Self-Host Your Own AI in 2025 – No Subscriptions, No Surveillance
The Ultimate Guide to Open-Source Tools You Can Actually Run Yourself Tired of paying $20/month for GPT-4 or letting Big Tech snoop on your prompts? In 2025, self-hosted AI isn't just for Linux wizards anymore. You can now run powerful AI tools on your own device—without being a terminal ninja. I’ve tested the best and the worst. Here are the top self-hosted AI tools you can actually use today for chat, images, voice, coding, and more. 1. Chat Locally – Say Goodbye to SnitchGPT Ollama Ollama ollama.ai Easy setup: ollama pull llama3 Works on Mac, Linux, Windows (WSL) Use with OpenChat for ChatGPT-style UI LM Studio LM studio lmstudio.ai Drag-and-drop interface, no coding needed Runs on CPU – great for beginners Text Generation WebUI GitHub GitHub Repo Powerful, customizable chat interface Supports LLaMA, Mistral, Phi and more Extend with voice, APIs, and roleplay bots 2. Create Stunning Images (Without Selling Your Soul to...