31. 03. 2026 Antonio Cerullo Asset Management

Immich – Choosing the Company’s DAM

Preface

In the landscape of self-hosted Digital Asset Management (DAM) solutions, more and more companies are choosing platforms that allow complete control of their corporate data. Among these, Immich is rapidly emerging as the best self-hosted replacement for Google Photos, thanks to its advanced AI capabilities, high performance, and modern architecture.

A Comparison of the Leading Self-Hosted DAM’s

Immich: specializes in photo/video management with integrated AI
Nextcloud: is a comprehensive cloud platform with collaborative modules and file management
Piwigo: is a mature, customizable DAM optimized for large photo archives

Feature	Immich	Nextcloud	Piwigo
Primary Purpose	Modern AI‑powered photo & video DAM, Google Photos–like experience	Full cloud collaboration suite with file sync and optional photo module	Stable, customizable photo gallery system with themes and plugins
AI / Facial Recognition	Advanced (99.8% accuracy) + video facial recognition	Limited (25%–75% depending on plugin)	Minimal; manual tagging or basic plugins only
Video Support	Full support + GPU‑accelerated video analysis	Limited in photo modules	Plugin‑based only (not native)
Performance with Large Libraries	Very high (microservice architecture optimized for media)	Good, but not optimized for heavy media workloads	Excellent – handles 500,000+ photos easily
User Experience	Modern, fast, Google Photos–like timeline	More complex, geared toward team productivity and cloud workflows	More traditional UI but highly customizable via themes

Requirements

Hardware Requirements

Minimum: 6 GB RAM, 2 CPUs
Recommended: 8 GB RAM and 4 CPUs to fully utilize AI features

Software Requirements

Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04
Docker Engine + Docker Compose

Installation Step-by-Step

1. Installing Ubuntu as Operating System

Create a virtual machine with the above hardware requirements and install Ubuntu OS
Update the system:

# apt update && apt upgrade -y

2. Docker installation

This command will use curl to grab the Docker install script and pass it directly to the terminal.

# curl -sSL https://get.docker.com | sh
Restart system

3. Preparing the Immich environment

Create a directory where we will store the Compose and environment files for Immich

# mkdir -p /opt/stacks/immich # cd /opt/stacks/immich

Download official file (compose.yaml – .env)

# cd /opt/stacks/immich # curl -Lo compose.yaml https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/latest/download/docker-compose.yml
# curl -Lo .env https://github.com/immich-app/immich/releases/latest/download/example.env
.env file configuration

UPLOAD_LOCATION=./library
DB_DATA_LOCATION=./postgres
IMMICH_VERSION=release
DB_PASSWORD=xxxxxx
DB_USERNAME=postgres
DB_DATABASE_NAME=immich
Start up an Immich Docker container (download Immich and its various components)

# docker compose up -d

Follow the first time settings at the following link

http://immich.domain.com:2283

Create Admin Account
Theme settings
Storage Template

Update the version of Immich to the latest stable release:

# docker compose pull && docker compose up -d

4. Installing and Using NGINX as a Reverse Proxy for Immich

To make Immich securely, scalably, and professionally accessible within an enterprise context, it’s highly recommended to deploy NGINX in front of Immich Docker containers. This approach allows for HTTPS, clean URLs, compression, and caching, as well as offering greater control over the platform’s security.
According to best practices outlined in the latest Immich technical guides, using Nginx is considered the standard for a production installation.

Create SSL certificates and run the following commands:

# sudo apt install nginx -y # sudo systemctl enable nginx # sudo systemctl start nginx # sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full' # vi /etc/nginx/sites-available/immich

server {
listen 443 ssl;
server_name immich.domain.com;

ssl_certificate     /etc/nginx/certs/fullchain.pem;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/certs/privkey.pem;

client_max_body_size 50000M;
proxy_request_buffering off;
client_body_buffer_size 1024k;

proxy_set_header Host              $host;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP         $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For   $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;

proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_redirect     off;

proxy_read_timeout 600s;
proxy_send_timeout 600s;
send_timeout       600s;

location = /auth/onboarding {
rewrite ^ /photos permanent;
}

location / {
    proxy_pass http://immich.domain.com:2283;
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto https;
    proxy_set_header   Upgrade    $http_upgrade;
    proxy_set_header   Connection "upgrade";
}
}

# sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/immich /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ # sudo nginx -t # sudo systemctl reload nginx

5. Single Sign-On (SSO) configuration

Single Sign-On (SSO) is a system that allows users to authenticate once to access multiple corporate applications and services without re-entering their credentials each time.

In a professional context, SSO has become an essential requirement to ensure security, productivity, and regulatory compliance.

On the Immich homepage, click at the top right on
‘Administration’
‘Authentication Settings’
‘OAuth’
and fill in your data

6. Use of Immich

With all the infrastructure now operational – Immich installed, NGINX configured, and integration with PingIdentity for SSO and centralized user management – the DAM environment is finally ready to be used to its full potential.

From now on, we can:

Create custom albums
Organize photos by events, categories, or teams
Upload new images directly from the web interface or mobile apps
Manage internal collaborations by sharing albums with other users
Leverage smart search, timeline, and metadata management features

Immich is designed specifically to make these steps simple, fast, and intuitive, offering a modern and professional experience for managing multimedia content.

These Solutions are Engineered by Humans

Did you find this article interesting? Does it match your skill set? Our customers often present us with problems that need customized solutions. In fact, we’re currently hiring for roles just like this and others here at Würth IT Italy.