App comparison · 7 min read

Synology Photos, Immich, and Wimemo: Storage Library or Travel Memory Layer?

How Synology Photos and Immich handle travel photos, and how Wimemo adds a travel memory layer on top of a self-hosted photo library. Not either-or.

Reviewed by Wimemo Product Team · Updated 2026-07-10

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A self-hosted photo library on a NAS beside a travel memory layer lighting up visited places on a world map

If you run Synology Photos or Immich, or you are weighing one of them up, you have already solved the hardest problem in personal photography: where your originals live. Self-hosting gives you ownership, backup, and freedom from per-gigabyte cloud bills, and for those jobs it is a legitimate — often superior — choice. Wimemo is not a competitor for that job. It is an iPhone app that works as a travel memory layer: it turns the photos you already keep into trips, a world map, and statistics you actually revisit. Most readers of this page should end up using Synology Photos or Immich together with Wimemo, not choosing between them.

Reviewed 2026-07-10; based on the official documentation of the products mentioned.

What Synology Photos and Immich are great at

Synology Photos is photo management on hardware you own. It backs up your phone's photos to your Synology NAS, organizes them into albums, recognizes people and subjects, and shares through links and shared spaces. Your family's entire photo history can live on a box in your home, under your control, with no subscription meter running on the storage.

Immich is the open-source route to the same destination: a self-hosted photo and video backup platform that runs on your own server. It offers automatic mobile backup, a clean timeline, machine-learning search and face recognition, and multi-user support so a whole household can share one installation. If you enjoy running your own services, Immich is one of the most rewarding projects you can host.

Both answer the question of where your originals live with the strongest possible answer: on hardware you own. Nothing in this article argues against that. The question they were never built to answer is a different one.

Feature comparison at a glance

FeatureSynology PhotosImmichWimemo
Primary jobSelf-hosted storage library on your Synology NASSelf-hosted storage library on your own serverTravel memory app
Where originals liveOn your NASOn your serverOn your iPhone by default; NAS and desktop originals stay where they are
Mobile backup of the whole libraryYes, automatic backup from your phoneYes, automatic backup from your phoneNo, Wimemo is not a backup tool
Travel trip entity with notes, expenses, people, and plansNoNoYes, trips are the core unit
World map of visited places and travel statisticsNoNoYes, the Atlas with country and city statistics
Sharing modelShared links and shared spacesMulti-user server with sharing between accountsPrivate shared trip albums, invited companions only
Hardware or server requiredA Synology NASYour own server or NASNone; the optional Local Connector runs on a Mac or NAS
PlatformMobile and web apps for your NASMobile and web apps for your serveriPhone app plus a web import connector

What a travel memory layer adds

A storage library tells you your photos are safe and lets you search them. A travel memory layer answers another question: what did that trip actually look like, and how do you get back into it years later? This is what Wimemo builds on top of the photos you already keep.

  • Trips as first-class units: one trip gathers photos, videos, notes, places, people, expenses, and plans in a single place
  • Atlas world map: visited places light up on a world map, with country and city statistics that grow as your trips do
  • Automatic trip detection: Wimemo scans the iPhone photo library and reconstructs past trips from the time and location data your photos already carry
  • Duplicate cleanup: the near-identical bursts and copies a real trip leaves behind get tidied up
  • Selective private collaboration: shared trip albums include only the companions you invite and only the media you explicitly pick

None of this asks you to give up your library. Photos and videos stay on your device by default, and nothing is uploaded unless you deliberately share it to a collaborative trip.

How they connect: the Local Connector

The bridge between the two worlds is Wimemo's Local Connector, a small local service you install on a Mac or a NAS with a one-command installer. You tell it which media folders it may see through an environment variable, and it indexes only those folders, reading the time and location metadata of the files inside. When the app asks for a photo, the connector streams the original over your local network. It never uploads your originals anywhere by itself.

In practice, that means the camera and drone footage sitting on your Synology or Immich server can join the same trip entity as your iPhone shots: one trip, all sources. A sensible setup is to point the connector at read-only NAS mounts or at dedicated export folders, so the layer that reads your memories can never touch the masters your storage library protects.

Where each side stops

Honesty about limits, in both directions. Wimemo is not a backup tool: it does not store your library, offers no self-hosted server of its own, and the app is iPhone-only. If your goal today is to get every photo you own safely onto hardware you control, Synology Photos or Immich is the tool for that, full stop.

In the other direction, Synology Photos and Immich do not build travel trip entities, travel statistics, or a visited-places Atlas. A trip in those systems is at best an album; there is no place for its expenses, companions, notes, or plans, and no map that lights up as your travel history grows. That is not a flaw — it is simply not their job. Different jobs, both legitimate.

Run the storage library you trust, and add the memory layer on top of it. Your originals stay on your hardware; your trips become something you can walk back into. One publishing note: claims in this article are dated, and when something here becomes wrong we correct it, following the publishing principles documented on our About page.

Frequently asked questions.

Does Wimemo replace Synology Photos or Immich?
No. They do different jobs. Synology Photos and Immich are self-hosted storage libraries that keep and back up your originals on hardware you own; Wimemo is a travel memory layer that turns photos into trips, an Atlas, and statistics. Keep your library for backup and ownership, and add Wimemo on top.

Does the Local Connector upload my NAS library?
No. The connector indexes only the folders you select and reads time and location metadata. Originals are streamed over your local network on demand, and the only media that ever uploads is what you explicitly share to a collaborative trip.

Do I need a NAS to use Wimemo?
No. Wimemo works from the iPhone photo library alone, including automatic trip detection and the Atlas. The Local Connector is an optional extra for people who also keep media on a Mac or NAS.

Is Wimemo free?
Wimemo is free for up to 40 trips. Outside Mainland China a premium tier unlocks more, and upgrade prompts never block you from entering the Atlas or viewing trips you already created.

Related reading: Wimemo Local Connector: desktop and NAS media import · You don't need a NAS to keep travel photos private · Organize camera, drone, and phone travel photos in one trip · Google Photos vs Wimemo

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