About Dotient
Dotient builds a searchable index of your personal archive without uploading anything. You import files, a quantized vision and text model embeds them locally, and after a few minutes you can search by describing what a file looks like instead of remembering its filename.
Natural-language search can be sharpened with signal tuning, and a graph view displays the whole archive as a network of nodes connected by similarity. A feature called cubbies lets you collect files and add annotations. The homepage targets photographers, videographers, designers, creative teams and anyone with a large camera roll.
Dotient is a commercial desktop app with a downloadable build and a license purchase. The site states that files stay on your device with no cloud, and that pricing starts at $10 as a one-time payment.
Key features
- Search files by describing how they look
- Local indexing with an on-device vision model
- Graph view of archive relationships
- Signal tuning to refine search
- Cubbies for collecting and annotating files
Good fit for
- →Finding a photo shoot image by description
- →Searching client assets across shared drives
- Tags
- semantic-search
- local-first
- file-search
- photo-search
- privacy
- desktop-app
- ai
Dotient: questions and answers
- What is Dotient used for?
- Dotient is a local-first desktop app for semantic file search that indexes photos and files with an on-device vision model so you can find them by description. It is a good fit for finding a photo shoot image by description and searching client assets across shared drives.
- How much does Dotient cost?
- Dotient is a paid product with no free plan. Starts at $10 as a one-time purchase, according to the homepage.
- Is Dotient open source?
- No. Dotient is proprietary (closed-source) software. In the Search category, open-source options include Orange, Wigolo and SearXNG.
- What are some alternatives to Dotient?
- Dotient competes with Everything and Listary.
Open-source alternatives to Dotient
See all
Orange
Search
Cross-platform local file search engine.
GPL-3.0vs Everything★ 1.8k
Wigolo
Search
The go-to web for your AI coding agent — local-first search, fetch, crawl & research over
OSSvs Tavily★ 5.4k
SearXNG
Search
SearXNG is a free internet metasearch engine which aggregates results from various search
AGPL-3.0vs DuckDuckGo★ 38kuBlacklist
Search
Blocks specific sites from appearing in Google search results
MIT★ 6.7k
Hister
Search
Your own search engine
AGPL-3.0★ 5.8k
YaCy
Search
Distributed Peer-to-Peer Web Search Engine and Intranet Search Appliance
OSSvs DuckDuckGo★ 4.1k
SaaS alternatives to Dotient
See all
Everything
Search
Instant Windows file-name search tool that indexes NTFS drives
SaaS
Listary
Productivity
Windows file search and launcher utility
SaaS
Brave Search
Search
Search engine running on Brave's own web index with a privacy focus
SaaS
dtSearch
Search
Desktop and enterprise full-text search engine for large document sets
SaaS
DuckDuckGo
Search
Privacy-focused web search engine that does not track searches
SaaS
Ecosia
Search
Search engine that funds tree planting from advertising revenue
SaaS

