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Comparison · Collab
Immich vs Paperless-ngx
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Immich and Paperless-ngx — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:self-hosted
Immich vs Paperless-ngx: 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 Paperless-ngx?
Paperless-ngx shipped its 3.0 rewrite, then spent a week putting out the fires.
3.0.0 landed on July 22 after a long beta, carrying both the largest feature set in the project's history and nine breaking changes. The five releases since are pure repair: a broken migration in 3.0.1 that forced an immediate 3.0.2, then three patch rounds covering OCR skipping, permission-filtered dedup, Gotenberg conversion, email date parsing, AI suggestion caching and search index edge cases. The pace tells you 3.0 shipped into real deployments fast.
Immich vs Paperless-ngx: 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.
Paperless-ngx
6.3COLLAB
Paperless-ngx shipped its 3.0 rewrite, then spent a week putting out the fires.
◆ Current state
3.0.0 landed on July 22 after a long beta, carrying both the largest feature set in the project's history and nine breaking changes. The five releases since are pure repair: a broken migration in 3.0.1 that forced an immediate 3.0.2, then three patch rounds covering OCR skipping, permission-filtered dedup, Gotenberg conversion, email date parsing, AI suggestion caching and search index edge cases. The pace tells you 3.0 shipped into real deployments fast.
◆ Where it's heading
The project has moved from a document scanner-and-tagger to a document platform with AI in the core: Paperless AI, remote OCR via Azure, a document parser plugin framework, tantivy replacing Whoosh for search, file versions and sharelink bundles. The breaking changes are the other half of that story — dropping API v1, Python 3.10, document encryption and the old consumer clears the decks for that platform. Recent patches keep touching LLM plumbing, including passing output language into chat and adding docstrings so the classifier reads better as an LLM tool.
◆ Prediction
The 3.0.x patch cadence looks set to run at least another round or two — 3.0.5 is still landing search-compatibility and AI-suggestion fixes rather than tapering. Feature work resuming before that queue empties would be the surprise.
Alternatives to Immich and Paperless-ngx
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 Paperless-ngx.
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 Paperless-ngx alternatives →
Recent activity from Immich and Paperless-ngx
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 18h agoPaperless-ngxFifth 3.0 patch round: AI cache keying and search date units
- 5d agoPaperless-ngxPaperless-ngx v3.0.4
- 7d agoPaperless-ngxPaperless-ngx v3.0.3
- 9d agoPaperless-ngxPaperless-ngx v3.0.1
- 9d agoPaperless-ngxPaperless-ngx v3.0.2
- 10d agoPaperless-ngxPaperless-ngx v3.0.0 ⚡
- 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 Paperless-ngx?
Both compete on the same themes — self-hosted — within Collab. Paperless-ngx is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 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 Paperless-ngx?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Paperless-ngx is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 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 Paperless-ngx?
Top Paperless-ngx alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Paperless-ngx alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/paperless-ngx for the full list with editorial commentary on each.