DeepSeek

DeepSeek is best understood as a flexible AI model ecosystem rather than a single app, with very different trade-offs depending on whether it is hosted or self-hosted.

• Hosted use remains provider-accessible, with added Chinese jurisdiction risk.
• Open-weight releases create a much stronger control story than closed SaaS tools.
• Self-hosting can deliver near-complete data control.
• Lock-in is relatively low when users run the models themselves.