Open-source stack for photographers in 2026

Most studios pay three separate bills to run their photos. One for cloud storage. One for client galleries. One for invoicing. Each charges by the seat, the client, or the gigabyte, and the total climbs every renewal. This guide covers five open-source tools that move galleries, delivery, and billing onto software you run, at €9 per app per month.

Two honest notes up front. This stack is strong for galleries, client delivery, and billing, and for working sets you keep lean. Keep your bulk multi-terabyte archive on cheap storage, and know that it does not run client proofing with print sales. With that set, here is where it fits.

Below: what each tool does, what it replaces, the honest cost math against the cloud apps you already pay for, and how to start without moving your whole library at once.

TL;DR

• Five live tools — Immich, Lychee, Piwigo, Nextcloud, Invoice Ninja. Each €9/month, flat.

• The galleries-plus-delivery-plus-billing layer runs about €27/month, versus roughly $90–120/month in gallery, storage, and invoicing subscriptions.

• Storage is metered: 30 GB included per app, then €0.50/GB/month — small for client galleries and working sets. Keep bulk multi-terabyte archives on cheap storage elsewhere.

• Keep your cold raw archive on cheap object storage or a local drive. Use this stack for the working set, the client-facing parts, and the invoices.

• No built-in client proofing with print fulfilment. If in-gallery print sales are your model, a proofing platform still does a job this stack does not.

Who this stack is for

This stack fits a studio that wants to own its galleries, client delivery, and billing as software, at a flat price with no per-client seats. It fits working and curated libraries. It does not fit bulk cold storage on a tight budget, and it does not replace a proofing platform that sells prints inside the gallery.

It is a good fit if you want control of the service, a price that does not move with your client count, and invoicing without per-seat fees. It is a good fit if you already self-host one or two things and want the rest run for you in a region you pick.

It is a poor fit if your main need is the cheapest possible bulk photo storage. That belongs on low-cost object storage or a NAS, not on a managed app. It is also a poor fit if your revenue runs through in-gallery proofing and print orders, which this stack does not do.

How storage works here

Each €9 app includes 30 GB of storage and 1,000 GB of monthly traffic. Above 30 GB, storage runs €0.50 per gigabyte per month. For client galleries and working sets that is a small line item, because a curated gallery is usually only a few gigabytes. The rule is simple: keep working sets here, and keep bulk archives on cheap storage elsewhere.

A curated client gallery of a few hundred final images is usually a few gigabytes, so several fit inside the included 30 GB or just above it. Here is what a single app costs as the live storage on it grows:

This is replicated, monitored, live storage with daily off-site backups, not cold capacity — which is why you keep it lean. A full multi-terabyte raw archive gets costly on metered storage, so park it on low-cost object storage or a local drive, and use DANIAN for galleries, delivery, billing, and a modest working library.

Deliver a curated gallery of a few hundred final images, not the full raw take. That keeps each app near the base price, and it is where the flat €9 does its best work.

The five tools, by the job

Five tools cover four jobs. Immich is your own photo and video library with phone backup. Lychee and Piwigo build client-facing web galleries. Nextcloud delivers large files to clients. Invoice Ninja sends the invoices. Pick by job, not by hype, and you will not over-buy.

Immich — your own photo library

Immich is a self-hosted photo and video library with automatic phone backup, search, and albums. It is the open replacement for Google Photos or iCloud Photos, licensed AGPL-3.0, with over 100,000 GitHub stars and backing from FUTO. On DANIAN it is €9/month, plus metered storage — so keep it to a working library, not your whole archive.

Best for a library you control: recent work, phone auto-upload, fast search, and face grouping. Switching effort is moderate — install the mobile app, point backups at your instance, and let it upload in the background. Size the storage first, then decide how much of your catalogue lives here.

We run it in the region you pick, patched and backed up, so you use the library instead of running a server.
Run a managed Immich library →

Lychee — clean client galleries

Lychee builds fast, good-looking web galleries you share with a link. It is MIT-licensed and light to run, aimed at clean delivery rather than heavy management. It replaces the delivery side of a gallery service for curated sets. On DANIAN it is €9/month, flat, with no per-client fees.

Best for sharing a polished gallery per client or per shoot, with download enabled or locked as you choose. Switching effort is low — create an album, upload the curated set, send the link. It does not run proofing or a print store, which the gaps section covers below.

We host it run by us in the region you choose.
See how we run Lychee for web galleries →

Piwigo — organized, large collections

Piwigo organizes large photo collections with albums, tags, and per-album permissions. It is GPL-2.0, mature, and extended by 200-plus plugins and themes. It suits a structured archive you browse and share — more catalogue than quick gallery. On DANIAN it is €9/month, with the same metered storage to size.

Best for big, organized collections where albums and fine-grained sharing matter, and for studios that want a stable platform with a long track record. Switching effort is low to moderate, depending on how much you import and how you tag it. Reach for Piwigo when a flat gallery stops being enough.
Managed Piwigo →

Nextcloud delivers full-resolution files to clients with password-protected, expiring share links. It is AGPL-3.0 and widely run, handling large transfers, contracts, and shared folders with assistants. It is the open replacement for Dropbox in a studio workflow. On DANIAN it is €9/month, flat, with storage metered like the rest.

Best for sending big final files, signing and storing contracts, and working with a second shooter or editor. Switching effort is low — upload a folder, set a link with an expiry date, share it. Keep the bulk archive elsewhere and use Nextcloud for the files in flight.
Managed Nextcloud →

Invoice Ninja — billing you run

Invoice Ninja sends invoices and quotes, runs recurring billing, and takes payments through 50-plus gateways. The code is source-available under the Elastic License 2.0, and self-hosting carries no per-client seat. It replaces the invoicing seat in QuickBooks or FreshBooks. On DANIAN it is €9/month, flat.

Best for invoices, quotes, deposits, and recurring retainers without per-client SaaS pricing. One honest note: Invoice Ninja is source-available, not a strict open-source license like the others here, though you are free to self-host and run it for your own business. Switching effort is low to moderate — connect a payment gateway and import your clients.

We run it in the region you choose, patched and backed up.
Move billing to Invoice Ninja →

How they fit together

You do not need all five. Most studios start with two or three. Galleries plus billing is the lean setup. Add delivery for big files, and add a self-owned library last, once you have sized the storage. Each app is separate, so you add one bill at a time.

Three setups cover most studios:

• Lean — deliver and bill. Lychee for galleries plus Invoice Ninja for billing. Two apps, €18/month, no per-client seats.

• Full client workflow. Lychee or Piwigo for galleries, Nextcloud for big-file delivery, Invoice Ninja for billing. Three apps, €27/month.

• Owned library on top. Add Immich for a working library at €9 plus metered storage, and keep your cold raw archive on cheap storage elsewhere.

A typical job runs through the stack like this. You shoot, cull, and edit locally. You upload the curated set to Lychee or Piwigo and send the client a link. Large final files and contracts go through Nextcloud with an expiring link. The deposit and the balance go out as invoices from Invoice Ninja. The full raw take lands on your cheap archive, not in any of these apps. Nothing here is locked to a single vendor, and each step is one app you can swap or drop.

What this stack does not do

Name the gaps before you switch. This stack does not run client proofing with print fulfilment — no in-gallery selection, cart, and lab order like a proofing service. It is not bulk cold storage on a budget. And it is galleries plus delivery plus billing, not a single studio suite that does all of it in one login.

Services like Pixieset, ShootProof, and Pic-Time bundle proofing, an integrated store, and automatic print fulfilment into the gallery itself. Clients select images, add prints to a cart, and pay, and the lab order goes out without you. Lychee and Piwigo do not do that. Invoice Ninja takes payments, but as a separate invoice, not as an in-gallery print sale. If your revenue runs through in-gallery print orders, that platform earns its fee, and this stack is the wrong tool for that one job.

What owning the stack buys you

Price is not the only reason to run your own galleries and billing. Owning the software means the service does not change under you. No surprise feature behind a new tier, no price hike on renewal, no client cap that forces an upgrade. You pick the region for each app, you hold an export of your data, and you can move off DANIAN whenever you want.

For a studio, that control has a few concrete payoffs. Client galleries keep working the same way for years. Invoicing has no per-client tax as you book more work. And your delivery is not tied to one vendor's roadmap or one vendor's outage. The trade is that you carry the storage cost and you set things up once. For many studios that trade is worth it; for some it is not, and the honest answer depends on how big your archive is and whether you sell prints in the gallery.

The honest cost math

Here is the comparison that matters. A modest studio's gallery, delivery, storage, and invoicing subscriptions add up to roughly $90–120 per month, and they scale with clients and gigabytes. The DANIAN service layer is about €27/month, flat. The win is the per-seat software, billed flat instead of per client or per seat. Bulk storage belongs on cheap storage, so it never inflates this number.

One common mix a studio pays today:

• Pixieset Pro — galleries, delivery, proofing, store, 1 TB: $50/month.

• Dropbox Professional — 3 TB for big-file delivery: about $20/month.

• QuickBooks Simple Start — invoicing: $38/month.

• iCloud+ 2 TB — photo backup: about $10/month.

• Total: about $118/month, before per-client and transaction add-ons.

The DANIAN service layer, for the gallery, delivery, and billing jobs:

• Lychee or Piwigo — galleries: €9.

• Nextcloud — client delivery: €9.

• Invoice Ninja — billing: €9.

• Total: €27/month, flat, no per-client seats. Storage you size and control.

Two things stay true. The €27 buys the galleries, delivery, and billing as software you own, at a fixed price that does not move with your client list. The storage line is separate, and for bulk archives the cloud apps remain cheaper per terabyte. Hold both facts at once and the decision gets simple.

The flat price also does not move as you grow. Gallery and invoicing subscriptions tend to cap clients or charge per seat, so the bill rises with your business. FreshBooks Lite, for example, caps billable clients and pushes you to a higher tier; QuickBooks charges by plan. The DANIAN apps stay at €9 each whether you have five clients or fifty. Your variable cost is storage, which you control by keeping curated sets small and the raw archive elsewhere.

If you mostly deliver curated galleries and send invoices, the flat price wins by a wide margin. If your main need is parking a large raw archive cheaply, that belongs on low-cost storage, and you run the client-facing, billable parts here.

How to start

Start with one app, not five. Pick the bill that annoys you most — usually galleries or invoicing — and run that app for two weeks against your real workflow. Keep storage modest while you test. A 7-day free trial covers the first look; give it a fortnight before you move anything for real.

1. Pick one app — the one replacing your priciest or most annoying subscription.

2. Move a sample, not everything — one shoot's gallery, or last month's invoices.

3. Run it for 14 days against real clients and real files.

4. Size your storage honestly before you migrate a library.

5. Keep your cold archive where it is until the rest is working.

FAQ

Common questions from studios weighing this stack.

Is DANIAN cheaper than my current photography subscriptions?

On the tools, yes. Galleries, delivery, and billing on DANIAN run about €27 per month, flat, versus roughly $90 to $120 in gallery, file, and invoicing subscriptions. Storage is a separate line: above the included 30 GB it is €0.50 per gigabyte per month, so keep large archives on cheaper storage and run your working sets and client galleries here.

How much storage do I get, and what happens beyond it?

Each app includes 30 GB of storage and 1,000 GB of monthly traffic. Above 30 GB, storage runs €0.50 per gigabyte per month; traffic above 1,000 GB runs €0.03 per gigabyte. A curated client gallery is only a few gigabytes, so most stay near the base. Large multi-terabyte archives get costly on metered storage, so keep those on cheaper storage.

Can clients pick favourites and order prints in the gallery?

No. Lychee and Piwigo deliver and share galleries; they do not run client proofing, an in-gallery cart, or a print lab the way a proofing service does. Invoice Ninja takes payments, but separately from the gallery. If in-gallery print sales are your model, keep a proofing platform for that part.

Should I run Lychee or Piwigo for client galleries?

Lychee suits clean, fast galleries and curated sets you share by link. Piwigo suits large, organized collections with albums, tags, and per-album permissions. Both are €9 per month, flat. Many studios run Lychee for delivery and reach for Piwigo only when the archive grows.

What replaces my QuickBooks or FreshBooks invoicing?

Invoice Ninja handles invoices, quotes, recurring billing, and payments through 50-plus gateways, with no per-client seat when self-hosted. The code is source-available under the Elastic License 2.0. On DANIAN it is €9 per month, flat, versus per-seat or per-client SaaS pricing.

Where is my data stored, and can I leave?

You pick the region for each app from 21 datacenter locations across six continents. We back up every instance daily, off-site, with encrypted copies kept in a separate datacenter. You can export your data and leave whenever you want; we do not hold it hostage.

Do I have to manage the servers myself?

No. We run the apps, patch them, monitor them, and back them up. You use the app and we stay on call. Some changes, such as region switches and resource upgrades, go through chat support rather than a self-serve button.

Can I keep a big raw archive somewhere cheap and still use DANIAN?

Yes, and that is the setup we recommend. Keep cold raw files on low-cost object storage or a local drive, where bulk storage is cheap. Use DANIAN for the galleries, the client delivery, the invoices, and a modest working library you actually browse.

What is the best open-source alternative to Pixieset or ShootProof?

There is no single open-source app that matches Pixieset or ShootProof feature-for-feature, because those bundle galleries, proofing, a store, and print fulfilment in one place. The closest open path is Lychee or Piwigo for galleries and delivery, plus Invoice Ninja for billing. You give up in-gallery proofing and print sales, and you gain software you own at a flat price.

What does it cost to run a self-hosted photo gallery for a business?

On DANIAN, a gallery app like Lychee or Piwigo is €9 per month, flat, with no per-client seats. That covers 30 GB of storage; above that, storage is €0.50 per gigabyte per month. A curated client gallery is usually a few gigabytes, so most studios stay near the base price and add delivery or billing as separate €9 apps.

Can Immich replace Google Photos or iCloud for a photography business?

Yes for a library you control, with limits. Immich gives you phone auto-upload, search, albums, and faces, self-hosted, so your photos are not tied to a consumer account. The catch is storage cost: above 30 GB it is metered, so Immich suits a working or recent library rather than a full multi-terabyte archive. Keep the cold archive on cheaper storage.

How do I send large photo files to clients without Dropbox or WeTransfer?

Run Nextcloud and share a password-protected link with an expiry date. It handles full-resolution files and whole folders, so clients download finals without a Dropbox or WeTransfer account. On DANIAN it is €9 per month, flat, with storage metered above the included 30 GB. You control who gets the link and how long it lives.

Do I need technical skills to self-host these photography tools?

Not on DANIAN. We install, patch, monitor, and back up the apps, so you use them like any web tool. Self-hosting them yourself does take real skills: servers, updates, certificates, and backups. The managed option exists so a studio can own the software without running the infrastructure behind it.

Are these photography tools really free and open source?

Four of the five are open source: Immich is AGPL-3.0, Lychee is MIT, Piwigo is GPL-2.0, and Nextcloud is AGPL-3.0. Invoice Ninja is source-available under the Elastic License 2.0, not a strict open-source license. All are free to self-host. DANIAN charges €9 per app per month to run them for you, in a region you pick.

Can I use my own domain for client galleries?

Yes. You can point a custom domain or subdomain at each app, so galleries live at your own address rather than a generic one. That keeps client-facing links on your brand. Domain changes are quick to set up; reach us on chat if you want help wiring the DNS.

How do I keep client galleries private and password-protected?

Each tool gives you access control. Lychee and Piwigo support password-protected albums and per-album permissions, so only the right client sees a set. Nextcloud share links can carry a password and an expiry date. You decide what is public, what needs a password, and when a link stops working.

Can I move my existing photos and galleries onto this stack?

Yes. You upload your photos into Immich, Piwigo, or Lychee and rebuild galleries there, and import clients into Invoice Ninja. Effort depends on volume and how you tag things, so move one shoot or one month first. Size the storage before you migrate a large library, and keep the raw archive on cheaper storage.

Does this stack work for videographers, not just photographers?

Yes for delivery and library. Immich stores video alongside photos, and Nextcloud delivers large video files with share links. The caveat is sharper for video: files are much bigger, so metered storage adds up faster. Keep finished projects and raw footage on cheaper storage, and use this stack for delivery, billing, and a working set.

How is this different from running a NAS at my studio?

A NAS gives you total physical control, and you run everything: the box, updates, a static connection, and an off-site backup so one failure does not lose the lot. DANIAN runs the same kinds of apps for you in a region you choose, patched and backed up daily. A NAS can be cheaper for raw bytes; managed hosting saves you the operations time.

Is Immich or Piwigo the better choice for a studio?

They do different jobs. Immich is your own photo and video library with phone backup, best for the working set you shoot and review. Piwigo is an organized gallery and catalogue with albums, tags, and permissions, best for a structured archive you share. Many studios run both, or pair Piwigo with Lychee for client delivery.

What happens to my galleries if my current SaaS raises prices or shuts down?

That risk is the main reason studios self-host. When you own the apps, a vendor price hike or shutdown does not strand your galleries, your delivery, or your invoices. On DANIAN you pick the region, keep an export of your data, and can move the apps elsewhere. The software keeps working on your terms, not a vendor roadmap.

Is my billing data private if I run my own invoicing?

Yes. With Invoice Ninja you hold the ledger, and on DANIAN it lives on the instance you control, in the region you pick. Your invoices and client records are not pooled inside a large accounting cloud. We back the instance up daily, off-site, with encrypted copies in a separate datacenter, and you can export everything whenever you want.

What happens to my photos if I stop paying or cancel?

You can export your data and take it with you; we do not hold it hostage. If a card fails, we wait and reach out rather than deleting anything. If you cancel, you keep access to export your galleries and files first. The point of owning the apps is that your photos are yours to move, not locked behind a bill.

What to do this week

Pick the most annoying subscription you pay to run your photos. Stand up the open replacement on DANIAN, move one job onto it, and keep your raw archive cheap and separate. If galleries and invoices are your pain, the flat €9 price pays off fast. If bulk storage is your pain, fix that with cheap object storage and run only the parts that win here.

We run the apps, patch them, and back them up daily, off-site. We do not lock your data in — export and leave whenever you want.

Sources

Projects and prices cited, checked June 2026: Immich, Lychee, Piwigo, Nextcloud, and Invoice Ninja (official project sites); Apple iCloud+, Pixieset, Dropbox, and QuickBooks pricing pages.