Google definitely has better face recognition. You can pick up a QNAP and put a Google coral and essentially do the same thing.

I also run a 3rd party software that does the tagging. But it’s annoying to do each time.

This is my setup using the 3, 2, 1 rule:

3: Raid 5 setup with 2 unused drives and setup to automatically spool up and recover if one of the drives starts failing. 2: off-site at the father in laws house (using a Xpenology super tiny PC and an external drive) 1: Monthly Backblaze

While there is risk, it’s def safer if not safer than Google drive.

I will get downvoted for this but a Synology Nas is simple and does 90% of what google will do. They also have their own DDNS or you can use whatever you like.

Downside is tou have to buy their hardware. Unless you do the Xpenology route.