“1. Proton Lumo My first cloud recommendation”
“Encrypted conversation history.”
“Available without having to install a local AI model.”
“Made by Proton, the Swiss privacy-focused company.”
“No training on your conversations.”
“No conversation logs under its stated no-logs policy.”
“A straightforward online assistant with a strong privacy-oriented approach. No complicated installation.”
“1. LM Studio Best overall for beginners”
“Best overall for beginners”
“Runs AI models directly on your computer.”
“Has a graphical interface, so you don't need programming skills.”
“Can work entirely offline after downloading a model.”
“Supports a range of open models.”
“LM Studio explicitly documents this distinction.”
“2. Ollama Best for technical users”
“Best for technical users”
“Runs language models locally.”
“No need to send prompts to an external AI provider when using local models.”
“Works with models such as Llama and Qwen.”
“Can connect to other interfaces.”
“2. Duck.ai - From DuckDuckGo.”
“Offers access to several AI models.”
“Privacy-focused chat interface.”
“Designed to avoid storing conversations by default.”
“A convenient option if you don't want to configure anything.”
“3. Infomaniak Euria - Swiss AI assistant.”
“Runs on Infomaniak infrastructure.”
“Focuses on data protection and European privacy requirements.”
“Worth considering if you prefer a European provider.”
“An interesting alternative if Swiss infrastructure and European data protection are important considerations.”
“3. Jan - Open-source desktop AI assistant.”
“Open-source desktop AI assistant.”
“Designed to run models locally.”
“Provides a ChatGPT-like interface.”
“Can also connect to external AI services, so check which model you're using.”
“4. Mistral AI - French AI company.”
“Its assistant offers a broad range of general AI capabilities.”
“European infrastructure options.”
“Particularly interesting if European AI development matters to you.”
“4. GPT4All - Desktop chatbot with local models.”
“Desktop chatbot with local models.”
“Useful for asking questions about your own documents.”
“Doesn't require a cloud AI account for local operation.”
“llama.cpp — a more technical way to run language models locally, with considerable control.”
“a more technical way to run language models locally, with considerable control.”
“If privacy is your priority, there are some genuinely good alternatives to ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Copilot.”
“If privacy is your priority, there are some genuinely good alternatives to ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Copilot.”
“If privacy is your priority, there are some genuinely good alternatives to ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Copilot.”
“Open WebUI — a self-hosted interface that connects to Ollama and other model providers.”
“a self-hosted interface that connects to Ollama and other model providers.”
“AnythingLLM — particularly useful for privately querying your own PDFs, notes and documents.”
“particularly useful for privately querying your own PDFs, notes and documents.”
“If privacy is your priority, there are some genuinely good alternatives to ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Copilot.”