Raza Photos
Browse your Mac photo library on any iPhone, iPad, or Mac in the house. No cloud, no server to run, nothing to set up — just your library, everywhere at home.
Requires macOS 26 and iOS 26 or later.
Raza Songs
The same idea, for your music library. Point your Mac at your music folders, then play it back from any iPhone or iPad at home. No cloud, no server to run, nothing to set up.
Requires macOS 26 and iOS 26 or later.
Every app I tried felt like a trick. So I built the opposite.
You install it, and then the catch shows up. An account first. A plan to unlock the part you actually wanted. A server to babysit. A settings screen for everything. Somewhere in the fine print, a tracker. Every time, it felt like being lured somewhere and then having the rug pulled out from under me. Software used to do what it said: you installed it, it ran, and it asked you for nothing.
Raza Photos and Raza Songs go back to that deal: one job, done on your own hardware. They are native Mac, iPhone and iPad apps. Not Electron. Not a web page in a wrapper. They behave like the ones Apple ships: the same split views, toolbars, menus, keyboard shortcuts and animations, because they're built from the same frameworks. You pick your folders and open the app on your phone. Nothing to sign up for, nothing held back, nothing hiding behind a screen of settings. No trick.
Your phone shows your library. It doesn't keep it.
Sync and iCloud's Download Originals put a copy of your library on every device. A library bigger than your phone fills it. Raza Photos and Raza Songs stream from your Mac as you browse or play. A library of a hundred gigabytes stays on your Mac, or on an external drive you plug into it. It never becomes a hundred gigabytes on your phone. How sync, iCloud and streaming differ →
Open the app. Your library is there.
Your Mac already has your photos and music. Raza Photos and Raza Songs announce those folders on your home Wi-Fi, and your iPhone and iPad find them on their own. No address to type. No sign-in. Nothing to configure on the phone. Your files never move, and your library never lands on your phone. Getting started →
The catches, stated once: it's Apple devices only, your Mac has to be on, and backups are yours. Why that's worth it →
What you won't be asked to do.
The usual ways to see a library on your phone ask you for one of these. We ask for none.
Run a server program
The Mac app is the whole system. Nothing separate to install, update or keep alive. No containers, no databases, no config files.
Create an account
No sign-up for you, no logins for the family. Access is a read-only toggle per device.
Pay to unlock your own library
No feature sits behind a plan. Free today. If that ever changes, it's a one-time purchase, never a subscription.
Hand over your organizing work
Dates, places, people and albums are written into your own files in open standards. Delete our apps and your library is still exactly where it was. How saving works →
Two apps, each built for what it holds.
Both are native Swift apps, with no Electron and no web views inside: HDR, Live Photos, on-device face recognition, gapless audio, AirPlay. Edit metadata from your phone. Send photos from your iPhone to your Mac. Put a memory on your Home Screen. Merge several Macs into one library. Reach it away from home through optional, encrypted, invite-only Tailscale. The conveniences of a cloud service, without the cloud, the account or the monthly bill.
Your library only ever goes to your own devices. Never to our servers, because we don't have any. No telemetry. Nothing exposed to the internet by default. Don't believe it? Check it yourself. How to verify it →
For the family at the dinner table, not the sysadmin.
Raza Photos and Raza Songs are for the household that wants its photos and music on every device in the house and doesn't want that to become a hobby. Mac, iPhone and iPad only. Not open source. No Linux, no Windows.
If you enjoy running your own stack, containers and config files included, there are projects built for that. This isn't one of them.
Try it. Time it.
Install the Mac app. Pick a folder. Open the app on your iPhone. That's the whole test. It costs nothing, needs no account, and leaves your files where they are. We say it's the best way there is to do this. Install it, time it, and prove us wrong.
Free today. Requires macOS 26 and iOS 26 or later.