Media
Self-host Lychee on a VPS
A beautiful, self-hosted photo manager.
Manage and share photos with albums, tags and a clean interface, from your own server.
Why self-host Lychee?
Lychee is a lightweight, good-looking way to manage a photo library you own.
How to install Lychee
- 1
Provision a VPS
Choose a plan with room for your data as well as the app.
- 2
Install the stack
Install PHP/Laravel + MySQL.
- 3
Deploy the application
Follow the project’s official install guide for your distribution.
- 4
Enable HTTPS
Serve it on your own domain behind a reverse proxy with a certificate.
- 5
Back it up
Schedule a database dump plus a copy of any uploaded files to an off-box location.
Practical tips
- Give Lychee its own database user with rights only on its own schema.
- Reverse-proxy Lychee and terminate TLS at the proxy so certificates are managed in one place.
- Take a VPS snapshot before major upgrades so you can roll back cleanly.
- Keep Lychee patched — most self-hosting incidents are unpatched software.
Frequently asked questions
- How much RAM does Lychee need?
- Plan on 1 GB for typical use; add headroom if you expect many concurrent users.
- What stack does Lychee run on?
- PHP/Laravel + MySQL.
- Can I run other things on the same VPS?
- Yes — size the plan so Lychee plus your other workloads fit in RAM with room to spare.
Looking for something else? Popular alternatives include Piwigo, PhotoPrism, Immich — browse all app guides.