Alternatives to PrivateGPT
A self-hosted API layer for building private AI applications on top of local language models. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
PrivateGPT
A self-hosted API layer for building private AI applications on top of local language models.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as PrivateGPT.
RAGFlow
An open-source, self-hostable RAG engine with document ingestion, hybrid search and a visual agent builder.
RAGFlow is an open-source self-hosted RAG engine with hybrid search, re-ranking and a visual agent builder, aimed at teams and with a more involved server setup.
Kotaemon
An open-source, self-hosted RAG app for chatting with your documents using local or hosted models.
Kotaemon is an open-source self-hosted RAG app with a web interface for chatting with documents, working with local or hosted models and deployable with Docker.
AnythingLLM
A desktop AI app that answers questions about your own documents, with no account and no API key needed.
AnythingLLM is a finished desktop app under MIT with chat, vector database and document pipeline in one install, instead of an API layer that needs a separate inference server.
Open WebUI
A self-hosted chat interface that talks to Ollama and any OpenAI-compatible API, so your local models get a proper front end.
Open WebUI is a self-hosted multi-user chat interface with document upload and retrieval for Ollama and OpenAI-compatible APIs, though its license adds a branding condition.
Khoj
Open-source AI second brain that researches across your documents and the web with any model.
Khoj is an AGPL-3.0 self-hostable assistant that chats over your documents and the web, adding scheduled automations and custom agents with local or remote models.
Dify
Self-hosted platform for building AI agent workflows and RAG pipelines.
Dify offers a visual builder for workflows, RAG and agents that can be self-hosted, but uses a custom source-available license and needs your own model provider access.
Open Notebook
Self-hosted, open source alternative to Google's NotebookLM.
Open Notebook is an MIT-licensed self-hosted NotebookLM alternative for working with your sources, where local processing depends on the configured model provider.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Ollama
The simplest way to pull down an open language model and run it on your own machine, from one command or a desktop app.
llama.cpp
The C++ engine most local AI apps are built on, running language models on ordinary hardware.
LocalAI
Serve language, image and speech models on your own hardware.
Docling
Open source library that converts documents into AI-ready structured formats.
Langflow
Visual builder for creating and deploying AI agent workflows.
MinerU
A document parser that converts PDFs, Office files and scans into Markdown and JSON.
