Self-hosted / local — what's actually free

12 hand-checked tools. Each one says what you get without paying and when we last verified it.

All categories

Ollama

Self-hosted / local · Code & dev · Chat & assistants
Open source✓ VerifiedSelf-hostable

Free: Free and open source (MIT); models download once and run offline forever

One command to run a serious model on your own computer

Checked 2026-07-30

Whisper

Audio & voice · Self-hosted / local
Open source✓ VerifiedSelf-hostable

Free: Free and unlimited — code and model weights released under the MIT licence, run locally

Speech-to-text that runs on your own machine, free

Checked 2026-07-30

LocalAI

Self-hosted / local · Code & dev · Agents & automation
Open source✓ VerifiedSelf-hostable

Free: Free and open source (MIT). Drop-in API compatibility with OpenAI, Anthropic and ElevenLabs — no GPU required

A drop-in OpenAI-compatible API running on your own machine

Checked 2026-07-30

Dify

Agents & automation · Code & dev · Self-hosted / local
Open source✓ VerifiedSelf-hostable

Free: Free and self-hostable with Docker under the Dify Open Source License; a capped hosted free plan also exists

Visual builder for LLM apps and agents, self-hostable

Checked 2026-07-30

OpenHands

Code & dev · Agents & automation · Self-hosted / local
Open source✓ VerifiedSelf-hostable

Free: Free and open source (MIT); point it at a local or paid model, your choice

An open-source coding agent you can point at your own models

Checked 2026-07-30

Stirling PDF

Productivity · Self-hosted / local
Open source✓ VerifiedSelf-hostable

Free: Free, open-core — a Docker container gives you 50+ PDF tools locally

Every PDF operation, running locally, nothing uploaded

Checked 2026-07-30

Browser Use

Agents & automation · Data & backend · Self-hosted / local
Open source✓ VerifiedSelf-hostable

Free: Free and open source (MIT); self-host with Python or Docker

Let an AI drive a real browser for you

Checked 2026-07-30

Coolify

Self-hosted / local · Code & dev
Open source✓ VerifiedSelf-hostable

Free: Free and open source (Apache-2.0) self-hosted; you only pay for the server it runs on

Self-hosted Vercel/Heroku on a server you rent

Checked 2026-07-30

Crawl4AI

Data & backend · Code & dev · Self-hosted / local
Open source✓ VerifiedSelf-hostable

Free: Free and open source (Apache-2.0), no API key, runs locally

Turn any web page into clean markdown for an LLM

Checked 2026-07-30

Langflow

Agents & automation · Code & dev · Self-hosted / local
Open source✓ VerifiedSelf-hostable

Free: Free and open source (MIT), runs locally

Wire up an AI pipeline by dragging boxes

Checked 2026-07-30

Maxun

Data & backend · Self-hosted / local
Open source✓ VerifiedSelf-hostable

Free: Free and open source (AGPL-3.0), self-hostable with Docker

Point and click to build a web scraper, no code

Checked 2026-07-30

Chrome Built-in AI (Gemini Nano)

Self-hosted / local · Code & dev
Free tierUnverified

Free: Free — the model runs on your own device inside Chrome, no API key and no per-call cost

An AI model that runs inside your browser, offline

Checked 2026-07-30
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