Why local-first
Own your software.
Don't rent it.
For about ten years, "put it in the cloud" was the safe default. I don't think it is any more. Three things have changed: security, cost and the law. Here's what I've seen, with a link for every claim so you can check it yourself.
What changed
Why I stopped assuming the cloud is safer
Break-ins are bigger
When a big vendor is broken into, every business that relied on it is broken into too. And the AI assistants now built into office software can be tricked into leaking what they can read.
The rent keeps going up
Subscription prices rise faster than inflation, and the vendor sets them. The more your business depends on a tool you rent, the less say you have in what it costs next year.
The law puts it on you
India's data law makes the business that collects personal data responsible for keeping it safe. That's easier when you know exactly where it is.
Try it
Pull the plug
Here's a shop's day with the internet, and without it.
Here's what happens to a shop's day when the internet goes. Press the button and watch.
With the internet
- Online billing Working
- Online spreadsheet Working
- AsymmFlow Working
Without the internet
- Online billing Can't reach the server
- Online spreadsheet Can't reach the server
- AsymmFlow Still working. Will sync when the line is back.
Or pull the cable apart yourself.
- Online billing Working
- Online spreadsheet Working
- AsymmFlow Working
The line is up. Everything works, in the cloud and in the shop.
The evidence
What I'm basing this on
When I say software should be owned, not rented, this is what I mean by it: six things that happened, grouped by theme, each linked to where I read it. Open any one for the detail.
Security
Breach One ransomware attack on a vendor exposed about 190 million people
In 2024, ransomware hit Change Healthcare, part of UnitedHealth, and exposed the records of about 190 million people. The businesses that relied on it didn't run that system and couldn't protect it. When your records live in someone else's building, their break-in is yours too.
The Record, January 2025AI risk Researchers showed one email could make Microsoft 365 Copilot leak data
In 2025, researchers at Aim Security showed that a single crafted email could get Microsoft 365 Copilot to hand over data it could read, without anyone clicking anything. They called it EchoLeak (CVE-2025-32711), and Microsoft fixed it on its own servers. The more of your work an outside assistant can see, the more there is to leak.
Hack The Box, July 2025Cost
Pricing Software subscriptions are going up about five times faster than inflation
Vertice, which tracks what companies pay for software, puts subscription price rises at 13.2%, nearly five times the general inflation rate in the G7 countries. You don't set the price of what you rent. Next year's price is the vendor's decision.
Vertice SaaS Inflation Index, 2026Leaving the cloud 37signals expects to save over $10 million in five years by leaving the cloud
37signals, the company behind Basecamp, was on course to pay about $3.2 million a year for cloud hosting. It bought about $700,000 of its own servers, paid for them out of six months' savings, and now expects to save well over ten million dollars over five years. David Heinemeier Hansson, its CTO, wrote up the numbers.
David Heinemeier Hansson, October 2024The law
Ownership France is moving 2.5 million civil servants onto a video service it runs itself
By 2027, France plans to move 2.5 million civil servants off Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex and GoTo Meeting and onto Visio, its own open-source video service. Governments are choosing to own the tools they depend on.
Open Source For You, February 2026India India's data law makes keeping customer data safe your business's job
The Digital Personal Data Protection Act (August 2023) and its Rules (November 2025) make the business that collects personal data responsible for keeping it secure and deleting it once its purpose is met. Failing to keep reasonable security safeguards can cost up to ₹250 crore. Businesses have eighteen months, to about May 2027, to get ready, so knowing exactly where your customers' data sits is worth sorting out now.
PIB backgrounder, November 2025The software your business runs on holds it the way a safe holds your cash, your contracts, your company seal.
You wouldn't rent that safe from someone who keeps a copy of the combination, opens it whenever he likes, sells the same model to your competitors down the road, and whose strongroom was broken into last month.
You'd own it. It sits in your office. Only you hold the key.
What this means
You can own it now
For most of the last twenty years, building your own system took a big team and years of work, so renting made sense. That has changed. AI agents now do much of the typing, and I do the deciding and the checking, so one person can build you a system of your own: on your computers, with your data, answering to you.
That's what AsymmFlow is. PH Trading owns its copy outright. It runs their back office on their own computers, and keeps working when the internet doesn't. What something like it costs is on How I work, and after that there's no subscription to me.