Puter

Put a desktop environment in the browser and bring files, apps, and games into one workspace

The official README describes Puter as a feature-rich, extensible, self-hostable internet computer. For users, apps such as Notepad, Voice Recorder, Spreadsheet, and Camera can run from the same browser desktop, positioning Puter as a personal cloud computer rather than only a visual desktop clone.

Sources: [1]

Expose AI, storage, databases, and serverless workers as capabilities for web applications

For developers, Puter provides AI, cloud/object storage, a key-value database, and serverless workers, and applications or games can be published through its App Store. The project therefore combines the user-facing desktop with an application platform for accessing cloud capabilities.

Sources: [1]

Self-host the application together with database, cache, KV, object storage, and reverse proxy services

The official self-hosting Compose stack runs Puter alongside MariaDB, Valkey, DynamoDB Local, RustFS S3-compatible object storage, and Caddy. The recommended installer generates secrets, writes .env and config.json, downloads the Compose and Caddy configuration, and starts the stack. Persistent state is kept under ./puter/data/<service>/ on the host.

Sources: [2]

Optionally add a local LLM profile and move part of the AI path into the self-hosted stack

The self-hosting guide includes an optional ai Compose profile for Ollama and a one-shot initializer that pulls a default model. Puter also exposes OpenAI/Anthropic-compatible AI surfaces and hosted options, so the inference path and operational responsibility depend on which providers are enabled.

Sources: [2]

Useful when a personal cloud, web desktop, and app platform should live in one environment

Puter fits people building a self-managed web desktop or NAS-like file workspace, developers who want storage, database, AI, and serverless capabilities behind web apps, and teams evaluating an open-source personal cloud on their own domain. Because it includes backend services as well as the UI, it is more useful to compare it as a platform than as a desktop clone.

Self-hosting includes multi-service operations, wildcard DNS, TLS, secrets, proxy behavior, and AGPL obligations

A public self-hosted deployment involves more than running Compose. Puter routes by subdomain, so wildcard DNS is required, and TLS may require wildcard certificates or equivalent reverse-proxy configuration. The proxy must preserve the Host header and forward the external scheme, real client IP, and WebSocket upgrade headers. Operators also own MariaDB, S3, JWT, and URL-signing secrets.

Local development requires Node.js 24 or newer. The repository is generally AGPL-3.0, while third-party libraries may carry their own licenses, so modified network deployments should review the AGPL source-availability obligations. Hosted puter.com and a self-hosted instance are also different operational boundaries; data, AI providers, storage, and account placement should be reviewed per deployment.

Sources: [2][3][4][1]