Comparison

Piwigo vs Pixels

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Piwigo

Manage your cloud-based photo gallery from your mobile device. Organize albums, edit photos and videos, upload new media with detailed metadata, and share your creations. This app complements the web-based Piwigo software for a seamless photo management experience.

Highlights
  • Browse and manage albums
  • Edit, download, and delete photos/videos
  • Upload media with metadata
  • Organize photos into albums
  • Share photos and videos
  • Set album cover images
Read full description

Piwigo for iPhone/iPad/iPod supplements the photo gallery software in the cloud Piwigo (v12.0 or higher): • Browse your albums, • Create, delete, move and rename albums, • Search, edit, download and delete photos and videos, • Copy and move photos and videos between albums, • Add and remove photos and videos from your favorites, • Set a photo as album image, • Upload photos and videos: - of modifiable size and quality, - with description, author, tags, EXIF metadata, - with or without GPS metadata. • Share albums, photos and videos. Piwigo empowers you to create your own photo gallery on the web. It includes many powerful features such as albums, tags, geolocation, many levels of customization, upload by visitors, privacy, calendar or statistics. Piwigo is free and opensource. Piwigo is also compatible with the following extensions: - Community: allows users to create albums and add photos - rotateImage: enables you to rotate images - Share Album: allows to share private albums with people who do not have an account - piwigo-two_factor: adds two-factor authentication (2FA) - piwigo-videojs: adds video support Feedback or questions ? Piwigo offers free support at https://piwigo.org/forum and we'd love to hear from you.

About

Pixels

Access and manage your self-hosted photo and video library with a native iOS client. Enjoy familiar gestures, automatic backups, smart albums, and home screen widgets. Edit photos and videos directly within the app.

Highlights
  • Native iOS/iPadOS/macOS experience
  • Familiar Apple Photos gestures
  • Automatic backup to Immich server
  • Smart albums and self-organizing collections
  • Home Screen widgets for quick access
  • In-app photo and video editing
  • Offline browsing of library
Features
Read full description

Pixels is a beautifully native way to enjoy your Immich photo and video library on iPhone, iPad and Mac. Built to feel at home on iOS, Pixels brings familiar interactions from Apple Photos to your Immich library. Long press to preview photos and videos, scrub through thumbnails at a glance and pinch your timeline to change how much you see. Edit like a pro, save your style as a Look, keep only your best shots and turn moments into collages, all connected to your own Immich server. YOUR LIBRARY, BEAUTIFULLY ORGANIZED Scroll through years of photos, videos and Live Photos in a fast, fluid timeline. Open anything edge to edge and keep browsing even when you're offline. COLLECTIONS, YOUR WAY Pin the albums you love so they always stay on top. Memories, albums, people, places and the photos your partners share live together in Collections, in the order you choose. Give a Smart Album an animated cover and its card comes alive. A PRO EDITOR IN YOUR POCKET Adjust light and color, apply filters, crop and straighten, mark up your photos and trim your videos. Lift a subject from its background or softly blur what's behind it. Save your changes as a copy or replace the original, and reopen a saved edit any time. PIXELS LOOKS Love how a photo turned out? Save your edit as a Look and apply it to any photo with one tap, or to a whole selection at once. No photo handy? Design one in Looks Creator. Share your Looks with friends on Pixels and they land right in their Filters. SMART PHOTO REVIEW Took a dozen shots of the same moment? Smart Photo Review groups them, picks the best one and shows you why. Swipe to keep or delete and the rest stay neatly tucked behind your favorite. It learns from your choices, right on your device. CLEAR OUT THE COPIES Review Duplicates finds the copies in your library and suggests the best one to keep. Keep one, keep them all or stack them together. COLLAGES AND STICKERS Turn moments into stories with custom grid layouts or a free canvas. Add your own text and choose from 275 stickers, some of them animated. IMPORT FROM YOUR CAMERA Connect a camera or memory card, look through your shots and keep only the ones you love. Pixels adds them to your library, backs them up and lets you know when your card is safe to erase. REDISCOVER YOUR MEMORIES Open All Memories and your past plays full screen, one memory flowing into the next. ON YOUR HOME SCREEN Add the Photos, Today or Memories widget to see your library without opening the app. AUTOMATIC BACKUP Pixels backs up your photos and videos to Immich automatically, at home or away. SMART ALBUMS Choose a person, place, year, camera, favorite or another rule and Pixels builds the album for you. SEARCH THE WAY YOU REMEMBER Search with everyday words like beach sunset or birthday cake, or tap a filter to narrow by people, places, dates, cameras and more. Mix as many as you like and find recent searches in one tap. PEOPLE SHARING Share the people you've named with your family in one step and choose who sees them. They get names and birth dates, never your photos. Needs Immich 3.3. PRIVATE WHEN YOU NEED IT Keep photos and videos in a Locked Folder behind Face ID or your PIN. Shared Links, Archive and Recently Deleted sit beside it in Collections. STAY IN THE LOOP Hear about new shared albums and the photos added to them, On This Day and birthdays, and know if a backup stops. FREE UP SPACE Once your photos and videos are safely on your Immich server, Pixels can remove the copies on your device and give you back your storage. THE SAME ON EVERY DEVICE Your theme, accent color, layout, pins and Smart Albums follow you to every device on the same iCloud account. MADE FOR APPLE. BUILT FOR IMMICH. Designed for iPhone, iPad and iPhone Duo, and available on Apple silicon Macs. Your photos and videos. Your server. Your memories. Requires an Immich server. Pixels is an independent app and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Immich or FUTO.

Screenshots

Piwigo4 screens
Pixels4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Piwigo at Free against Pixels's $2.99. Piwigo also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 3) and ratings volume (182 vs 5). Pixels's advantage is review sentiment (100% vs 69%) and rating (5.0 vs 4.6). On update cadence, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Piwigo is free to download; Pixels costs $2.99 up front. Pixels sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Piwigo asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Pixels holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Piwigo has 182 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 69% of Piwigo's written reviews are positive against 100% of Pixels's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Piwigo ships an update every 3 weeks, Pixels every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Piwigo versus Pixels: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPiwigoPixels
PriceFree — better$2.99
Rating4.6 (182 ratings)5.0 (5 ratings) — better
Positive reviews69.3% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings182 — better5
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
Best chart rank—#164 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.5 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size47 MB116 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPigolabsJerrell Mardis

Customer experience

Piwigo

All ratings182 ratings
Positive90.7%
Neutral4.9%
Negative4.4%
Written reviews75 reviews
Positive69.3%
Neutral12.0%
Negative18.7%

Pixels

All ratings5 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Piwigo

Reported bugs

35 issues
  • iPad app connection issues
  • Uploaded photos not showing
  • B&W images render blurry on iPad/iPhone
  • Pictures only display momentarily
  • Uploads have stopped
Show 30 more
  • Severe bug: deleted photo reappears
  • Live Photos not uploaded with 'live' portion
  • .MOV files fail to upload
  • Images stuck uploading for hours
  • Auto-download toggle deactivates
  • Crashes constantly on iPad
  • Permission errors on iPad
  • App needs auto upload camera roll
  • Users cannot delete their photos
  • Images no longer load
  • Cannot download original size photo via iOS app
  • Uploads hanging after update
  • Doesn't connect to custom domains
  • Crashing since last update
  • Album images layout issues
  • Thumbnail size adjustment ineffective
  • Uploading from cloud photos problematic
  • Uploads fail or resize to tiny images
  • Interface bugs, selection issues
  • Not compatible with iOS 8
  • Freezes on password entry
  • Cannot see existing albums
  • Album creation silently fails
  • Cannot upload photos
  • App not updated, upload issues
  • Stopped allowing photo uploads
  • Cannot select multiple pics at once
  • Freezes during upload
  • Uploads freeze after first photo
  • Doesn't upload geo info from exif

Requested features

13 requests
  • Ability to browse in Photos and open in Piwigo to upload
  • Double tap to zoom
  • Auto upload camera roll
  • Search capability
  • Support for multiple accounts
Show 8 more
  • Better album image layout
  • Ability to see and add comments
  • Video support
  • Nextcloud integration
  • Download original size photo via iOS app
  • Support tag editing on upload
  • Cache photo galleries for offline viewing
  • Upload geo info from exif data

Pixels

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Piwigo

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Pixels

One-time3
  • Nice Tip$0.99
  • Generous Tip$2.99
  • Amazing Tip$4.99

Questions

Is Piwigo free?
Piwigo is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Pixels free?
Pixels costs $2.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Piwigo or Pixels?
Pixels is rated higher. Piwigo averages 4.6 out of 5 from 182 ratings, while Pixels averages 5.0 from 5 ratings.
Do Piwigo or Pixels have ads?
Neither Piwigo nor Pixels shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Piwigo or Pixels?
Piwigo ships an update every 3 weeks, and Pixels every 2 weeks. Most recently, Piwigo was updated on October 23, 2026 and Pixels on October 25, 2026.

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