Is Lychee Open-Source and Free to Use?

Updated

Yes. LycheeOrg describes Lychee as a free, fully open-source photo-management tool that you run on your own server or web space. The project states that "Lychee is completely open-source," that anyone can use and improve the existing work, and that the team is open to suggestions or help. The site also presents community activity signals — 4.3K GitHub stars, 381 forks, 45.9K downloads, and 23.9M Docker pulls (LinuxServer and LycheeOrg combined) — which you can use as a rough indicator of an active project.

What "free" and "open-source" mean here

The website's own wording is the basis for these points:

  • Free to use: Lychee is described as "a free photo-management tool, which runs on your server or web-space."
  • Open-source: The site states Lychee "is completely open-source" and that "everyone can take advantage of the work we have already done and improve it."
  • Open to contribution: The project says it is "open for every suggestion or help."

Note that the available page evidence does not list pricing plans, paid tiers, or payment platforms. "Free" here reflects the site's description of the software itself; it does not cover costs you may incur elsewhere, such as your own server, hosting, or domain.

What you actually get

Because it is self-hosted, the software runs on infrastructure you control. The site frames this as: "Your server, your data, your rules. Never depend on someone else."

Core capabilities listed on the page:

Area What the site says
Manage Upload, move, rename, describe, delete, or search photos from your browser
Share One-click public sharing for photos and albums; optional password protection
View Full-screen viewing with keyboard navigation
Metadata EXIF and IPTC metadata support, displayed alongside other photo info
Import From local computer, server, via URL, or from Dropbox
Organize Tag photos or mark them as important, individually or in batch
Storage "No storage limit, no compression, no loss in data" (as stated by the project)

Community activity as a signal

The homepage displays these figures:

  • 45.9K downloads
  • 4.3K GitHub stars
  • 381 forks
  • 23.9M Docker pulls (LinuxServer & LycheeOrg combined)

These numbers suggest the project has a real user base and ongoing interest. Treat them as directional rather than as a guarantee of support responsiveness — the page does not state service-level commitments.

How to verify and get started

  1. Check the source: The site links to GitHub ("See on GitHub"), where you can review the code, license, and issue activity directly.
  2. Try before installing: A "Live Demo" link is provided on the homepage.
  3. Deploy: The site offers a Docker route — "Deploy in a matter of seconds with our docker-compose file" — plus a Docker Compose Wizard. It also references a "Lychee on Docker" section.

If your priority is keeping photos on hardware you control while using open-source software, Lychee matches that description based on the project's own statements. If you need a vendor-backed SLA or managed hosting, that is outside what the page evidence covers.