What are you using as a Google photos alternative? Currently I’m using Nextcloud but I’m thinking of switching to a more dedicated solution.
I mainly need to upload photos from my device automatically, have an UI to see and classify them, albuns and sharing.
Big difference for me between the RPi 5 and orange pi 5 Plus is more RAM and m.2 NVME support on board. It also has four additional efficiency cores and dual 2.5G NICs, but that’s less important to me.
Downside is it has a less polished ecosystem.
Overall though I’ve been happy! But I also love my collection of raspberry pis, so it’s a matter of taste I guess.
My current self hosted setup is my OPi running Immich, an RPi 4 4GB running Home Assistant and Pihole, an RPi 5 4GB “off-site” (with family, via WireGuard VPN), and a VPS with public IP as my entry point from outside. It’s a fun hobby :)