Comparison

Lumen vs LocaNeco

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Lumen

This app acts as a browser that remembers what you read, building a personal knowledge base from engaged pages. It allows you to ask questions in plain English about your reading history, with answers generated by an on-device AI. All your data remains private and offline.

Highlights
  • On-device AI knowledge base
  • Plain English questioning
  • Automatic content organization
  • Private and offline browsing
  • Tracker blocking
  • Source citation for answers
Read full description

Lumen is a browser with a memory. Most browsers forget the second you close a tab. Lumen does not. As you read, it quietly builds a personal knowledge base from the pages you actually engage with, and then lets you ask questions about any of it in plain English, answered by an AI model that runs entirely on your device. Nothing you read, nothing you ask, and nothing Lumen learns about you ever leaves your phone. WHAT IT DOES Lumen reads along with you. It distinguishes between pages you genuinely read and pages you opened and swiped away, and it extracts the meaningful content from the ones that stuck. That content gets summarized, embedded, and organized into a searchable knowledge base, all on-device. Later, when you want to find something, you do not have to dig through history or remember which tab it was in. You just ask: "What did I read about sourdough starters last week?" "Summarize that article about the new M-series chips." "What were the main arguments in that piece I read on Tuesday?" Every answer cites the pages it came from, so you can jump straight back to the source. AUTO-ORGANIZED Your reading sorts itself into a clean hierarchy: Topics, Websites, and Pages. Each level carries its own AI-generated summary, so you can scan what you have been learning at a glance. No tagging, no folders to maintain. Lumen handles it in the background. PRIVATE BY DEFAULT Lumen has no server. There is quite literally nothing to send. On-device LLM: a quantized Llama 3.2 model runs locally through Apple's MLX framework. Local SQLite storage: your reading history, summaries, and embeddings never leave the device. Built-in privacy: tracker blocking, third-party cookie blocking, and fingerprint resistance. Secure: HTTPS-only by default, with mixed-content blocking. No strings attached: no accounts, no sync, no telemetry, no ads. The AI weights download once on first launch (~700 MB). After that, everything works fully offline: browsing, reading, asking, answering. BUILT FOR iOS Lumen is written from scratch in Swift and SwiftUI, designed specifically for iPhone and iPad. It uses Apple's own frameworks wherever it can: NLEmbedding for semantic search, WKWebView for browsing, SQLite with FTS5 for full-text queries, and MLX Swift for on-device inference. Zero third-party trackers. Zero external services. WHO IT'S FOR While most browsers treat the web as a feed to scroll past, Lumen treats it as a library worth keeping. If you read a lot online and constantly think "I know I saw something about this recently but I cannot find it again," Lumen is for you. Researchers, students, writers, developers, and lifelong learners. You do not need to change how you browse. Browse normally, and Lumen takes care of the rest. REQUIREMENTS iOS 18 or later. iPhone with Apple Silicon recommended for the fastest on-device AI performance.

About

LocaNeco

Features
Read full description

LocaNeco is a local AI app for chatting with AI models you add to your iPhone or iPad. Use it for drafting, summarizing, translating, brainstorming, organizing research, and generating images in one focused workspace. Main Features Local AI Chat Download or import compatible models and chat with AI on your device. Responses stream in real time, and generation can be stopped at any moment. Project Memory Each conversation can keep its own goal, preferences, constraints, decisions, and notes. You can review, edit, or delete saved memory at any time. Model Management Manage text models and image generation models in one place. Check file size, license, and recommended devices before adding a model. You can also import model files from Files / iCloud Drive or add models from a custom URL. Image Generation Create images from prompts, then share them or save them to Photos. Language and Display Settings Adjust response language, light or dark appearance, default model, context length, and output settings. Privacy Chat logs, memory, and attachments are generally stored on your device. If you enable web search, only the search query is sent to an external service. Downloading models or adding models from custom URLs requires network access. Important Notes LocaNeco does not include real AI model files by default. You can try the app with demo modes first, then download or import compatible models for actual use. Please review each model provider’s license and terms before using downloaded or imported models.

Screenshots

Lumen4 screens
LocaNeco4 screens

Verdict

The call

Lumen and LocaNeco are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Lumen ships an update every 2 weeks, LocaNeco weekly. The most recent releases landed on June 28, 2026 and September 28, 2026 respectively.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Lumen versus LocaNeco: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLumenLocaNeco
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (4 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings4 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS18.018.0
Further details — not scored
Size28 MB69 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperDaniel KosukhinCode and DESIGN inc.

In-app purchases

None

Lumen

No in-app purchases

None

LocaNeco

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Lumen free?
Lumen is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is LocaNeco free?
LocaNeco is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Lumen or LocaNeco have ads?
Neither Lumen nor LocaNeco shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Lumen or LocaNeco?
Lumen ships an update every 2 weeks, and LocaNeco weekly. Most recently, Lumen was updated on June 28, 2026 and LocaNeco on September 28, 2026.

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