Nextcloud is good at general cloud features. It’s not specialized in photo management. If you’re storing memes or cell phone pictures it’s fine, but if you use an actual camera that uses a RAW format, you’re much better off using Immich.

I have no experience with NC, but the sense i get is yes, once you go that direction, you can do a lot with it.

I use it, mostly because I wanted to build an analogue to Google Drive/Photos, though it took some work to get it to a point where it felt good. Since the default Photos app feels pretty garbage to me, I installed the Memories app (same thing but better, very like Google photos) as well as Preview Generator & Recognize.

These seem to do the trick. The automated tagging isn’t without its issues (pretty janky, frankly), but I’m pretty content with it to the point where I’m not looking to change in a hurry. Haven’t tried Immich, though it looks pretty enough like I’d probably just go with it since it does the one task it’s supposed to do, but again, I’m comfy and don’t feel the need to find a new home for my photos yet.

I’ve used nextcloud for a while now, but it does suffer from jack of all trades syndrome. I’ve started offloading the things I use it for to other services that do a particular thing better. Syncthing for general file syncing across my devices, Immich for managing photos, Radicale for contacts and calendar sync…

If you’re just looking for an all in one Google Drive like experience for your files though, Nextcloud is as good as it gets.