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Convira vs Ollama
Ollama information last checked: 28 July 2026
These two are not really competitors, and the honest answer for most people is that they sit at different layers. Ollama downloads and runs open models on your own machine. Convira is a desktop agent that uses a model - including an Ollama-compatible one running locally - to actually carry out work: editing the Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF files already on your disk, driving a browser you can watch, and stopping for your approval before anything sensitive happens. Ollama gives you a model. Convira is something that uses one.
What Ollama is
Ollama is a free, open-source tool for running large language models locally. You pull a model with a single command and it serves that model on your own machine over a local API. It has become the closest thing the local-model world has to a common standard, which is why so much other software speaks its protocol.
What it deliberately is not is a finished application. Ollama has no document editor, no browser, no connected apps, no permission system and no notion of your files. It runs the model well and leaves everything built on top to you. That focus is the reason it is good at what it does.
What Convira does differently
Convira is the layer above, shipped as a product rather than as a toolkit. It opens the real .docx, .xlsx, .pptx and .pdf files where they already sit on your disk, writes them back in place, and preserves the parts you did not ask it to change.
It also carries the machinery that only starts to matter once software is allowed to touch your files. Agent actions run under operating-system-level isolation - Bubblewrap with Landlock and seccomp on Linux, a deny-by-default Seatbelt profile on macOS, and a Job Object constraining the process tree on Windows. Sensitive actions pause for explicit approval instead of simply happening. An automatic local backup is taken before a session modifies or removes a file, and restoring recovers a copy rather than overwriting anything. Every step stays visible while the run is in progress, and you can stop or redirect it.
The trade is real and worth stating plainly: Ollama is free and open source, and Convira is neither. Convira starts at $9 a month, there is no free tier and no free trial, and the source is not public. If either of those is a hard requirement, Ollama plus your own scripting is the honest recommendation.
Side by side
| Convira | Ollama | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A desktop agent that does work on your files | A runtime for serving local models |
| Works on documents on your disk | Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF, edited in place | No - you build that yourself against the API |
| Where the model runs | Your machine, a Private Box on your LAN, or hosted models | Your machine |
| Runs fully offline | Yes, on the Local runtime | Yes |
| OS-level sandboxing of agent actions | Landlock and seccomp, Seatbelt, Job Object | Not applicable - it serves a model, it does not act |
| Approval before sensitive actions | Yes | Not applicable |
| Automatic backup before a file changes | Yes | Not applicable |
| Connected apps | Over 1,000 connectors on paid plans | None |
| Open source | No | Yes |
| Price | From $9/month, no free tier | Free |
| Platforms | macOS 12+ on Apple silicon, Windows 10/11 x64, Linux x86_64 | Broader, including Intel Macs and ARM |
When Ollama is the better choice
- You want something free and open source and are happy to assemble the rest yourself.
- You are a developer who wants a local model endpoint to build against.
- What you actually want is to talk to a model, not to have work done on your files.
- You want full control over which models, quantizations and parameters you run.
- You are on hardware Convira does not support: an Intel Mac, ARM Linux, or Windows on ARM.
When Convira is the better choice
- What you want at the end is a finished file, not a conversation you then act on yourself.
- The work should happen to the documents already on your disk, in place, with everything you did not ask about left alone.
- You want a visible record of what changed and a backup you can restore from.
- You want an agent to stop and ask before it sends, posts or changes anything.
- You want the option to reach a bigger hosted model or a Private Box when a task outgrows your laptop, without switching tools.
Using both
This is the common case and it is not a compromise. Convira's Local runtime runs Ollama-compatible models: it works fully offline once models are downloaded, and Settings has an Offline Mode toggle that hard-fails any attempted network egress.
So if you already keep models on your machine, Convira is the layer that puts them to work on your documents rather than a replacement for something you already trust. The one exception to offline operation is a billed online tool you deliberately invoke - web research, media generation, a connector action - which needs managed provider keys we hold and is unavailable offline by design.
Common questions
Does Convira use Ollama?
Convira's Local runtime runs Ollama-compatible models. It ships a curated catalog alongside that, and the model picker checks your hardware and shows which choices actually fit, so you are not comparing model sizes by hand.
Is Convira open source?
No. Ollama is open source and Convira is not. If an auditable codebase is a hard requirement for you, that is a genuine reason to choose Ollama and build the layer above it yourself.
Can Convira work with no internet connection at all?
Yes, on the Local runtime once models are downloaded, and Settings has an Offline Mode toggle that hard-fails any attempted egress. The exception is a billed online tool you explicitly invoke, such as web research or a connector action, which needs managed keys and is unavailable offline.
What does Convira cost compared to Ollama?
Ollama is free. Convira starts at $9 a month for the Local plan, which is on-device AI and on-device tools with no hosted-model credits. There is no free tier and no free trial.
Convira facts on this page come from How it works, Security and Pricing, and are the same ones published there. If anything about Ollama is out of date or unfair, tell us at support@convira.ai and we will correct it.