Why we build offline-first software
Your files, your PC, your business. The case for software that doesn't need the cloud.
Somewhere in the last decade, a lot of desktop software quietly moved into the browser. Log in, stay online, pay monthly. For some jobs that's great. For many, it's a step backwards.
Speed
A native app on your own PC doesn't wait for a server. Opening a big PDF, scanning a million files or painting a stroke with a huge brush happens at the speed of your hardware, not your broadband.
Privacy
If your files never leave your PC, nobody else can read them, lose them or train on them. Zaweba apps contain no telemetry at all. We literally do not know how you use them, and we're happy that way.
Reliability
Trains, planes, rural broadband, a server outage on the other side of the world: offline software doesn't care. It works when you need it.
Ownership
Zaweba apps run on your PC, not on our servers. There's no account to be locked out of, and nothing stops working because a website changed. (And every app is free for everyone.)
The best cloud is the one you don't need.
Some of our apps do use the internet when that is their job: FTP talks to your servers, and Route and Wonder download the maps and encyclopedias you choose, once, so they can work offline afterwards. They only connect to the places you point them at. The only thing any app asks zaweba.com is whether there's a newer version, once a day, and problem reports reach us only if you click Send.
