DeepSeek alternatives, matched to why you're leaving the app

The Morse teamPublished October 27, 2026Facts checked October 27, 202610 min read

The best DeepSeek alternative depends on why you're leaving DeepSeek's app: your chats are stored in China, the app won't discuss certain political topics, it keeps answering "Server busy, please try again later," or your government or employer has banned it. As of October 27, 2026, three kinds of alternative cover those reasons: DeepSeek's own open-weight model run by someone else (Morse, Maple, Venice, or LM Studio), other low-cost reasoning models (Kimi, Qwen, and GLM), and the big US assistants (ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini). Each fixes some of the reasons and not others.

We read DeepSeek's privacy policy and terms, its web app's own text, and its status page on October 27, 2026, then each alternative's own policy, pricing, and model pages, and the government documents linked below, the same day. DeepSeek deserves credit on two counts. It publishes its models under the MIT license, so anyone can run them, and it posts its outages on a public status page in Chinese and English. Whether DeepSeek is safe to use at all is in is DeepSeek safe.

The short list

As of October 27, 2026. Each fact links to the company's own page in the sections below.

Which DeepSeek alternative fixes your reason for leaving?

No single switch fixes all four reasons.

Where does DeepSeek store your chats?

In China, and two regulators have objected to how the data gets there. South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission found that DeepSeek sent "device information, user networks, applications, and user input" to Beijing Volcano Engine Technology, and that DeepSeek stopped sending user input on April 10, 2025 (PIPC). On June 27, 2025, Berlin's data protection commissioner, Meike Kamp, reported DeepSeek's apps to Apple and Google as illegal content in Germany, saying (in our translation) that "the transfer of user data by DeepSeek to China is unlawful" (Berlin data protection commissioner).

What DeepSeek's own policy says about storage, retention, and training is in is DeepSeek safe.

Does DeepSeek censor political topics?

Yes, and a new host fixes only part of it. Refusals trained into DeepSeek's model live in its weights and go wherever the weights run, as we explain in is DeepSeek safe.

Why does DeepSeek keep saying "Server busy"?

Because DeepSeek's own servers are turning the request away; a bad connection gets a different message. "Server busy, please try again later." is the exact message DeepSeek's web app shows, alongside "Server is temporarily unavailable" and "Too many requests. Try again later." (DeepSeek web app). DeepSeek's status page listed 34 incidents from July 30 to October 27, 2026, most of them "Degraded Performance." Thirteen named the chat service among the affected parts, 12 of them since September 1, and the page put the chat service at 99.62% uptime for July through October.

Which governments have banned DeepSeek?

The United States has, on federal civilian agencies' systems, and its order reaches past DeepSeek's own app. The Department of Homeland Security order published October 20, 2026 removes "third-party products and services developed using DeepSeek implementations" from those agencies' IT, along with DeepSeek's own products, and excludes them from agency procurements (Federal Register). On those systems, DeepSeek's weights run by another company are covered too. Guides that offer the same model on another host as the way out, such as one dated July 15, 2026 (Carly), were written before the order. If a ban is your reason, switch to a model from another company, and follow your agency's or employer's own list of approved tools. This isn't legal advice.

South Korea acted on the app in 2025. DeepSeek removed its app from Apple's App Store and Google Play in Korea on February 15, 2025, at the regulator's recommendation, and the regulator urged existing users to avoid entering personal information (PIPC).

Italy's January 2025 order and Australia's ban on government devices are covered in is DeepSeek safe.

Can you use DeepSeek without sending data to China?

Yes. DeepSeek publishes its models on Hugging Face under the MIT license; the current build, DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017, went up on October 17, 2026. Whoever runs the weights gets your prompt, so you choose that company's rules instead of DeepSeek's:

• Maple lists DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and "an abliterated copy of the October build," edited to refuse less, on its Pro, Max, and Team plans (Maple). Pro is $20 a month (Maple).
• Venice lists ten DeepSeek models, all labeled "private," one of them an uncensored DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and one available in its E2EE mode (Venice). It says its Private mode runs on "Venice-controlled GPUs or zero-data-retention partner infrastructure" (Venice). Free allows 10 text prompts a day, and Pro is $18 a month (Venice).
• LM Studio runs open models on your own machine for free, and its Bionic+ plan, at $20 a month, adds "US-hosted" DeepSeek V4 Flash with zero data retention (LM Studio).

Are Kimi, Qwen, and GLM good DeepSeek alternatives?

Partly. All three run their international apps through Singapore companies, which puts your contract, and for Qwen and GLM your data, in Singapore. A model trained by a lab in China can still carry the same censorship, as NIST found with Kimi below.

• Kimi. The international terms, effective August 13, 2026, are with NOVASCENT PRIVATE LIMITED, under Singapore law (Kimi). One guide we read says "Kimi has no training opt-out at all" (zPlatform), but those terms give one, by email. Plus is $19 a month, or $15 billed yearly (Kimi). Our Kimi K3 guide covers the model and the rest of Kimi's privacy terms, including its separate China service.
• Qwen. The policy, effective September 7, 2026, names NTH POWER GLOBAL TECH SINGAPORE PTE. LTD. and says "we collect, process, and store your personal data in Singapore," with prompts processed by Alibaba Cloud (Singapore). It may use "de-identified user content" for training, but not "your raw input data" (Qwen).
• GLM. Z.ai's policy, last updated September 29, 2025, names JINGSHENG HENGXING TECHNOLOGY PTE.LTD and says your data "is generally processed in Singapore," and that it keeps your input "as long as you have an account" (Z.ai). The specs are in our GLM 5.3 Flash guide.

NIST has tested one of them for censorship. In December 2025 it found Moonshot's Kimi K2 Thinking "highly censored in Chinese, with censorship rates similar to those of DeepSeek R1-0528," and "relatively uncensored in English, Spanish, and Arabic" (NIST).

Should you switch to ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini instead?

If censorship or a ban is your reason, they're the cleaner break, but each one sets its own rules for training on your chats, which we compare in which AI companies train on your data.

How Morse answers each reason for leaving

Every reason above comes from DeepSeek's model, servers, and rules arriving as one package, under Chinese law. Morse splits that package. It's a web app with over 30 models, open and closed, from DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Z.ai, Qwen, OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, and others, so you keep the model you like and drop the parts you don't.

• Private, for DeepSeek's model without a DeepSeek account. Every new chat starts in Private. It runs open-weight models like DeepSeek, Kimi, and GLM on hosts Morse has zero data retention agreements with, so they keep nothing; where a provider confirms zero retention on each reply, Morse checks it and refuses a reply that doesn't. There's no DeepSeek account and no "Improve the model for everyone" switch.
• E2EE, for anything no host should read. On Pro, DeepSeek, GLM, and Kimi also run in secure enclaves run by third-party providers, not by Morse. Your browser checks the enclave's hardware attestation before a word leaves your device, and Morse's servers relay ciphertext they can't read. This rests on the enclave hardware and attestation working as designed, and how end-to-end encrypted AI chat works walks through each check. E2EE has no web search or image generation.
• Anonymous, for GPT, Claude, and Gemini when a political question needs a model trained elsewhere. Our proxy strips your account, email, and IP address, so the provider answers without knowing it's you. It may keep the message for a limited time to check for abuse, under its own policy.

Morse's DeepSeek is DeepSeek's own model, so the refusals trained into it come along. When it won't take a question, ask another model in the same account, or pick one of the unfiltered models on a paid plan, which answer what other apps refuse, short of anything illegal. When DeepSeek is slow, the same account has GLM, Kimi, Claude, and the rest. If a ban is your reason, pick a model from a company the ban doesn't name, within your employer's rules.

Your chat history stays in your browser, encrypted, and is locked when you sign out. Morse doesn't train AI on your chats, sell your data, or show ads (privacy policy), and since it doesn't store chats, it usually has very little to give authorities. Clearing your browser deletes your history for good, so copy anything you need to keep.

As of October 27, 2026, Free costs nothing, needs no card, and includes GLM 5.3 Flash within 15 messages a day. Pro, at $19 a month or $17 billed yearly, adds DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, E2EE chats, and unfiltered models. Morse is for adults only.

Choose DeepSeek or Morse

• Choose DeepSeek if you want DeepSeek's newest build in DeepSeek's own app, DeepThink and Search as DeepSeek designed them, and its phone apps, and you're comfortable with your chats stored in China.
• Choose Morse if you want DeepSeek's model without a DeepSeek account, other models from Kimi to Claude in the same account for when DeepSeek refuses or stalls, E2EE for your most private chats, and history that stays encrypted on your device.

How we compared them

We read every page linked above on October 27, 2026, counted incidents in the history feed of DeepSeek's status page, and read the web app's messages from the code DeepSeek's site serves. We took each company at its written word. We didn't test refusals, speed, or uptime ourselves.

Try a message from the Morse home page without an account, or start free and run DeepSeek on Pro when you're ready.

Morse publishes this comparison. We've tried to keep it fair; if something's wrong or out of date, email hello@trymorse.ai.

DeepSeek is a trademark of Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co., Ltd. Morse is not affiliated with or endorsed by Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co., Ltd.