Damselfly

7.0easy start · #13 of 38
in Photo Management Software

Free to practise onyes
Free trialnot on record
Well documentedyes
Runs where you workyes

Runs on Linux, Mac, self-hosted, Web, Windows.

Damselfly is ranked #13 of 38 in photo management software on The Geeks Club. It runs on Linux, macOS, Self-hosted, Web, Windows. There is a free plan.

Damselfly plans and pricing

All plans

Damselfly Free Free, open-source software · self-hosted github.com · 2 Oct 2026

Compared on photo management software

Free plan: Yes
Primary platform: multi-platform
RAW photo support: Yes
Face recognition: Yes
AI-powered search: Yes
Metadata tools: Yes

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The record

Purpose: Damselfly is a server-based photo management system designed to index large, folder-based photo collections for search and keyword tagging.
Image search: It supports full-text, multi-phrase partial-word search and filters including dates, faces, objects, camera details, file size, and orientation.
Image recognition: Its machine-learning features include face detection and recognition, object recognition, and image colour classification.
Offline processing: The project says face detection and recognition run locally and offline.
Metadata: Damselfly uses ExifTool to write metadata losslessly, so keyword changes do not re-encode JPEGs.
Deployment: Damselfly runs as a server with a web UI and can be deployed using Docker or installed without Docker.
Desktop clients: The project lists desktop client versions for macOS, Windows, and Linux that sync selected server images to a local folder.
Integrations: The selection basket supports uploads to WordPress, which requires JWT authentication configured on the WordPress site.
Other workflows: The project documents exporting images for use with DigiKam or Photoshop and syncing files with Rclone.
Multi-user access: Authentication can be enabled with User, ReadOnly, and Admin roles, and baskets can be private or shared.
Security caveat: The documentation says that by default anyone with access can browse, modify, and download images; authentication must be enabled to apply user roles and permissions.
Installation limit: The maintainer says non-Docker installations are unsupported and intended for experts, and that AI setup is harder without Docker.
Performance and resource use: The README claims searches across a 500,000-image catalogue return results in less than a second; technical documentation warns that AI processing can be CPU-intensive.
Support: The maintainer directs users to Reddit, GitHub issues, or email for questions, problems, and feature requests.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on The Geeks Club

Best Photo Management Software in 2026#13 of 38

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Sources

github.com/Webreaper/Damselfly· checked 2 Oct 2026
github.com/Webreaper/Damselfly/blob/master/docs/In· checked 2 Oct 2026
github.com/Webreaper/Damselfly/blob/master/docs/FA· checked 2 Oct 2026
github.com/Webreaper/Damselfly/blob/master/docs/Mu· checked 2 Oct 2026