Local AI for small enterprises
StarFerret is a preloaded Mac Studio cluster, the software that runs it, and a team that picks up the phone. It sits on a shelf in your building and takes the everyday AI work off the meter.
Open source and free on one Mac. No account, no SSO, no credit card.
Cluster
Apps
Routing
Local first, cloud on request
Savings calculator
Put in your own numbers. The hardest requests stay with your cloud provider. Everything else runs on Macs you own.
Seats plus API usage, from your last invoice.
Drafting, summaries, file search, and routine workflows usually can.
Mac Studios
One Mac Studio for every 20 people.
Saved over three years
$482,815
Ahead by $84,415 in the first year, hardware included.
Cloud only, three years
$918,000
With StarFerret, three years
$435,185
Assumes flat usage. We confirm your quote in writing.
What you get
Most local AI projects stall because someone has to pick the hardware, wire up the software, and keep it all alive. We do all three.
01 Hardware
Preloaded Mac Studios. Put them in a closet, under a desk, or next to the printer.
Each Mac: M5 Max, 128GB unified memory, built in Ethernet.
02 Software
LibreChat, n8n, and the Board, managed from one place.
03 Support
Your IT lead does not carry it alone on top of three other jobs.
Business hours, US Eastern.
The software
We would rather run three things well than twenty badly. Each app takes a bill or a chore off your list, and one admin panel runs all three.
LibreChat
Chat
Ask questions, draft, summarize, and upload files. Each person signs in and keeps their own conversations.
Replaces
Per seat chat subscriptions such as ChatGPT or Claude, for everyday work.
n8n
Automations
Connect your tools and let AI do the repeat steps: sort the inbox, fill the sheet, file the report.
Replaces
Paid automation tools such as Zapier or Make.
Board
Our own software
Make a folder, drop files in, and agents read, write, and organize there while your team works beside them.
Replaces
Uploading company files to a cloud AI one at a time.
For technical people
The same Macs answer over a standard API, the kind most coding tools already speak. Developers add one address to their editor and write code against your local models instead of a metered one.
In the editor's model settings
Inside the Board
Because it runs on your Macs, the files stay in your building and nobody is counting tokens.
Roadmap: smart routing
Add your Anthropic or OpenAI key. Everyday requests stay on your Macs for free. The hard ones go up to the smartest model you pay for, and only those show up on the bill.
Admin
It is called Control. It comes with every install and opens in a browser. If you can use a web page, you can run StarFerret.
Three apps on this Mac. Start them here, open them, and see if they are up.
How it works
The installer loads a model and the apps for you. No account, no SSO, no sales call. More memory runs bigger models.
Open chat in a browser, share the link on your network, build a workflow.
Preloaded Mac Studios, paid seats, and a team that sets it up and runs it with you.
Open source and free on one Mac. No account, no SSO, no credit card.
Setting things up
Pilot
The calculator is an estimate. A pilot swaps it for your numbers. 20 of your people use a StarFerret Mac for real work for 3 months. At the end you know what they used it for, how many Macs the company needs, and what it costs. Then you decide.
Pilot, 3 months
What you walk away with
What is in it
Already sure? Skip the pilot.
If the free download already showed you it works, ask to buy. We size it with a load test, ship the Macs preloaded, set them up, and stay on support.
Ask for a pilot or a quote
A person here reads it and writes back.
Free and paid
The free download has everything one Mac needs. For the company you buy the Macs once, then pay for support each year. The software is included.
| Software | FreeOne Mac, tonight | Paid seatsWith hardware and support |
|---|---|---|
| LibreChat, chat for everyone | Included | Included |
| n8n, automations | Included | Included |
| Board, shared folders with agents | Included | Included |
| Local models on your own Mac | Included | Included |
| API for code editors | Included | Included |
| Control, the manager | Included | Included |
| Open source code, Apache 2.0 | Included | Included |
| Macs | One | As many as you need |
| Company sign in (SSO) | Not included | Included |
| Team management: roles, groups, adding and removing people | Not included | Included |
| Account needed | No | Your company login |
| Price | Free | Macs once, then support each year, software included |
Paid seats come as one package with the preloaded Macs and support, quoted for your company.
Roadmap
Honest comparison
There are five ways to get AI to your people. Each one is right for somebody. StarFerret is for the company in the middle that needs to move everyday work off the meter this year.
| Question | StarFerretMac Studios, managed | AI desktop boxesNvidia DGX Spark, Dell Pro Max | Frontier APIsAnthropic, OpenAI, Google | Build it yourselfYour hardware, your engineers | GPU serversDell, Nvidia, integrators |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pick it when | You are a small enterprise with a growing AI bill and no platform team. | Your engineers want an Nvidia machine on their desk to build and test with. | You need the smartest model there is. They still have a place. | You have engineers with time to own it. | You need the most compute you can buy and have a server room. |
| Models | Strong open models on your Macs. | Open models that fit in 128GB, on Nvidia's software. | The best available. | Any open model you can load. | The largest open models at the highest throughput. |
| Cost | Fixed. Macs once, then support per person each year. | Hardware once. Apps, setup, and upkeep are yours to add. | Metered. It grows with every seat and every agent. | Lowest. Hardware plus your own hours. | Highest up front, plus rack space, power, and cooling. |
| Who keeps it running | We do, alongside your IT lead. | Your team. It ships with Linux and developer tools. | The vendor. | Your team, for as long as it exists. | Your infrastructure team or an integrator. |
| Where it lives | A shelf or a closet. One outlet, one network port. | A desk or a shelf. | Their data centers. | Wherever you put it. | A server room. |
| The catch | Open models trail the frontier on the hardest reasoning. | Built for developers. No chat, automations, or user management for your staff. | The more your company uses AI, the bigger the bill. | Installs, updates, and outages are all yours. | More machine than most small enterprises need. |
Most companies will keep a cloud contract. The goal is not to quit the frontier. It is to stop paying frontier prices for work a Mac in the closet can do.
Questions
The things IT leads and finance leads ask us first.
Download the free installer and see your own hardware answer your team. When you believe it, send a request for the whole package.
Open source and free on one Mac. No account, no SSO, no credit card.