Khoj
Best for self-hosting
Why teams pick it
Privacy-conscious users wanting self-hosted AI assistants
Open-source alternatives to Perplexity
Compare community-driven replacements for Perplexity in ai personal assistant software workflows. We curate active, self-hostable options with transparent licensing so you can evaluate the right fit quickly.
Perplexity
Perplexity provides AI search with real-time information and source citations. It offers specialized modes for finance, academic research, and general knowledge queries.Read more
Key stats
- 19Alternatives
- 10Support self-hosting
Run on infrastructure you control
- 17Active development
Recent commits in the last 6 months
- 8Permissive licenses
MIT, Apache, and similar licenses
Counts reflect projects currently indexed as alternatives to Perplexity.
Start with these picks
These projects match the most common migration paths for teams replacing Perplexity.
Morphic
Privacy-first alternative
Why teams pick it
Teams wanting self-hosted search with control over AI models and data
All open-source alternatives
Cherry Studio
Desktop AI client supporting multiple LLM providers cross-platform
Active developmentIntegration-friendlyAI-powered workflowsTypeScript
Why teams choose it
- Unified access to cloud LLMs, AI web services, and local models (Ollama, LM Studio)
- 300+ pre-configured assistants with multi-model simultaneous conversations
- Multi-format document processing with WebDAV backup and Mermaid visualization
Watch for
Desktop-only; mobile apps currently in roadmap phase
Migration highlight
Multi-Model Research Comparison
Researchers query GPT-4, Claude, and Gemini simultaneously to compare reasoning approaches and select the best response for academic work.
Khoj
Personal AI assistant that learns from your documents
Self-host friendlyActive developmentPrivacy-firstPython
Why teams choose it
- Multi-LLM support with local and cloud models (GPT, Claude, Llama, Gemini, Mistral)
- Advanced semantic search across PDFs, Markdown, Notion, Word, and org-mode files
- Custom agents with configurable personality, knowledge bases, and tools
Watch for
AGPL-3.0 license may restrict commercial derivative works
Migration highlight
Personal Knowledge Base Search
Instantly find relevant information across years of PDFs, notes, and documents using semantic search instead of keyword matching
Morphic
AI-powered search engine with generative UI and streaming
Self-host friendlyActive developmentPermissive licenseTypeScript
Why teams choose it
- Generative UI with real-time streaming responses powered by Vercel AI SDK
- Multi-provider support: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google AI, Ollama, Groq, and more
- Flexible search backends including Tavily, SearXNG, and Exa neural search
Watch for
Requires API keys for AI providers and search services to function
Migration highlight
Internal Knowledge Search
Deploy a self-hosted AI search engine for company documentation with Supabase auth, enabling employees to query internal resources using natural language with reasoning transparency.
Leon
Open-source personal assistant that lives on your server
Self-host friendlyActive developmentPermissive licenseTypeScript
Why teams choose it
- Self-hosted architecture for complete privacy and data control
- Voice and text interaction with offline operation support
- Modular skills system for custom capabilities and community sharing
Watch for
Documentation currently outdated due to major ongoing changes
Migration highlight
Personal Productivity Automation
Build custom skills to manage daily tasks, send reminders, and integrate with personal tools—all running privately on your hardware.
Lobe Chat
Modern ChatGPT/LLM UI with multi-modal support and plugins
Self-host friendlyActive developmentPrivacy-firstTypeScript
Why teams choose it
- MCP plugin system for connecting AI to databases, APIs, and external services
- Multi-model support: OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Groq, Ollama, and local LLMs
- Speech synthesis (TTS), recognition (STT), and multi-modal conversations
Watch for
Active development means features and APIs may change frequently
Migration highlight
Private Enterprise AI Assistant
Deploy a self-hosted chat interface connected to internal databases and APIs, enabling employees to query company data securely without third-party services.
Agent Zero
Dynamic agentic framework that learns, codes, and evolves organically
Active developmentFast to deployIntegration-friendlyPython
Why teams choose it
- Uses OS as a tool: writes code and terminal commands to create utilities on demand
- Multi-agent cooperation with hierarchical task delegation and clean context management
- Persistent memory system that learns solutions and instructions for faster future execution
Watch for
Capable of dangerous actions on your system—requires isolated environment
Migration highlight
Development Projects
Agent creates a React dashboard with real-time data visualization by writing code, installing dependencies, and testing components autonomously.
Refly.AI
Agentic workspace that blends human insight with AI execution
Active developmentFast to deployIntegration-friendlyTypeScript
Why teams choose it
- Multi‑threaded conversation system for parallel AI workflows
- Unified integration of 13+ LLMs with hybrid scheduling
- AI‑powered skill suite including web search, RAG, and smart rewriting
Watch for
Minimum 2 GB RAM may be limiting on low‑end devices
Migration highlight
AI‑assisted market research report
Generate a structured report by ingesting PDFs, web sources, and producing citations in minutes.
AnythingLLM
All-in-one AI app for chatting with your documents
Active developmentPermissive licenseFast to deployJavaScript
Why teams choose it
- MCP-compatible no-code AI agent builder with web browsing capabilities
- Workspace isolation with shared documents across 30+ LLM providers
- Multi-user permissioning and embeddable chat widgets (Docker deployments)
Watch for
Multi-user features and embeddable widgets require Docker deployment
Migration highlight
Enterprise Knowledge Base
Deploy multi-user workspaces with role-based permissions, allowing departments to chat with internal documentation while maintaining data isolation and compliance.
Farfalle
Self-hosted AI search engine with local and cloud LLMs
Self-host friendlyPermissive licensePrivacy-firstTypeScript
Why teams choose it
- Multi‑search provider integration (SearXNG, Tavily, Serper, Bing)
- Support for local LLMs via Ollama and cloud models (OpenAI, Groq)
- Custom LLM routing through LiteLLM
Watch for
Requires Docker and Ollama for local models
Migration highlight
Research assistant for developers
Provides concise answers sourced from web and LLM reasoning, accelerating code exploration.
GPT4Free
Unified free access to LLMs and media models
Active developmentFast to deployIntegration-friendlyPython
Why teams choose it
- Multi‑provider adapters for text, image, audio, and video generation
- OpenAI‑compatible FastAPI endpoint (Interference API)
- Cross‑platform clients: Python library, async support, and browser JavaScript SDK
Watch for
Reliance on third‑party provider availability may cause outages
Migration highlight
Integrate free LLMs into a chatbot
Deploy the FastAPI endpoint and point existing OpenAI‑compatible code to it, enabling chat functionality without paying for API usage.
Jan
Run ChatGPT-style AI models locally with complete privacy
Self-host friendlyActive developmentPrivacy-firstTypeScript
Why teams choose it
- Download and run LLMs from HuggingFace completely offline
- OpenAI-compatible API server on localhost:1337 for integration
- Hybrid deployment: local models or cloud provider connections
Watch for
Requires significant RAM for larger models (32GB for 13B parameters)
Migration highlight
Offline Document Analysis
Process confidential documents with local LLMs, ensuring sensitive information never leaves your network
LibreChat
Unified AI chat interface for all major models
Self-host friendlyActive developmentPermissive licenseTypeScript
Why teams choose it
- Unified access to OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Bedrock, local models, and custom endpoints
- No-code agent builder with marketplace, MCP support, and collaborative sharing
- Secure code interpreter for Python, Node.js, Go, Java, Rust, and more
Watch for
Self-hosting requires Docker knowledge and infrastructure management
Migration highlight
Multi-Provider AI Evaluation
Compare responses from OpenAI, Claude, and Gemini side-by-side to select optimal models for specific tasks without switching platforms.
Onyx
Self‑hosted AI chat UI with agents, RAG, and 40+ connectors
Active developmentPrivacy-firstFast to deployPython
Why teams choose it
- Custom AI agents with programmable instructions and actions
- Hybrid RAG + knowledge graph for precise document retrieval
- 40+ connectors and built‑in web search across multiple providers
Watch for
Full feature set may require additional configuration for large deployments
Migration highlight
Customer Support Knowledge Base
Agents retrieve up‑to‑date policy documents from internal repositories and answer tickets in real time.
Open WebUI
Self‑hosted AI platform with offline LLM, RAG, and extensible UI
Self-host friendlyActive developmentPrivacy-firstPython
Why teams choose it
- One‑click deployment via Docker, pip, or Kubernetes
- Integrated RAG with local document upload and web search
- Granular RBAC with SCIM 2.0 for enterprise identity providers
Watch for
Self‑hosting requires infrastructure management
Migration highlight
Internal Knowledge Base Assistant
Employees retrieve company documents via RAG‑enhanced chat
Chatbox
Desktop AI client for ChatGPT, Claude, and local LLMs
Active developmentPrivacy-firstIntegration-friendlyTypeScript
Why teams choose it
- Local data storage keeps all conversations private on your device
- Unified access to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Ollama, and other LLM providers
- Team collaboration with shared OpenAI API resource management
Watch for
Requires API keys for most LLM providers (not a standalone service)
Migration highlight
Prompt Engineering Workflow
Developers iterate on prompts across ChatGPT, Claude, and local Ollama models, comparing outputs and saving successful patterns to the prompt library for reuse.
ChuanhuChatGPT
Lightweight web UI for ChatGPT and multiple LLMs
Self-host friendlyActive developmentPrivacy-firstPython
Why teams choose it
- Unified interface for 15+ LLM APIs and local models (GPT, Claude, Gemini, LLaMA, ChatGLM)
- Knowledge base Q&A from uploaded files and real-time web search integration
- Autonomous agent assistant and native GPT-3.5 fine-tuning support
Watch for
Gradio-based architecture may limit deep UI customization compared to custom frameworks
Migration highlight
Multi-Model Research Comparison
Researchers switch between GPT-4, Claude 3, and local LLaMA models within one interface to benchmark performance across tasks without managing separate tools.
OpenAssistant
Open-source chat assistant built through collaborative human feedback
Permissive licenseFast to deployIntegration-friendlyPython
Why teams choose it
- Crowdsourced data collection with quality controls and contributor leaderboards
- Multi-phase RLHF training pipeline following InstructGPT methodology
- Complete development stack with Docker-based local setup for contributors
Watch for
Project is completed and no longer actively maintained or developed
Migration highlight
Training Data for Custom Assistants
Leverage the oasst2 dataset to fine-tune or evaluate custom conversational models with human-ranked responses
Pe
Perplexica
Private AI search engine with local and cloud LLM support
Active developmentPermissive licensePrivacy-firstTypeScript
Why teams choose it
- Cited answers from web, discussions, and academic sources
- Support for local Ollama models and cloud APIs (OpenAI, Claude, Groq)
- Three search modes (Speed, Balanced, Quality) for performance control
Watch for
Requires own compute resources for local LLMs
Migration highlight
Academic literature review
Generate summarized answers with citations from scholarly articles and PDFs while keeping research data private.
NextChat
Lightweight AI assistant supporting Claude, GPT-4, and Gemini
Self-host friendlyActive developmentPermissive licenseTypeScript
Why teams choose it
- Multi-model support: Claude, GPT-4, Gemini Pro, DeepSeek, and self-hosted LLMs
- Privacy-first architecture with local browser storage and optional self-hosting
- Cross-platform desktop apps (~5MB) and one-click Vercel deployment
Watch for
Limited access control relies on environment variable configuration
Migration highlight
Multi-Model Development Testing
Developers compare Claude, GPT-4, and Gemini responses side-by-side using custom prompt templates to identify optimal models for specific tasks.
Choosing a ai personal assistant software alternative
Teams replacing Perplexity in ai personal assistant software workflows typically weigh self-hosting needs, integration coverage, and licensing obligations.
- 10 projects let you self-host and keep customer data on infrastructure you control.
- 17 options are actively maintained with recent commits.
Tip: shortlist one hosted and one self-hosted option so stakeholders can compare trade-offs before migrating away from Perplexity.