Image Gallery Suggestions for Self-Hosted Site

[StormWolfe 556]

Good Day All,

 

Yes, IPS and its built-in image gallery has spoiled me!

 

I am setting up a self-hosted site that does not have any sort of image gallery add-on with it. I really don't want to go back to using an image hosting site that I do not control (such as nickpic or imgbb). I used to love IMGUR but no more!

 

Does anyone have experience with an image gallery that I can add? Or, do any of you have recommendations. I have been looking at Piwigo because it is one of the apps that Softaculous offers.

 

Features:

• Village Idiot Simple to use.
• Being able to theme it is a plus (another reason I'm looking at Piwigo).
• User friendly (some of my users are more tech challenged than I am).
• Robust backend so I can limit what can be uploaded (size, etc.).

Thanks for your help!

[Kit the Human 757]

I assume you want the gallery to integrate with your forum? What's the forum software you're using? Has there been any you tried but you didn't like?

[StormWolfe 556]

This site will be on Gaia. Before that, I had SimpleGallery Pro on SMF for it.

[Kit the Human 757]

From my googling, I feel like piwigo is the way to go. I'm not sure about how easy the customizations are though. You're the best judge of that.

 

I think coppermine is a bit of a stalwart. It seems to have the same kind of process as piwigo.

 

Keep in mind that I'm pretty sure that, without bridging, users need to register to use whatever gallery you use. So once for your forum and again for your gallery.

Edited June 11, 2019 by Kit the Human

[StormWolfe 556]

Thank you! Meant to reply sooner! I think I'll try Piwigo and will post a review here if it works out for us.

[Kit the Human 757]

You should do one in case it doesn't work out too!

[StormWolfe 556]

Update!

 

I finally chose Chevereto.

 

Pros

• There is a free version which seems fairly robust.
• If you prefer to buy a license, the prices are very reasonable ($50 for one site, $65 for multiple sites and better support).
• Extremely customizable out of the box - even if you don't have a strong background in HTML or CSS.
• Provides embed codes with the images you upload.
• Can create albums.
• Very easy to install.

Cons

• Softaculous install does not work well. It is best to do the install yourself.
• It has generated some contact form spam for my site. I deleted the contact form because the image hosting site is private.
• I also had a negative experience on their forums. One of their members PM'd me and tried to lure me to a porn site. Easy to block a member and report them.