Pho
Serverless photo backup and gallery app syncing directly to your own NAS or cloud storage over standard protocols with no server lock-in, preserving originals, AES-256 encryption, open folder structure, incremental uploads, and open source sync engine.
Cost / License
- Freemium (Subscription)
- Open Source (GPL-3.0)
Platforms
- Android
- iPhone
- iPad
Pho News & Activities
Recent activities
fregie added Pho as alternative to Google Photos
fregie added Pho as alternative to Apple Photos- Danilo_Venom updated Pho
- fregie added Pho
fregie added Pho as alternative to PhotoSync and SyncGallery
Pho information
Developed by
fregie Licensing
Open Source (GPL-3.0) and Freemium product.Pricing
Subscription ranging between $3 and $25 per month + free version with limited functionality.Alternatives
6 alternatives listedSupported Languages
- English
- Chinese
AlternativeTo Categories
Backup & Sync, Network & Admin, Photos & GraphicsGitHub repository
- 1,133 Stars
- 88 Forks
- 51 Open Issues
- Updated
What is Pho?
Pho is a serverless photo backup and gallery app that syncs your photos directly to your own NAS or cloud storage over SMB, WebDAV, NFS, or Baidu Netdisk. There is no middleman server and no database — your photos live on storage you control, organized in a transparent YYYY/MM/DD folder structure you can browse with any file manager, even without Pho.
Browse local and cloud photos together in one unified timeline, with full-screen pinch-to-zoom, EXIF details, Live Photo playback, and native support for HEIC, HEVC, RAW (DNG), and video. Originals are always preserved at full quality — no compression, no transcoding, no stripped EXIF.
Automatic background sync runs while your device is charging, with an optional Wi-Fi-only mode and silent local notifications. After the first backup, incremental sync uploads only new photos.
Privacy-focused users can enable AES-256 encryption: photos are encrypted before upload and decrypted on download, stored with a .aes suffix, and encrypted videos support streaming playback without full-file downloads.
Pho is free to download with a basic sync tier. Pro unlocks AES encryption, parallel multi-threaded uploads, custom sync filters, camera-only albums, custom theme colors, and a storage-reclaiming tool — available as a subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase. The core sync engine is open source.
