self-hosted server

mshen

I’ve been passively watching this project and want to congratulate on the advances the past year! I currently use google photos and synology photos but am thinking of moving away - do you have plans to become something like an immich where you allow those who have their own repository in a nas to self host from their infrastructure?

Andrey

mshen Thank you for your kind words about our progress.

Do you mean self-hosted version of the app to run in docker container on your NAS? This idea pops up from time to time, but reality hits hard. The market is too small and dominated with open source solutions like immich and dozen of similar ones. Commertially it looks like a dead end, but development costs are significant.

What about you, will you be willing to pay for that kind of application, or you are only considering a fee options? Is there some potential function that would make you considering paying for that? Such as mobile client for example?

mshen

correct - self hosted version by docker container and to the point the (unlike immich) automatic upgrades are seamless. tonfotos is almost there minus the docker. it indeed is a competitive market with a lot of of free-ish versions (immich, photoprism, etc..) However that market is not “quite there”. Let me explain…

The gold standard is probably Google followed by Plex -

Google: not self hosted, users dont want to give up data or pay for storage. typical NAS owner mentality. TF fits the niche to compete. users love it for ease of use, interface and AI capability
Plex: is great but they are more focusing on videos. recently divested from photos to the point where the split photos into their separate mobile app. there are more and more people unhappy with plex. TF could capitalize on this. users love it for the ease of use, interface, all in one (but they are slowly moving from this) media center, and data ownership/self hosting

And then there are “2nd tiers” like emby, jellyfin, synology photos/qnap qumagie (i would put as 1st tier but its too expensive for most people because of the need for hardware), photoprism, immich. if you are currently dockerized i believe you would be on this level at start - your closest competitor is probably photoprism (definitely above them) and a little bit more work on the interface, overcome immich and synology. your standout edge would be - being close to your users/iterating based on user needs and feedback, constant updates WITHOUT breaking the app, and the desire to the be best in the category (two-ish years ago you said somewhere that was your goal. im starting to believe that)

what would i pay? market rate but with the caveat it needs to be lifetime and not subscription (NAS folk mentality). what do i have? i have 4 NASs mostly synology [hence the license], lifetime plex, lifetime emby. i would consider immich if they were not so unstable and im considering TF.

i can see you thinking - you are not currently a paying customer. yes - that is correct, but i dont use TF simply because it is not server based. i have it installed and take a peek a few times a year to track progress. to use something, it has to satisfy my requirements and my use case is as follows: 1) ability to share out family and friends 24/7 [including permissions based on roles] 2) set it and forget it [can be complex but needs low turnkey maintenance] 3) attractive and slick interface [this is a much needed area of need for TF] 3) the ability to host video 4) which would branch out beyond TF core competency of movies, ebooks, pdfs, comics books [no market for a true all-in-one, Plex is closest but this market but is abandoning users here]

hope this feed back helps not just the project and also provide you a mindset of a large class of users looking for a permanent home. i am cheering for TF as you have the likes of google startup, plex in its early years, prusa and their approach to support [different sector]

Andrey

mshen Thank you for sharing your thougths!

mshen what would i pay? market rate but with the caveat it needs to be lifetime and not subscription

Interesting, as I only see currently two price points here - free (OSS) for self-hosted and subscription (google, onedrive) for full service. So going market rate for self-hosting is currently $0.00, not very encouraging. By the way, there is also ente that is trying to be “best of two worlds” - being self-hosted but charge subscription 🙂 I wonder if this is going well for them.