OY.Surf vs Cosmos
Cosmos is a cloud feed for discovering and saving others’ creative work. OY.Surf is the local-first, on-device, free alternative — here's the honest comparison.
TL;DR
- Cosmos is a cloud feed for discovering and saving others’ creative work.
- OY.Surf is for your own files: organize, search, generate and edit them locally.
- Cosmos is inspiration in; OY.Surf is production out.
Cosmos is great for discovery and mood. OY.Surf is the workshop: your folders, on-device AI to search and edit them, and a canvas to build with. If you want to do work on your own assets rather than browse a feed, OY.Surf is the fit.
Quick comparison
| Creative discovery feed | OY.Surf | Cosmos |
|---|---|---|
| Your own files | ✓ | ~ |
| Local-first, offline | ✓ | — |
| Generate + edit on-device | ✓ | — |
| Semantic search of your library | ✓ | — |
| Account required | No | Yes |
What is Cosmos?
Cosmos is a cloud platform and community for discovering, collecting, and organizing visual inspiration from across the web. It shines at curation and discovery feeds. It centers on content from others, hosted in the cloud, with an account.
What is OY.Surf?
OY.Surf is a local-first visual workbench for macOS. It opens any folder you already have — Dropbox, Downloads, a render output directory — and indexes it in place, so nothing is uploaded. On top of your files it runs on-device AI: descriptions and semantic search, instruction-based image editing (Qwen-Image-Edit), generation (Z-Image Turbo), an Air-style canvas with smart-resize and skills, plus screen recording (Studio) and voice dictation (Flow). The default is free and offline; cloud is opt-in with your own key.
OY.Surf vs Cosmos, point by point
Whose work is it for?
Cosmos centers discovery of others' work. OY.Surf centers your own files — the renders, screenshots, and references already on your Mac.
Local vs cloud
OY.Surf is local-first and offline; Cosmos is a cloud service that needs an account.
Can it create and edit?
OY.Surf generates and edits images on-device and arranges them on a canvas. Cosmos is for collecting, not producing.
Search
OY.Surf semantically searches your library by content; Cosmos searches its feed.
When Cosmos is the better choice
Cosmos is the better tool when you want a beautiful discovery feed and a community of references. OY.Surf isn't a discovery network.
Bottom line
Cosmos for finding inspiration; OY.Surf for making things with your own files, locally.
FAQ
- Is OY.Surf a Cosmos alternative?
- For working on your own assets, yes; for browsing a public discovery feed, Cosmos is its own thing.
- Does OY.Surf need an account?
- No account, no sign-in.
- Can I generate images in OY.Surf?
- Yes, on-device with Z-Image, plus instruction editing with Qwen-Image-Edit.
- Is it offline?
- Yes, after model download.
- Is it free?
- Yes, free while in beta.