PhotoPrism · Photo libraries
Self-hosting PhotoPrism for 25 people: the cost
At 25 users, PhotoPrism needs 3.0 GB of memory and 1.5 TB of disk. That fits the Pro plus a 1.5 TB volume at Kamatera for $114 a month. Add backups and the time it takes to look after and the real figure is $249 a month.
- Server
- $114Pro plus a 1.5 TB volume, 2 vCPU
- Backups
- $22.80provider snapshots
- Your time
- $1121.5 h a month at $75
- All in
- $249per month
- First-time setup
- $450about 6 hours, once
How 3.0 GB was arrived at
2 GB covers the stack at rest, every container the project ships included. 25 users at 15 MB each adds 0.4 GB, giving 2.4 GB. Adding 25% headroom so the machine is not run at its ceiling gives 3.0 GB, and the smallest plan at or above that is the Pro plus a 1.5 TB volume with 4 GB.
Disk works the same way: 20 GB to begin with, plus 60 GB per user, so 1.5 TB against the 20 GB the plan includes. The shortfall is bought as a 1.5 TB volume at $75.00 a month, which costs less than the next plan up. This tool is storage-hungry per user, so disk rather than memory is what will force your next upgrade.
Go with MariaDB and on-device classification. Lighter than Immich but its multi-user story is weaker.
Over three years
| Period | Server and backups | Your time | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup, once | — | $450 | $450 |
| Per month | $137 | $112 | $249 |
| First year | $1,642 | $1,800 | $3,442 |
| 36 months | $4,925 | $4,500 | $9,425 |
If you do not price your own time, the 36-month figure is $4,925 instead. Both numbers are real; which one applies depends on whether the hours would otherwise have been billable.
What you would be paying instead at this size
| Commercial product | Tier | Per month | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google One storage | Google AI Plus (2 TB) | $11.58 | -$238 | breakdown |
A positive difference means self-hosting is cheaper at this size, with your time already counted.
Where to put PhotoPrism
3.0 GB of memory and 1.5 TB of disk is what this needs at 25 people. The cheapest plan that fits, among the providers whose prices we have read ourselves, is the Pro plus a 1.5 TB volume at Kamatera for $114 a month.
We are not claiming this is the cheapest server on the internet. It is the cheapest one we can honestly quote. Hetzner Cloud, Vultr and PikaPods publish prices we could not read programmatically, and Hetzner in particular is usually cheaper per gigabyte of memory than anything quoted above. Price them yourself before you commit.
The Kamatera link above is an affiliate link: if you open a paying account through it, Kamatera pays us a one-time commission of $75 (in most countries). That never changes the computed costs, which server is chosen, or the conclusion of this page. The sizing model and every price source are published in full.
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