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SurfSense vs AnythingLLM: catalog facts
SurfSense	AnythingLLM
Free Free and open source to self-host.	Freemium The desktop app is free and MIT licensed. Mintplex Labs sells a hosted cloud version.
Web, Self-hosted	Windows, macOS, Linux
Can run air-gapped with your data kept private Answers questions over your own documents and connected sources	Chat, vector database and document pipeline in one install, no setup Works fully locally, or with a cloud provider key if you prefer
Requires setting up and maintaining your own server Fast pace of change can mean frequent updates	Answer quality depends on the local model, which on a normal laptop is modest Indexing a large document set takes time and disk
Self-hosted	Downloadable app, Self-hosted
Open source	Open source
License not stated	License: MIT
No account needed	No account needed
Works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 26, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 21, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.