| Capability | Cloud AI (ChatGPT, Claude) | Enterprise Appliance | Sovereign ATX |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data leaves your building | ✗ Yes — every prompt sent to provider data centers | ✓ No — on-prem processing | ✓ No — hardware in your building, zero egress |
| Monthly cost (10 users) | $200–600/mo (per-seat pricing) | $3,000–10,000+/mo (enterprise contracts) | $2,500/mo flat — unlimited users |
| Hardware ownership | ✗ You own nothing | ✗ Vendor-owned appliance, returned on cancellation | ✓ Buy option available — you own the hardware outright |
| Contract required | Monthly (consumer) / Annual+ (enterprise) | ✗ Multi-year contracts typical | ✓ Month-to-month — cancel anytime |
| Deployment time | ✓ Minutes (sign up online) | Under 24 hours (claimed) | ✓ Same day — ships pre-configured, plug in and go |
| Model auditability | ✗ Proprietary — can't inspect weights or architecture | ✗ Proprietary firmware — can't inspect what's running | ✓ Open-weight models — SHA-256 verifiable against public source |
| Vendor lock-in | ✗ Total dependency on provider | ✗ Proprietary hardware — useless without vendor | ✓ Zero — if we disappear, hardware keeps running |
| Works offline | ✗ No — requires internet | Partial — may need connectivity for licensing/updates | ✓ Full air-gap capable — disconnect ethernet, it keeps running |
| Customizable models | ✗ No — use what they offer | ✗ Limited — vendor-selected models only | ✓ Any open-weight model — swap models in minutes |
| Formal certifications (SOC 2) | ✓ SOC 2, ISO 27001 (major providers) | ✓ SOC 2, compliance frameworks | ⟡ Not yet — on our roadmap. You can audit everything yourself today. |
| Encryption | Provider-managed (AES-256, TLS 1.3) | ✓ AES-256 at rest, TLS 1.3 in transit | ✓ AES-256 (FileVault) + TLS 1.3 + WireGuard |
| Support model | Email/chat — ticket-based | Enterprise — dedicated CSM | ✓ Founder-direct — text, call, email Kavin directly |
Summary
Who wins where.
☁️ Cloud AI
Best at- Instant setup — sign up and go
- Latest frontier models immediately
- Global availability / CDN
- Established certifications
- Your data leaves your building
- Per-seat pricing scales badly
- Zero hardware ownership
- Total vendor dependency
🏭 Enterprise Appliance
Best at- Formal certifications (SOC 2)
- Enterprise sales process / procurement
- Dedicated account management
- $3,000–10,000+/month
- Multi-year contracts
- Proprietary black-box hardware
- Can't inspect models or firmware
- Vendor lock-in — hardware is useless without them
⚡ Sovereign ATX
Best at- Total data privacy — verified by architecture
- Hardware ownership (buy option)
- Open source — audit everything
- No vendor lock-in
- Flat pricing — unlimited users
- Same-day deployment
- Month-to-month — no contract
- Founder-direct support
- No SOC 2 yet (on roadmap)
- No formal pen test report yet
- Founder-stage company (est. 2026)
⟡ What we don't have yet — and why it's okay.
We don't have SOC 2 certification. We don't have a formal penetration testing report. We're a founder-deployed service, not a 500-person enterprise vendor.
Here's why we think that's actually a strength for most SMBs: SOC 2 certifies that a cloud provider follows processes to protect your data on their servers. You're trusting their report. With Sovereign ATX, your data is on your hardware, in your building, on a network only your devices can access. You don't need to trust a report — you can tcpdump the network interface and verify it yourself.
Every component of our stack is open source. Your IT team can inspect everything today. No black boxes. No "trust us" — verify us.