# Osaurus 6 Hacker News commenters recommended Osaurus and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months. **Verdict:** A free, open-source, local-first macOS app for running AI models and agents, recommended for being small, fast and provider-agnostic. ## Why people recommend it - Open source and provider-agnostic (3 comments): "It's open-source and Swift-based, we built our own inferencing engine since every other engine is based on Python." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48531605)) "it's 15MB, provider-agnostic, and open source" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47105867)) "Open source, local-first, provider-agnostic." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47221046)) - Enjoyable and good to use (3 comments): "I prodded myself into playing with Osaurus; it's actually rather good." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50265580)) "Your work is super awesome, love the osaurus tool!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45922397)) "I've been having fun with this one" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47517730)) - Small download and fast (2 comments): "It's only 8mb, but runs 30% faster than Ollama." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45869617)) "it's 15MB, provider-agnostic, and open source" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47105867)) - Privacy-focused and local-first (2 comments): "Heavily privacy focused with e2ee iOS and iPadOS tethers." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50250735)) "Open source, local-first, provider-agnostic." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47221046)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [llama.cpp](https://hackerapproved.com/p/llama-cpp.md): 471 recommend - [Ollama](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ollama.md): 350 recommend - [LM Studio](https://hackerapproved.com/p/lm-studio.md): 217 recommend - [DS4 by antirez](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ds4.md): 109 recommend - [Unsloth Studio](https://hackerapproved.com/p/unsloth.md): 94 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Osaurus", https://hackerapproved.com/p/osaurus/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).