--- title: "Against desktop AI apps · AssistantGeneral" description: "Private and capable, and each person on their own." url: "https://royalsoftworks.com/products/assistant-general/compare/desktop-apps/" source: "https://royalsoftworks.com" format: "markdown" note: "Markdown rendering of the HTML page at `url`. Same content, same canonical URL." --- Competitive comparison · 2 of 9 # Against desktop AI apps. Private and capable, and each person on their own. | Product | Own hardware | Your files | Workflows | Connectors | Messaging | MCP | Voice | Admin (theirs) | Admin (yours) | No internet | Desktop | Pricing | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | AssistantGeneral★ This product · checked against our code, 12 October 2026 Private beta, Windows only. The admin console runs on one of your own machines; company sign-in (SSO, SCIM) only in pilots. Works with no internet once set up — activating a licence needs a connection once. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Partial | Yes | Private beta — no published price yet | | Local AI — desktop apps | | | | | | | | | | | | | | LM Studio Enterprise controls (SSO, model and MCP gating) are run by LM Studio. | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Partial | Partial | No | Yes | Yes | Free (work use allowed) / Bionic+ $20/mo / Pro $100/mo / Enterprise | | Msty Studio The closest like-for-like desktop app; its Enterprise admin console is in Msty's cloud. | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Free / Aurum $149/user/yr / Lifetime $349 / Enterprise | | AnythingLLM The desktop app is single-user; team roles and sign-in need the Docker or Enterprise edition. | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Partial | Partial | Yes | Yes | Desktop free / Pro $15–20/mo / Cloud $50–99/mo / Enterprise | | Cherry Studio Local models through a separate engine (Ollama, LM Studio). Its Enterprise edition deploys the admin backend on your own servers. | Partial | Yes | Not checked | Not checked | Not checked | Yes | Not checked | No | Yes | Not checked | Yes | Free (AGPL-3.0) / Enterprise ≈ ¥50,000 for 1–50 users (unverified) | | Jan Documents are attached inline rather than indexed (disputed). | Yes | Partial | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Free (Apache-2.0) | | LobeHub (was Lobe Chat) | Yes | Yes | Partial | No | No | Yes | Partial | No | No | Yes | Yes | Free (Community Licence; derivatives need a paid licence) | | GPT4All Dormant: no release since 25 February 2025. | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Free | Yes~Partly, or only in some editions No?Not checked — unknown, not no - **Own hardware:** — The AI model can run on hardware you own — your PC or your own server. - **Your files:** — Searches your own documents and answers from them. - **Workflows:** — Multi-step automations; a visual builder counts as full. - **Connectors:** — Ten or more built-in data connectors. - **Messaging:** — Works as a bot in Slack, Teams, WhatsApp or Telegram. - **MCP:** — Model Context Protocol: plugs into outside tools. - **Voice:** — Speech in and out (partial: cloud-only or one direction). - **Admin (theirs):** — Admin console run by the vendor, in its own cloud: sign-in, roles, audit. - **Admin (yours):** — Admin console and policy you host on your own machines. - **No internet:** — Works with no internet connection at all. - **Desktop:** — Native desktop application. Rows checked on 30 September 2026 against each vendor’s own pages (sources at the end of this page); our own row against our own code on 12 October 2026. Off the table since the last version: Flowise reached end of life on 31 August 2026. Backyard AI's desktop app is discontinued. Enchanted was superseded by another app from the same developer. Prices and features change quickly — check before you buy, and tell us if a cell is wrong. Contents 1. 01Desktop AI apps: private, capable, and on their own 01 ## Desktop AI apps: private, capable, and on their own LM Studio, Msty Studio, AnythingLLM, Jan, LobeHub, Cherry Studio and the Ollama app run models on your own computer, and they are no longer just chat windows: LM Studio, Msty and AnythingLLM have agents and MCP tools, AnythingLLM has agent flows and local voice, and LobeHub schedules agents. Most are free or close to it, they install more easily than AssistantGeneral does today, and for one person they are genuinely good. The gap is everything an office needs around the model. In Msty, LM Studio and Ollama the team controls live in the vendor’s own cloud. AnythingLLM’s desktop app is single-user; roles and sign-in mean running its Docker or Enterprise edition. Cherry Studio’s Enterprise edition comes closest to us by putting an admin backend on your own servers. None of them carries the procedures of a profession. - Strong single-user apps, mostly free, with agents and MCP - Team policy lives in the vendor’s cloud, or needs a separate server - No profession workspaces, jurisdiction packs or deadline arithmetic that bypasses the model [Previous Against the cloud assistants.](https://royalsoftworks.com/products/assistant-general/compare/cloud-assistants/) [Next Against self-hosted AI servers.](https://royalsoftworks.com/products/assistant-general/compare/self-hosted/) [All of AssistantGeneral compare](https://royalsoftworks.com/products/assistant-general/compare/)