I Run 5 Personal Apps on My Phone Without Paying a Single Dollar (And My Data Stays Private)

Well, with a little effort and some cool tool I will show you, you can have this right now.

It’s all about “Localfirst” — using a local machine as the primary device to store your applications data. Not in the cloud. Not on the “edge”. But on your device which is local to you.

I was inspired to do this by a couple of things. Firstly this mini-doc on Youtube about taking back your data and secondly from this episode of Syntax fm.

But first, as Simon Sinek likes to do, let’s talk about “The Why”.

Why Would You Want To Go Localfirst?

Whilst I like the idea of not having to worry about auth or deploying my app, these days these things really aren’t such a big deal. You have tools like Clerk for authentication and deploying on platforms like Vercel or Cloudflare can pretty much be done with 1-click.

So why then? What’s the real benefit of this “Localfirst” approach?

Honestly, it stems from bad places. Laziness and stinginess. Oh, and AI changed things too.

Over the years I have tried to build many apps that could potentially make money. I have an idea that scratches my own itch, I build it, I deploy it —this is all the fun stuff — but then it comes to owning a live app. This bit sucks for a developer.

The one thing I realised through all of this is I love building projects but I get very bored as soon as it turns into a “business” and I have to run it day to day. Marketing, strategies, business decisions, legal things, finance stuff… all things I don’t want to be doing for “side projects”.

Thankfully for my day job I’m a developer so I just have to focus on that side of things.

Therefore, for my side projects I want to focus on the building and creating of apps. This is where for me the “Localfirst” approach shines.

Where Tailscale Comes In

Tailscale seems to do many things (at least from it’s homepage). One explanation I liked was:

I use it to create a private tunnel between my devices.

I have Tailscale running on my mac and iPhone. I then run my own apps locally on my mac and when I have Tailscale switched on on my phone, I can go to chrome, put in the right url Tailscale gives you and magically I have access to that locally running app.

The idea is quite simple but the impact can be huge.

Tailscale builds on top of some Open VPN protocol called WireGuard. It creates encrypted point-to-point tunnels between your devices. Tailwind creates what is known as a Mesh network rather than the more traditional central server that other VPN networks use.

There is some complicated stuff that Tailscale does under the hood and you can find out more on their website about how it works. But all I really care about is being able to view apps running on my computer on my other devices.

AI Is The Game Changer

Previously I always thought that ‘Localfirst’ was just a buzz term with not much real world use. However, with the advancement in LLM models and especially the tooling around it I am finding myself with opportunities to build apps I would only ever dream of before.

It’s now possible to build much more of those small apps that previously just remained in your head. Just to be clear, these aren’t world changing applications here. These are apps that will make your life incrementally better and solve issues usually very specific to yourself.

You don’t want to market these. They don’t need to look good. They can be unpolished and even a bit buggy. The main point is they are there and do the one thing you need it to do.

Localfirst is an ideal solution for these type of apps. As AI and the tooling around it continue to get better more and more people will be building “custom apps” and running these locally will be the preferred choice.

Why?

I’m about to tell you.

The Benefits Of Localfirst

Fast Iterations

The biggest benefit for me is on side projects. Pretty much every app I develop I want on my computer and phone. As soon as you want an app on another device though you have to deploy it — put it on the public internet.

This isn’t so hard these days but its still an effort. Then when you notice issues on your phone, you have to do the code changes and then redeploy again. The whole lifecycle is slow and requires effort.

With Tailscale, if you spot some issue on your phone, you still have to do the code changes, but then you can refresh your browser on your phone and the changes are there straight away.

It even works remote. Meaning if I am out and about, as long as my mac is active (we’ll get to this in the drawbacks) then I can still access the app. Amazing!

Avoiding Deployment

The other main benefit for me is I don’t have to worry about all the issues that come with deployments. Domain setups, authentication and costs — $$$.

My favourite stack at the moment is Tanstack Start with Laravel backend and postgres DB. I deploy Tanstack Start on Vercel and Laravel on Laravel cloud which also hosts the DB. Once you have the deployment all setup its not hard to deploy but you do have to do PRs, you do have to setup all the environmental variables, domains etc and then you have to pay for it. On a project that wasn’t getting barely any traffic I was paying $35 a month or Laravel cloud and $20 a year for the domain.

That adds up over time and if I were to do a few of these projects, which is easier now with AI, I would end up spending over $100 a month just to host some apps for my own personal use.

The added cost of hosting these apps seems like an unneeded expense.

Data Is Private

I’ve never been one to really worry about the privacy of my data. I do all the best practices online in regards to protecting my data but in this day and age, with companies selling your data to the highest bidder, so much of it is outside of your control.

The more I am thinking of this the more I am wanting to move more and more of my data offline. There are drawbacks to this too. If big companies weren’t allowed to use any of our data then the economy would be severly effected and that wouldn’t be good for anyone.

But why expose your data needlessly? I think in this case it’s wise to be cautious with your data and avoid sharing what you don’t need to.

The Drawbacks Of Localfirst

You Need A Computer Always On

The biggest drawback I’ve seen so far is that I always have to have my computer on to access the app from any other device.

This is actually quite annoying as I don’t want to leave my mac on all the time just in case I want to access this one app.

I am thinking now to get my own personal server in my house. I know! I never thought I would be one of those guys but I can now really see the benefits.

Self hosting my custom built apps, keeping all my data private AND learning some stuff about having your own server too. This is actually alluring to me right now.

Requires All Devices To Have Tailscale

Whilst this isn’t a massive problem it’s still something to consider. Every app has to have Tailscale in order to connect to through this private tunnel. They have apps for Apple devices but what if they start charging for having more than 1 device? What if they go out of business?

This whole thing relies on this one app at the moment so to invest fully in this idea is to take a bit of a gamble. However, you could say that really about anywhere you host your apps. They could also start charging more or they could go out of business.

This isn’t a deal breaker, but it’s something to think about.

Conclusion

Localfirst is not a new idea but I feel now the software environment is getting ripe for it to turn into a mainstream thing (among software developers anyway).

AI is making it possible to build those custom apps you always wanted but never had enough time. Tailscale is providing the tooling to enable you to access these apps from anywhere. People in general are more aware than ever of data privacy concerns.

It’s a great mix to bring forth the ‘Localfirst’ approach.

There are some downsides for sure and this approach definitely won’t be for everyone but there are some great advantages too.

I am diving into this world and I’m curious how it will pan out, but one thing is clear, the future is exciting.

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