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Near-daily alphas grinding toward parity between desktop and every mobile OS
Comparison · Collab
Immich vs AFFiNE
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Immich and AFFiNE — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Immich vs AFFiNE: at a glance
What is Immich?
Immich is four release candidates into v3 with every feature note published somewhere else.
The visible release stream is a v3.0.0 RC series — rc.0 through rc.3, cut over eleven days in June — and each entry is the same template: a release-candidate disclaimer, a database and library backup warning, and instructions to move IMMICH_VERSION from v2 to v3 or the rolling v3-rc tag. The actual release notes live on a work-in-progress preview page outside the changelog.
What is AFFiNE?
AFFiNE ships twice a day on two trains, and it is all storage plumbing and window polish.
AFFiNE publishes almost daily, but on two parallel trains — dated canary builds and v0.27.x-beta tags — that frequently carry the identical pull request. What is actually moving is infrastructure: presigned upload URLs for S3 and R2, document garbage-collection checkpointing, Obsidian import fidelity, and desktop window handling. Nothing in the last ten releases touches the editor's feature surface.
Immich vs AFFiNE: editorial side-by-side
Immich
0.0COLLAB
Immich is four release candidates into v3 with every feature note published somewhere else.
◆ Current state
The visible release stream is a v3.0.0 RC series — rc.0 through rc.3, cut over eleven days in June — and each entry is the same template: a release-candidate disclaimer, a database and library backup warning, and instructions to move IMMICH_VERSION from v2 to v3 or the rolling v3-rc tag. The actual release notes live on a work-in-progress preview page outside the changelog.
◆ Where it's heading
What the feed does show is a project running a disciplined pre-release: a rolling RC tag so testers do not have to chase point versions, and two-to-seven day turnarounds between candidates as bugs come in. What it does not show is a single feature, which means anyone tracking Immich through its changelog learns only that a major version is close, not what it changes.
◆ Prediction
A v3.0.0 stable release follows once the RC turnaround lengthens; the entries give no basis for predicting what it contains, because none of them describe it.
AFFiNE
6.3COLLAB
AFFiNE ships twice a day on two trains, and it is all storage plumbing and window polish.
◆ Current state
AFFiNE publishes almost daily, but on two parallel trains — dated canary builds and v0.27.x-beta tags — that frequently carry the identical pull request. What is actually moving is infrastructure: presigned upload URLs for S3 and R2, document garbage-collection checkpointing, Obsidian import fidelity, and desktop window handling. Nothing in the last ten releases touches the editor's feature surface.
◆ Where it's heading
The work is concentrated on self-hosting and durability rather than on anything a user sees. Storage configuration is being generalized across providers, document reconciliation is being made resumable after partial runs, and the desktop shell is collecting dock, tray, and keyboard fixes across macOS and mobile. Read together, this is a team hardening the deployment story of an existing product rather than extending it.
◆ Prediction
The 0.27.4 line looks set to reach a stable tag carrying the same blob-sync and doc-GC work already sitting in beta. The entries give no signal on editor or AI direction, so anything past that is not visible from this feed.
Alternatives to Immich and AFFiNE
Other Collab products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Immich or AFFiNE.
Jellyfin
Jellyfin drops the 10. prefix and puts 12.0 through a three-candidate preview.
PhotoPrism
PhotoPrism swapped in an ONNX vision pipeline, then opened the library to 360° media at 16K.
EGroupware
Two branches, one deadline: 23.1 security coverage ends August 15th and 26.x is the only exit.
SOGo
SOGo's 5.12 line has become a CVE conveyor belt while the team's attention sits on SOGo 6.
File Browser
File Browser is shutting down — the repo archives on 2026-09-01 and no security fixes follow.
See all Immich alternatives → · See all AFFiNE alternatives →
Recent activity from Immich and AFFiNE
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agoAFFiNEBumps the actions/cache CI action to v6
- 2d agoAFFiNEBumps RevenueCat iOS SDK to 5.82
- 4d agoAFFiNEPresigned upload URLs configurable for S3 and R2
- 5d agoAFFiNEBlob sync reaches the 0.27.4 beta line
- 5d agoAFFiNEFixes mobile keyboard padding and toolbar layout
- 9d agoAFFiNEReworks macOS dock, tray, and window restoration
- 1mo agoImmichThird v3 candidate fixes issues found in rc.2
- 1mo agoImmichSecond v3 candidate fixes issues found in rc.1
- 1mo agoImmichRolling v3-rc tag introduced for prereleases
- 1mo agoImmichFirst v3 release candidate opens the major-version cut
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Immich and AFFiNE?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. AFFiNE is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Immich better than AFFiNE?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. AFFiNE is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Collab products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Immich?
Top Immich alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Immich alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/immich for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to AFFiNE?
Top AFFiNE alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "AFFiNE alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/affine for the full list with editorial commentary on each.