I've been using digiKam since January.

It's much better for library management than Lightroom. As FOSS, it doesn't "call home" except for updates. All processes happen on the device, and face recognition data is stored locally.

I loaded hundreds of thousands of photos, and it took less than a week to have the whole library neatly organised. I wouldn't go back to Lightroom even if it were free.

5*

https://petapixel.com/2025/07/01/free-photo-manager-digikam-get-major-new-update-with-ai-tools/