large, meticulously keyword-tagged photography library and opened for others to use.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best Photo Storage Services in 2026#17 of 71

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Sources

damselfly.info· checked 11 Oct 2026
github.com/Webreaper/Damselfly/blob/master/docs/In· checked 11 Oct 2026
github.com/Webreaper/Damselfly/blob/master/docs/Te· checked 11 Oct 2026
github.com/Webreaper/Damselfly/releases· checked 11 Oct 2026