At a glance
Local-first software keeps your data on your device by default and syncs optionally, the opposite of cloud-first apps like Google Docs, Notion, or Figma. The term was coined in a 2019 research paper by Ink & Switch (Martin Kleppmann, Adam Wiggins, Peter van Hardenberg). Examples in 2026: Anytype, Obsidian, Logseq, Apple Notes, Linear (kind of).
For most of the past 15 years, software shifted to the cloud. Your documents lived on Google’s servers, your design files on Figma’s, your project tracker on Asana’s. The benefit was sync and collaboration; the cost was that none of it was really yours anymore. Local-first software is the reaction. It keeps the data on your device, where you control it, while still giving you sync, collaboration, and offline access.
“When you use a cloud-first app, the app uses you. When you use a local-first app, you use the app.”
Source: paraphrase of the Ink & Switch local-first thesis
What is local-first software, in one sentence?
Local-first software is software that keeps the canonical copy of your data on your own device, syncs to other devices peer-to-peer or via an optional cloud, and continues to work fully even when the company behind it shuts down.
Where did the term come from?
The phrase was introduced in a 2019 essay called “Local-First Software: You Own Your Data, in spite of the Cloud” from Ink & Switch, a private industrial research lab. The authors were Martin Kleppmann (Cambridge CS researcher, author of Designing Data-Intensive Applications), Adam Wiggins (Heroku co-founder), and Peter van Hardenberg. The paper laid out seven “ideals” for what local-first software should achieve. The seven ideals are now the de facto checklist for any app calling itself local-first.
What are the seven ideals of local-first software?
- No spinners. The app should be fast because the data is on your device. No loading screens between you and your own work.
- Your work is not trapped on one device. Multi-device sync works. Your phone and your laptop both have the same data.
- The network is optional. The app works fully offline. You can write, edit, and search without internet.
- Frictionless collaboration with other users. Multiple people can edit the same document without a central server arbitrating.
- The Long Now. Your data outlives the company that made the software. Files are in open formats, exportable, future-proof.
- Security and privacy by default. End-to-end encryption is the default, not a premium feature. See our End-to-End Encryption glossary entry for what that means.
- You retain ultimate ownership and control. You can leave the platform, take your data, and the data still works.
Almost no commercial app meets all seven. Most cloud apps (Google Docs, Notion, Figma) meet ideal 4 (collaboration) and fail at ideals 1, 3, 5, 6, and 7. Most desktop apps (Word, Excel) meet ideals 1, 3, and 5 but fail at sync and collaboration. Local-first is the attempt to satisfy all seven.
How is local-first different from “offline-first”?
Offline-first apps work offline but treat the cloud as the source of truth. When you reconnect, your local changes get reconciled against the cloud copy. The data still lives on the company’s servers; you just have a cache.
Local-first apps treat your device as the source of truth. The cloud, if used at all, is a relay or a backup. If the company shuts down tomorrow, your data is fine. If you go offline forever, your data is fine. If you want to switch to a competitor, your data is fine.
What technical pieces make local-first possible?
- CRDTs (Conflict-free Replicated Data Types). A math structure that lets two devices edit the same data offline and merge their changes without conflicts. CRDTs are why modern local-first apps can sync without a central server arbitrating who wins.
- Peer-to-peer sync protocols. Devices talk to each other directly, sometimes through a relay, sometimes not. The protocol is what physically moves data between your devices.
- End-to-end encryption. So that any relay server in the middle cannot read your data even if compromised.
- Open data formats. Markdown, JSON, SQLite, plain text. Anything but a proprietary blob no other tool can read.
- Versioning and history. Built into the data structure so you can undo, recover, or audit.
Which apps are actually local-first in 2026?
- Anytype: meets all seven ideals. The poster child. See our deep review.
- Obsidian: meets six. Your notes are Markdown files on disk. Sync is paid optional.
- Logseq: meets six. Same model as Obsidian but outline-first.
- Apple Notes: surprisingly close to local-first, with iCloud sync. Falls short on the openness ideal.
- Linear: project tracker that famously feels instant because it is local-first under the hood, with a cloud sync layer on top.
- Figma: works offline thanks to a CRDT-backed local engine, but still cloud-first overall.
- Automerge-based apps: an open-source CRDT library used by a growing number of small local-first apps.
Why do most apps still go cloud-first?
Three reasons. First, cloud-first is easier to build. You write one backend, everyone connects to it. Local-first requires a real sync protocol, conflict resolution, and offline state, all of which are hard. Second, cloud-first is easier to monetize. You can meter usage, gate features, train AI models on aggregated data, and sell ads. Third, cloud-first locks users in. If your data lives on the company’s servers, leaving is painful.
Local-first software inverts all three. It is harder to build, harder to monetize, and easier for users to leave. Which is precisely why a real local-first app, when one exists, is a useful signal that the team is optimizing for users rather than for lock-in.
Frequently asked questions about local-first software
Is local-first the same as self-hosted?
No. Self-hosted means YOU run the server. Local-first means there is no server you need to run because the data lives on your device. Some local-first apps support optional self-hosting of their sync layer; that is a separate question.
If everything is on my device, what if I lose my device?
Most local-first apps offer an optional encrypted backup tier. Your device is the source of truth, but encrypted copies sit somewhere reachable. If you lose every device at once, the backup recovers you.
Is local-first software always private?
Usually yes, because keeping data on-device is a privacy-favorable architecture. But “local-first” is a technical claim, not a legal one. Always check the privacy policy. An app can be local-first and still collect telemetry, send anonymized usage data, or log crashes containing your content. The Ink & Switch paper makes privacy ideal #6 explicit precisely because not all local-first apps live up to it.
Can local-first work for teams?
Yes, but it is harder than cloud-first. Modern CRDT-based sync (Automerge, Yjs) can support multiple editors on the same document. Real-time multiplayer (Google-Docs-style live cursors) is technically possible but rarely as smooth as the cloud-first incumbents. As of 2026, local-first team apps work well for small teams; large organizations tend to stay on cloud-first tools.
Will AI tools push everything back to the cloud?
That is the open question of the next few years. Most large AI models are cloud-hosted, which pulls user data back to centralized servers. But local AI (Ollama, Llama, Apple Intelligence) is moving fast, and local-first apps like Anytype have started integrating local-model support via the Model Context Protocol. The local-first community is betting that on-device AI catches up enough that local-first remains viable.
Sources and where to go deeper
- Ink & Switch: Local-First Software (the 2019 essay that coined the term)
- Ink & Switch lab homepage
- Martin Kleppmann (co-author, Designing Data-Intensive Applications)
- Automerge: the open-source CRDT library
- Local-First Web (community resource)
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