Replace / Imgur
Best free Imgur alternatives (open source, self-hosted) 2026
The best open-source alternative to Imgur is Lychee or Chibisafe, self-hosted on Railway. Image hosting you run. Lychee is MIT; Chibisafe is MIT — Imgur without the hosted dump seat.
Estimated save $1,200 a year.
Open the stackStart on Railway
How Imgur compares
| Imgur | Lychee / Chibisafe | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Hosted subscription | Open-source or fair-code license; you pay the host |
| Hosting | Vendor cloud | Self-hosted on Railway or any VPS |
| Rough monthly cost | Public list price not verified this run | Hosting only — no SaaS seat meter in this repo |
- Lychee
MIT photo gallery you host — the published Imgur path
- Chibisafe
MIT ShareX-style image host if the job is a dump, not albums
FAQ
- What is the best free open-source Imgur alternative?
- The best open-source alternative to Imgur is Lychee or Chibisafe, self-hosted on Railway. Image hosting you run. Lychee is MIT; Chibisafe is MIT — Imgur without the hosted dump seat.
- Is it free?
- The Lychee / Chibisafe licenses are open source or fair-code. You still pay hosting (Railway or any VPS) and any APIs the stack calls. There is no Imgur seat or task bill on this path.
- Can I migrate from Imgur?
- Yes. Start with the workflows or data you actually use, then cut over. The Lychee / Chibisafe stack page has the agent prompt and the cost table; most teams rebuild the slice that matters and leave old Imgur links until they expire.
- How do I deploy it?
- Open the Lychee / Chibisafe stack, copy the agent prompt, and deploy on Railway (one service, PORT, and a volume when the app needs disk). Placeholder: Lychee or Chibisafe plus a volume for originals. Bind HTTP to 0.0.0.0:$PORT. No one-click template in this repo yet — Start on Railway. A camera-roll timeline stays on /stacks/immich-photos.
- What does this replace?
- Imgur. The published small-team estimate on this stack is $1,200 a year.
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