Jan vs Lumo
A side-by-side comparison of Jan and Lumo, two Assistant tools, drawn from Ignaite's continuously-verified listings.
Compared from listings verified as of
At a glance
| Attribute | Jan | Lumo |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Assistant | Assistant |
| Pricing (differs) | FREE | FREEMIUM |
| License (differs) | Open source | Open core |
| Deployment (differs) | Local | Cloud |
| Platforms (differs) | macOS, Windows, Linux, API | Web, iOS, Android |
| Model support | Multi-model | Multi-model |
| Vendor (differs) | Menlo Research | Proton |
| Capabilities (differs) |
|
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The honest brief
Jan
Bundles its own model runner so it works offline out of the box — no account, no telemetry, and no paid tier.
- Local-first; data stays on your machine
- Open source (Apache-2.0), no paid tier
- Bundled model runner + model hub
- BYO cloud keys when wanted
- Local OpenAI-compatible server
- More setup friction than LM Studio
- Limited tool-calling vs full agent stacks
- Local model speed bound by your hardware
- Smaller ecosystem than Ollama
Lumo
A genuinely private chatbot — zero-access-encrypted, EU-hosted, with no logging or training on your data — from the maker of Proton Mail.
- Decrypts only on your device
- Open-source app and underlying models
- No logs; data not used for training
- Free tier, no account required
- Open models lag the top frontier LLMs
- No third-party model choice
- Fewer integrations than big assistants
When to pick which
Pick Jan if you need Tool / function calling, Model inference / serving, and Multi-model access.
- Tool / function calling (secondary capability)
- Model inference / serving (primary capability)
- Multi-model access (secondary capability)
Pick Lumo if you need Chat with documents and Web research agent.
- Chat with documents (primary capability)
- Web research agent (secondary capability)
They also differ on:
- Pricing
- FREE · FREEMIUM
- License
- Open source · Open core
- Deployment
- Local · Cloud
- Platforms
- macOS, Windows, Linux, API · Web, iOS, Android