Indie Alternatives

All › AI › LM Studio

LM Studio

Desktop app to discover and run local LLMs

LM Studio lets you download open models and chat with them locally, and serves them over an OpenAI-compatible local server.

Visit LM Studio ↗

Pricing: Free plan

Platforms: Mac, Windows, Linux

Categories: AI

LM Studio is an alternative to

LM Studio compared with similar tools

Product	Price	Open source	Self-host	Platforms
LM Studio	Free plan	–	–	Mac, Windows, Linux
Jan	Free	Yes	–	Mac, Windows, Linux
Ollama	Free plan	–	Yes	Mac, Windows, Linux
Msty	Free plan	–	–	Mac, Windows, Linux
Draw Things	Free plan	–	–	Mac, iOS
llama.cpp	Free	Yes	Yes	Mac, Windows, Linux
DiffusionBee	Free	–	–	Mac

Similar to LM Studio

Jan

Open-source ChatGPT alternative that runs offline

Jan is a desktop app for chatting with local open models or connecting to cloud APIs, keeping data on your device.

Free · Mac, Windows, Linux · Website ↗

Ollama

Run open large language models locally

Ollama downloads and runs open models such as Llama, Gemma, Qwen and Mistral on your computer with a CLI and local API.

Free plan · Mac, Windows, Linux · Website ↗

Msty

Desktop app for local and online AI models

Desktop AI chat app for running local models and using online providers side by side with knowledge stacks.

Free plan · Mac, Windows, Linux · Website ↗

Draw Things

Run AI image generation models locally on Mac, iPhone and iPad

An app for generating and editing images with open models like Stable Diffusion and FLUX entirely on-device, with inpainting and LoRA support.

Free plan · Mac, iOS · Website ↗

llama.cpp

LLM inference in C/C++ on everyday hardware

llama.cpp is an open-source C/C++ engine for running LLMs in GGUF format on CPUs and GPUs, with a built-in server.

Free · Mac, Windows, Linux · Website ↗

DiffusionBee

Run Stable Diffusion locally on your Mac

Free Mac app for generating AI images offline with Stable Diffusion models.

Free · Mac · Website ↗

AnythingLLM

All-in-one AI app for chatting with your documents

AnythingLLM is a desktop and self-hosted app for RAG over documents, AI agents and multi-user chat with local or cloud models.

Free plan · Mac, Windows, Linux, Self-hosted · Website ↗

LocalAI

Self-hosted, OpenAI-compatible API for local models

LocalAI is an open-source drop-in replacement for the OpenAI API that runs LLMs, image, audio and embedding models on your hardware.

Free · Self-hosted, Linux, Mac · Website ↗

Questions

Is LM Studio free?

LM Studio is free to start, with paid plans.

What platforms does LM Studio run on?

LM Studio is available for Mac, Windows, Linux.

What are some alternatives to LM Studio?

Similar indie products include Jan, Ollama, Msty, Draw Things and 4 more.

Is this your product? Submit an update.