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Ollama vs Your Own AI

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors. Ollama publishes a starting price ($20); Your Own AI does not. Both have a free tier. Both ship a public API.

OllamaRuns open-weight language models locally from one command, with a hosted tier for larger modelsYour Own AIDesktop app that runs AI models fully offline on your machine, with optional paid access to hosted frontier models.

Side by side

FactOllamaYour Own AI
CategoryModel Hosting & InferencePersonal AI Assistants
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starts at$20 month—
Public APIYesYes
PlatformsmacOS, Windows, Linux, API, WebmacOS, Windows, Linux, API
CompanyOllama Inc.Flowsta
Launched2023—
Last verifiedSep 6, 2026Sep 1, 2026

What our research says

Ollama

The simplest way to get an open-weight model answering on your own hardware, and its local API has become a default target that most agent frameworks already speak. The cloud tier is the practical escape hatch when a model will not fit in your RAM. What you do not get is fleet-scale serving: this is a single-node runtime, not an inference platform with autoscaling and usage metering.

Pros

  • One command pulls and runs a model, with no environment wrangling
  • Local HTTP API that most agent frameworks already support
  • Works fully offline once weights are downloaded
  • Cloud tier covers models too large for local hardware, in US, EU and Singapore regions
  • Runtime is open source under a permissive licence

Cons

  • Single-node runtime with no autoscaling or multi-tenant serving
  • Max tier signups were paused for capacity when checked
  • Local speed is capped by your own GPU or RAM

Your Own AI

Your Own AI's real selling point is that the offline mode costs nothing and keeps everything local, which matters for anyone handling sensitive documents. The tradeoff is that local models are only as capable as what your hardware can run, and the paid online tier's actual price isn't published anywhere on the site.

Pros

  • offline mode is genuinely free and open source (AGPL)
  • OpenAI-compatible API endpoint for local integrations
  • covers macOS, Windows, and Linux natively

Cons

  • no iOS, Android, or web version
  • paid online tier's actual price isn't disclosed on the site
  • local model quality depends on the user's own hardware

Which one fits

Choose Ollama if you need

  • developers prototyping against local models
  • privacy-constrained work that cannot leave the machine
  • running an offline model behind an existing OpenAI-shaped client

Choose Your Own AI if you need

  • privacy-conscious users who want AI without cloud upload
  • developers wanting a local OpenAI-compatible API endpoint
  • anyone wanting offline document or code assistance

More comparisons

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