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AI · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to LM Studio

Discover, download, and run local LLMs (incl. DeepSeek R1)

Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.

  1. 1

    Hi Hackers, Excited to share a macOS app I've been working on: https://recurse.chat/ for chatting with local AI. While it's amazing that you can run AI models locally quite easily these days (through llama.cpp / llamafile / ollama / llm CLI etc.), I missed feature complete chat interfaces. Tools like LMStudio are super powerful, but there's a learning curve to it. I'd like to hit a middleground of simplicity and customizability for advanced users. Here's what separates RecurseChat out from similar apps: - UX designed for you to use local AI as a daily driver.…

    2024 · recurse.chat · its alternatives →

  2. 2

    Find the local LLM that actually runs and performs best on your hardware. Ranked by real, recency-aware benchmarks, not parameter count. One command, run it instantly. - Andyyyy64/whichllm

    May 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  3. 3

    Hi everyone, we’re a small team, supported by Mozilla, who are working on re-imagining a UI for training, tuning and testing local LLMs. Everything is open source. If you’ve been training your own LLMs or have always wanted to, we’d love for you to play with the tool and give feedback on what the future development experience for LLM engineering could look like.

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  4. 4

    Build local LLMs using top data science libraries

    2023 · its alternatives →

  5. 5

    Chat with LLMs like Deepseek R1 locally inside browser

    2025 · chat.browserai.dev · its alternatives →

  6. 6WM

    Try it out! https://glhf.chat/ Hey HN! We’ve been working for the past few months on a website to let you easily run (almost) any open-source LLM on autoscaling GPU clusters. It’s free for now while we figure out how to price it, but we expect to be cheaper than most GPU offerings since we can run the models multi-tenant. Unlike Together AI, Fireworks, etc, we’ll run any model that the open-source vLLM project supports: we don’t have a hardcoded list. If you want a specific model or finetune, you don’t have to ask us for it: you can just paste the Hugging Face link in and…

    2024 · glhf.chat · its alternatives →

  7. 7
    LLMWare▲358

    Dev tool to make AI apps to deploy privately or locally

    2024 · llmware.ai · its alternatives →

  8. 8
    ChattyUI▲149

    Run open-source LLMs locally in the browser using WebGPU

    2024 · its alternatives →

  9. 9CI

    One of the most frequent questions one faces while running LLMs locally is: I have xx RAM and yy GPU, Can I run zz LLM model ? I have vibe coded a simple application to help you with just that. Update: A lot of great feedback for me to improve the app. Thank you all.

    2025 · can-i-run-this-llm-blue.vercel.app · its alternatives →

  10. 10WE

    Browser LLM demo working on JavaScript and WebGPU. WebGPU is already supported in Chrome, Safari, Firefox, iOS (v26) and Android. Demo, similar to ChatGPT https://andreinwald.github.io/browser-llm/ Code https://github.com/andreinwald/browser-llm - No need to use your OPENAI_API_KEY - its local model that runs on your device - No network requests to any API - No need to install any program - No need to download files on your device (model is cached in browser) - Site will ask before downloading large files (llm model) to browser cache - Hosted on Github…

    2025 · andreinwald.github.io · its alternatives →

  11. 11

    Hi HN, I'm excited to share Bodhi App, a tool designed to simplify running open-source Large Language Models (LLMs) locally on your laptops. While we currently support M2 Macs, we plan to support other platforms as our community grows. # Problem To use LLMs, you typically need to purchase a subscription from providers like OpenAI or Anthropic, or use OpenAI API credits with compatible Chat UIs. These options can not only burden you financially, but also raise data security and privacy concerns. Many laptops are capable of running powerful open-source LLMs, but for non-tech users, setting…

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

  12. 12

    Hey HN, I’ve built Open Codex, a fully local, open-source alternative to OpenAI’s Codex CLI. My initial plan was to fork their project and extend it. I even started doing that. But it turned out their code has several leaky abstractions, which made it hard to override core behavior cleanly. Shortly after, OpenAI introduced breaking changes. Maintaining my customizations on top became increasingly difficult. So I rewrote the whole thing from scratch using Python. My version is designed to support local LLMs. Right now, it only works with phi-4-mini (GGUF) via…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  13. 13MG

    Hello HN, I've been working on this project for a while, and it has been in an "open" beta for some time. I finally believe it's ready for its first release. I hope you like it. Here are some potential questions that may arise: 1. How does it compare to LM Studio? It's likely that if you're already using LM Studio, you'll continue to do so. This project is designed to be more user-friendly. 2. Is it open-source? No, it is not. 3. Does it use any open-source libraries? Yes, it uses llama.cpp and a few others, as indicated in the license information included with the application. 4. Why is not…

    2023 · avapls.com · its alternatives →

  14. 14
    Ava PLS▲94

    Desktop app for running LLMs locally

    2023 · avapls.com · its alternatives →

  15. 15

    Find your best LLM for a local inference

    2023 · its alternatives →

  16. 16
    GitHub▲7

    152 open-source tools to run LLMs 100% locally

    Dec 2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  17. 17
    Lekh AI▲80

    Run powerful AI models on your Mac:fully offline and private

    Jan 2026 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    Your personal, private, powerful AI assistant | Free & OSS

    2025 · getbodhi.app · its alternatives →

  19. 19LR

    I built localLLLM: a small community project for running local models. Live: https://locallllm.fly.dev The goal is simple: if someone has model + OS + GPU + RAM, they should get steps that actually work (ideally one liner) I need help populating and validating guides. If you run local models, please submit one working recipe (or report what failed). Would love to hear general feedback as well!

    Apr 2026 · locallllm.fly.dev · its alternatives →

  20. 20

    Deploy and run local llms on pc for free, including DeepSeek

    2025 · kingshiper.com · its alternatives →

  21. 21
    Perssua▲61

    Real-time guidance from any LLM (including local ones)

    Nov 2025 · perssua.com · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    Local In-Browser LLM inference for private, fast, and secure chat - no server required.

    2025 · private-ai-chat.vercel.app · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    We built SwiftAI, an open-source Swift library that lets you use Apple’s on-device LLMs when available (Apple opened access in June), and fall back to a cloud model when they aren’t available — all without duplicating code. SwiftAI gives you: - A single, model-agnostic API - An agent/tool loop - Strongly-typed structured outputs - Optional chat state Backstory: We started experimenting with Apple’s local models because they’re free (no API calls), private, and work offline. The problem: not all devices support them (older iPhones, Apple Intelligence disabled, low battery, etc.). That…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  24. 24
    LLM-CLI▲13

    Cloud and local LLM AI assistant for the command line

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

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