Right on your PC, and in your pocket wherever you go. No cloud required.
Open your folders and fly through your photos. No online account, no phone and no setup needed.
Reach your whole library from your phone, tablet or another computer, with the PhotoNest app or any web browser.
FEATURES
Everything you’d reach for in a modern photo app, running on the PC you already own.
Point it at your Pictures folder or any drive. No importing, no copying, no lock-in.
iPhone Live Photos and Android Motion Photos play back.
The usual organizing tools, with an info panel and mini-map.
Find wasted space and clean it up.
A 30-day safety net before anything is deleted.
RAW, HEIC, SVG and video. HEIC and HEVC need Windows’ HEIF/HEVC extensions or FFmpeg.
Add, edit, move or delete photos in your folders and PhotoNest picks up the changes on its own. No re-importing.
Move photos out of your main gallery without deleting them. They stay searchable and easy to bring back.
Group related shots into a single stack yourself, so bursts and RAW+JPEG pairs don’t clutter your gallery.
PRIVACY FIRST
Cloud photo services charge monthly, scan your photos and own the storage. PhotoNest turns the PC you already have into your photo cloud.
Your library, database, AI and thumbnails all stay on your PC. Nothing is uploaded.
Face recognition and smart search run on your own GPU. There’s no cloud inference.
A built-in WireGuard VPN with device pairing. Your PC is never exposed to the open internet.
A separate password for private photos, hidden from the main library.
PHONE AND REMOTE ACCESS
Pair your phone once. After that, your whole library goes wherever you do, without passing through anyone’s cloud.
The Android and iOS app backs up your camera roll to your PC automatically.
Browse the whole library from your phone or any browser through the private VPN. Needs a one-time router setup.
If your PC is asleep, your phone wakes it up. You can power it off remotely too.
Each family member gets their own library and settings, with an admin account.
SHARING
Send a link and anyone can open your photos in a browser, served straight from your PC. No app, no account, and visitors can only look.
Share a whole album or just a few photos. Album links are live, so photos you add show up for everyone who has the link. Create one with a right-click on desktop or web.
Lock a link with a password. Links expire after 7 days by default, or when you choose.
GPS is removed before visitors see anything. Show camera details and a map only if you allow it.
Visitors can download originals one by one, as a zip, or not at all.
Album grid, full-screen viewer with deep zoom, video and slideshow. Works on phones, in light and dark mode.
See view counts, copy links or turn them off. Choose who can reach them: VPN, home network or the internet.
Send originals to WhatsApp, Mail, AirDrop and more through the Windows, browser and phone share sheets, RAW files included. Large shares show progress and can be cancelled.
HOW IT WORKS
Download PhotoNest for Windows and run the installer.
Point it at your Pictures folder or any drive. Nothing is copied or moved.
Connect the PhotoNest app on Android or iPhone to back up and browse from anywhere.
Google AI Plus with 2 TB costs €99.99 every year. PhotoNest costs €14.99 once.
Unlike Google Photos and iCloud, there are no storage limits, your photos stay on your PC, AI runs on your own GPU, and everything works offline.
WINDOWS-NATIVE
No Docker. No config. Pick your photo folder and go.
FAQ
No. Your library, database, thumbnails and AI all stay on your PC. When your phone connects, it talks directly to your own PC over a private VPN, not to a cloud service.
Everything on Windows works right after you install it: browsing, Smart Search, faces, the map, memories, albums and duplicates. No online account and no configuration. You just sign in to a local profile on your PC. Remote access from your phone or other devices is optional and needs a one-time network setup.
PhotoNest connects your devices to your PC with a private WireGuard VPN. To reach it from outside your home, you forward one UDP port on your router to your PC, then pair your phone or other devices.
No. With Wake-on-LAN, your phone can wake your PC when you need your library, and you can power it off remotely too. Wake-on-LAN must be supported and enabled on your PC (network card and BIOS) and on your router. Without it, your library is only reachable while the PC is on.
Yes. PhotoNest works with your existing folders, so you can move them to another drive and point PhotoNest at the new location.
Your photos stay exactly where they are. PhotoNest never moves, copies or converts your files, so there’s no lock-in. Just uninstall it.
PhotoNest runs on Windows. You can reach your library from Android and iPhone through the PhotoNest app, or from any device with a web browser.
Windows 10 version 1909 or later (64-bit); Windows 11 recommended. A DirectX 12 GPU is recommended. Without one, PhotoNest still works, just slower.
Yes. PhotoNest is on the Microsoft Store with a 14-day trial and refund window, so you can test it on your own library first.
Common photo formats plus RAW, HEIC and SVG, along with video, iPhone Live Photos and Android Motion Photos. HEIC photos and HEVC video are decoded by Windows, so install Microsoft’s HEIF and HEVC Video Extensions, or point PhotoNest at your own FFmpeg. Without them, iPhone photos won’t open.
Download PhotoNest for Windows, choose your folders and pair your phone in minutes.
€14.99
One-time purchase · 14-day trial on the Microsoft Store
