Compare
AI Stays Local and AnythingLLM
An all-in-one AI application for chatting with documents, connecting to local or hosted model providers.
When AnythingLLM is the better fit
- You want a document workspace today that can switch between local and hosted models.
- You want to choose your own vector database and model provider.
- You want an open-source application you can self-host.
Side by side
AnythingLLM as its own public pages describe it on 2026-09-21, and AI Stays Local at the maturity its product data records. Where a source does not say, the table says so rather than guessing.
| Dimension | AnythingLLM | AI Stays Local |
|---|---|---|
| Interface | Desktop application, a self-hosted web interface and a developer API. | Command line and an OpenAI-compatible local API, in private beta for selected testers. A desktop app is planned and not built. |
| Runs models itself | It connects to model providers, including local ones such as Ollama, LM Studio and LocalAI, and hosted ones. It can also run models through a llama.cpp-compatible provider. | Yes. Inference sits behind an engine adapter; the recorded profiles run on upstream engines under their own licences. |
| Documents and retrieval | Yes. Retrieval over your documents, with a choice of vector databases. | Folders you grant, lexical retrieval, answers that cite file and location, and refusal when the documents do not contain the answer. |
| Hardware planning | Not stated in the source checked | Evaluates the machine and recommends a model profile (private beta). Each model states execution, validation, usability, hardware and availability separately. |
| More than one machine | Not stated in the source checked | Planned. Multi-node execution is designed and not implemented. |
| Platforms | Desktop on macOS, Windows and Linux; Docker; cloud platforms; bare metal. | Command line on Linux and macOS for selected testers. Measurements published from one Linux ARM64 machine. |
| Licence | MIT. | Commercial product. A Free edition is defined for local use; paid prices are provisional. The runtime is not open source. |
Where AI Stays Local puts its emphasis
- AI Stays Local runs the model itself and chooses the profile from the machine, rather than connecting to a provider you configure.
- Its document answers name the file and location, and refuse when the documents do not contain the answer.
- Local-only is the default posture; a hosted provider is not part of the path.
Sources, checked 2026-09-21: AnythingLLM repository README. Descriptions of other projects are summaries of their own public pages on that date and may since have changed. No statement here is a claim about another project's security.