About Local First Lab

Privacy-first developer running a fully self-hosted, offline stack — local LLMs on a personal GPU, encrypted storage, and the open-source tools reviewed here in daily use. Every comparison is written from hands-on experience running and maintaining the software, not from vendor copy.

Why pseudonymous?

Practicing what this site preaches. The reviews stand on their specifics — hardware named, costs itemized, failure modes described — not on a byline. Code is public under the same name: github.com/MacadamiaButter.

How this site makes money

Some links are affiliate links (always disclosed on the page). No ads, no trackers, no sponsored placements. Rankings never depend on commissions — see the privacy policy for the full breakdown.

Found something wrong?

Tell me — corrections make the site better: meltedrubberducky@proton.me

Need this set up for you?

I do self-hosting migrations, privacy stack audits, and private/local AI installs — including for confidentiality-bound firms. Reach out at the address above.