GLIMPSE

Share photos privately through expiring links

Self-hosted, open source photo sharing. Upload photos, create time-limited links, and share with anyone. No accounts needed. Links expire automatically. You keep full control.

YOUR PHOTOS, YOUR RULES

Family photos for grandparents. Wedding shots for guests. Client proofs for review. You need a link that works now and stops working later — without uploading to someone else's platform.

Glimpse is built for people who care about where their photos end up.

Self-hosted
Runs on your own server. Photos never touch a third-party service.
Expiring links
Set how long a link stays active. It stops working automatically.
No accounts for viewers
Recipients open a link and see the photos. No sign-up, no app download.
Open source
Full source code on GitHub. Inspect it, modify it, trust it.

Features

Everything you need, nothing you don't

Glimpse focuses on doing one thing well: private, temporary photo sharing with full control.

Photo galleries

Share one photo or many. Each link gets its own gallery with ordered photos and blur placeholders while loading.

6-character share codes

Short, memorable codes that are easy to type or share verbally. Each code maps to a unique set of photos with its own expiry.

View analytics

See who viewed your links, when, from where, and for how long. Privacy-respecting analytics with hashed IPs.

Auto-expiring links

Set an expiry when creating a link. It automatically stops working after. Revoke early at any time.

Mobile-friendly

Upload from your phone, share a code, done. Recipients get a clean gallery that works on any device.

Invisible watermarking

Downloaded photos are invisibly watermarked with three layers that survive re-saving, format conversion, and JPEG re-compression. Trace any leaked photo back to the exact download.

Email-gated downloads

Optionally require an email address before allowing photo downloads. A time-limited link is sent to their inbox, creating an accountability trail.

Automatic cleanup

Unlinked photos are automatically cleaned up after a configurable period. No manual housekeeping needed.

Screenshots

See it in action

A clean admin interface for managing photos, links, and analytics.

How it works

Three steps

Upload photos

Upload from your phone or computer. Photos are stored on your server with automatic metadata extraction and blur placeholders.

Create a link

Select photos, set an expiry, and get a short 6-character code. Optionally add a title for the gallery.

Share the code

Send the code to anyone. They open it in any browser, no account needed. The link expires automatically.

READY TO TRY IT?

Deploy your own Glimpse instance in one click.