What Is Local-First Software? Definition, 7 Properties & Real Examples (2026)
Local-first software keeps your data on your device — not on someone else's server. Definition, the 7 properties from Ink & Switch, real examples, and which popular apps (Notion, Figma) are NOT local-first.
Mathis Belouar-Pruvot
Quick Answer. Local-first software is a class of applications where the user's data lives primarily on their own device, not on a remote server. Cloud sync is optional, not required. The term was coined in a 2019 essay by Ink & Switch and lists seven properties: fast, multi-device, offline-capable, collaborative, long-lived, private, and user-owned. Filarr, Obsidian, Linear, and Anytype are local-first apps.
When you use Notion, your notes live on Notion's servers. When you use Google Docs, your document lives on Google's servers. The app on your screen is a window into a remote database — close the tab, lose the connection, and your work goes with it.
Local-first software inverts this assumption: your data lives on your device first. The cloud, if there is one, plays a supporting role.
This guide gives the precise definition, walks through the seven properties from the original Ink & Switch essay, distinguishes local-first from offline-first (commonly confused), and surveys the apps that genuinely qualify in 2026.
What is local-first software, exactly?
The term "local-first software" was coined in a 2019 essay by researchers at Ink & Switch — Martin Kleppmann, Adam Wiggins, Peter van Hardenberg, and Mark McGranaghan. They defined it as software that "lets you collaborate without giving up ownership and control over your data."
In practice, a local-first app:
- Stores your data as ordinary files on your local disk
- Works fully without an internet connection
- Continues to work if the developer shuts down or the cloud disappears
- Can synchronize with other devices when you choose, without making the cloud the source of truth
This is a stricter definition than "offline-first." Every local-first app is necessarily offline-first; an offline-first app is not necessarily local-first.
What are the seven properties of local-first software?
Ink & Switch's essay identifies seven "ideals" that a true local-first app should satisfy. Few apps hit all seven, but the framework is useful for evaluating any candidate.
1. No spinners — the app is fast
The user interface should respond at hardware speed, not network speed. No loading wheels for normal operations like opening a file or typing a paragraph. If you have to wait for a server, you're not local-first.
2. Your work is not trapped on one device
You should be able to read and edit your data on any of your own devices. Local-only software historically failed here — it forced manual USB-stick syncing. Local-first means devices can sync, but the cloud is one mechanism among several, not a gatekeeper.
3. The network is optional
Internet connectivity should be a luxury, not a requirement. Take a flight, go to a remote cabin, sit on a subway — the app keeps working at full capability. Anything you create offline syncs cleanly when you reconnect.
4. Seamless collaboration is possible
Multi-user collaboration should work as well as it does in cloud-first apps. This is the hardest property to satisfy. Conflict-free Replicated Data Types (CRDTs) and Operational Transformation (OT) are the dominant techniques. Real-time collaboration on encrypted local-first data is still an active research area in 2026.
5. The Long Now — your data outlives the software
Software comes and goes. Your data should not be hostage to a specific app version or business model. Local-first apps store data in standard formats (Markdown, JSON, plain files) so it remains readable in fifty years, even if the original software vanishes.
6. Security and privacy by default
Your data should be encrypted before leaving your device. End-to-end encryption is the baseline, not a premium upsell. The application vendor — and any cloud sync service — should not be able to read your content. See zero-knowledge encryption explained for the technical model that makes this possible.
7. You retain ultimate ownership and control
You can export, delete, or migrate your data at any time. No vendor lock-in. No "premium plan to export." If the developer raises prices or shuts down the service, you keep working.
How is local-first different from offline-first?
The two terms are often used interchangeably. They describe different scopes.
| Property | Offline-first | Local-first |
|---|---|---|
| Works without internet | ✓ | ✓ |
| Data cached locally | ✓ | ✓ |
| Cloud is source of truth | ✓ (usually) | ✗ |
| Data usable without the app | ✗ (usually) | ✓ |
| Survives developer shutdown | ✗ | ✓ |
| Native encryption | ✗ | ✓ (ideally) |
| Standard data format | ✗ | ✓ |
Offline-first means "the app handles the no-internet case gracefully." Examples: Trello, the Notion mobile app, modern Gmail. They cache data locally so you can work briefly without a connection, but the cloud is the canonical source. If Notion shuts down, your offline cache becomes a frozen, unusable snapshot.
Local-first means "your local copy is the source of truth; the cloud is one optional mirror among several." Examples: Filarr, Obsidian, Linear, Anytype. If the developer shuts down, you still have your data in a usable, exportable form.
Which apps are genuinely local-first in 2026?
A non-exhaustive list of apps that satisfy most of the seven properties:
- Obsidian — Markdown notes on disk, plugin ecosystem, sync as paid optional add-on. Lacks native encryption (relies on community plugins).
- Logseq — Open-source outliner, Markdown on disk, optional sync. Strong with knowledge graphs.
- Anytype — Open-source database app, end-to-end encrypted peer-to-peer sync, no required servers.
- Linear — Project management with a local SQLite cache as source of truth, syncs in the background.
- Standard Notes — Encrypted notes app, files stored locally and synced encrypted.
- Filarr — Encrypted workspace combining files, notes, graph view, and canvas. Data lives encrypted on your disk; cloud sync is optional. See why local-first matters for Filarr.
- AppFlowy — Open-source Notion alternative, local data, optional sync.
Apps commonly mistaken for local-first but actually cloud-first: Notion, Google Docs, Asana, Airtable, ClickUp. They cache data locally for offline tolerance, but the cloud is the canonical source — close the company, lose the data.
Is Notion local-first?
No, Notion is not local-first. Notion is a cloud-first application: the authoritative copy of every page lives on Notion's servers, and the desktop and mobile apps are clients that read and write to those servers. If Notion's cloud is unreachable, the apps degrade — features stop working, sync stops, and your only access is whatever was cached. Closing your Notion account means losing access to the data, even if you exported a Markdown ZIP, because the relational databases, formulas, synced blocks, and embeds do not survive the export.
Is Figma local-first?
No, Figma is not local-first. Figma is a cloud-first collaborative design tool — files live on Figma's servers and the application is a browser-based or Electron-wrapped client. Figma's real-time multi-user editing is built on operational transformation through a central server, not on local-first conflict-free data structures. Figma has limited offline support (you can keep editing a file briefly if it was already open), but the underlying architecture is server-canonical.
Is Google Docs local-first?
No, Google Docs is not local-first. Google Docs is cloud-first. The document lives in Google's infrastructure; the browser-based editor is a thin client. Offline mode caches recent documents for editing without a connection, but the cloud remains the source of truth — your edits are merged on the server, not on your device.
Which popular apps ARE local-first?
The following are commonly cited as legitimately local-first (each satisfies most of Ink & Switch's seven properties):
- Obsidian — local Markdown files
- Logseq — local Markdown / SQLite
- Anytype — local object database, peer-to-peer sync
- Linear — local SQLite as source of truth, background sync
- Filarr — encrypted workspace, data on your disk first
- AppFlowy — local data, optional cloud sync
- Standard Notes — encrypted notes, local-first with optional sync
- Trilium — local note database, self-hosted sync
Why is local-first software gaining traction in 2026?
Three pressures are converging.
1. Privacy regulation. GDPR, the EU AI Act, and similar laws make storing user data on servers an increasing liability for vendors. Local-first sidesteps the problem: if the data isn't on your servers, you can't be subpoenaed for it, you can't leak it, and you can't be fined for mishandling it.
2. Vendor distrust. A decade of acquisitions, shutdowns, and price hikes — Google Reader, Evernote's repeated pricing changes, Adobe's Creative Cloud lock-in — has trained users to be skeptical of "your data on our servers." Local-first answers the question "what happens if you shut down?" with "nothing, your data is still on your disk."
3. Hardware availability. Modern devices have terabytes of storage and CPUs that encrypt and decrypt at gigabytes per second. The original arguments for cloud-first ("users don't have enough disk space, devices are too slow to encrypt") no longer hold.
The Ink & Switch researchers argued in 2019 that cloud-first won partly by accident — the technology to make local-first practical at scale didn't exist yet. By 2026, it does.
What are the trade-offs of local-first software?
Local-first is not strictly better than cloud-first. The honest trade-offs:
- Real-time multi-user collaboration is harder. Google Docs-style simultaneous editing is the canonical hard case. CRDTs help but add complexity, and combining CRDTs with end-to-end encryption is still a research problem.
- Initial setup is heavier. A local-first app must ship a full database, indexer, search engine, and sync engine — not just a thin client over a hosted API.
- Mobile is harder. Mobile operating systems restrict background processing, file system access, and persistent storage in ways that complicate local-first design.
- Network effects are weaker. Cloud-first apps benefit from shared documents, team workspaces, and public pages out of the box; local-first apps have to add these layers separately.
The local-first community is actively working on each of these. CRDT libraries like Automerge and Yjs are maturing. Mobile frameworks are loosening some restrictions. The trade-off curve is shifting.
How does Filarr implement local-first?
Filarr is a local-first encrypted workspace. Your notes, files, drawings, and knowledge graph live on your disk, encrypted with AES-256-GCM. You don't need an account to use it. Cloud sync is optional and end-to-end encrypted — the server only ever sees opaque encrypted blobs it cannot read.
Concretely, Filarr satisfies six of the seven Ink & Switch properties today; real-time multi-user collaboration is on the roadmap. The data format is documented and exportable. Even if Filarr shut down tomorrow, your encrypted files are still on your disk, decryptable with your password — that is the local-first guarantee.
Download Filarr — free, encrypted, local-first →