Gallery2 vs Zenphoto vs Plogger
Here I cover some of the features of the best open source PHP image gallery web applications.
- Multiple uploads via JavaScript (can add more file upload boxes)
- Uploads by e-mail, ZIP or multiple image files
- Configurable to run from multiple sites from one install
- Reorder album via JavaScript
- Ratings
- Plugins available
- Can’t protect original sizes of images
- Multiple uploads via JavaScript (can add more file upload boxes)
- Uploads by ZIP or multiple image files
- Spam filter options (Akismet, CAPTCHA, SpamAssassin, …)
- Reorder album via JavaScript
- AJAX editing of albums and images
- Ratings
- Watermarks
- Can’t protect original sizes of images (except with a watermark)
- RSS feed
- No multiple uploads via JavaScript (can’t add more file upload boxes)
- Uploads by ZIP or single image files
- Import from folder (you can FTP all images to a folder and have it import the images from that folder)
- You can protect the original size images
- RSS feed
All of these have a clean interface and design, search, EXIF data, subfolder/album creation, cruft-free URLs (for SEO), and comments (Gallery requires the comments plugin to be enabled).
It comes down to what your needs are, if you want something that can run on multiple sites Gallery 2 is the app to choose. If you have to protect your original size images you’ll want to use Plogger. I personally think Zenphoto has the most to offer and the best design out of the bunch, but they are all very well done. I went through all the ones on OpenSourceCMS and these were the best. Coppermine is popular but it’s too ugly and the admin is kind of confusing.
Gallery 2 has much more features than what you mention (including spam protection (akismet in the current nightly snapshot, CAPTCHA for a long time), rating, RSS, etc.
Also, Gallery 2 has no problem”protecting the original size of images.”
Feb 5, 2008 at 6:28 pmGallery2 is by far the most advanced of all image galleries.
But, being that - so advanced - it tries to be too advanced sometimes. It features user rights for images & albums, but as soon as you start getting more than 20 000 users, Gallery2 becomes a nightmare. It’s is painfully hungry for resources to upload items.
But if you don’t use the user rights / permissions then gallery2 is great.
I found zenphoto and use if for general galleries - it’s simple, pretty , clean & easy to set up. It can also “protect the original size of images” as well as handle FTP uploads.
So, if you need a gallery, I’d try both Gallery2 & zenphoto.
If you’re just looking for a simple easy gallery, zenphoto is the way to go
Feb 28, 2008 at 5:12 amI’ve been using Gallery/Gallery2 for a long time but in recent years it’s become unmanageable.
I only have perhaps 13,000 photos, but it’s having increasing difficultly keeping even mediocre performance.
Today, I made the switch to ZenPhoto and so far I’m pretty happy with it although it looks like I’m going to have to write a tagcloud myself.
Thanks for posting your comparison!
Mar 5, 2008 at 9:57 amYeah, Gallery2 seems to be reeeeeeally, reeeeally resource intensive compared to the others, but vastly more mature (which in this case pretty much means more plugins/functionality (also in the case at the cost of more complication/resource drains))….
Jun 13, 2008 at 2:49 pmMe too. Used gallery2 for about 5 yrs. Did a lot of work for it but sadly I have just switched to Zenphoto. just because it’s easier to manage and I get better performance. ZenPhoto is still young. It’s got a lot of potentials.
Jul 28, 2008 at 1:34 pm