Dia is the better app overall, scoring 8.1 to 7.5. Dia wins on 4 of the 5 scores, DeepSeek on 1.
Office workers who juggle email, docs and meetings in the browser
Students and developers who want strong reasoning help for free
Score by score
The details
| Feature | Dia | DeepSeek |
|---|---|---|
| Category | AI Assistants | AI Assistants |
| Category rank | #12 of 16 | #16 of 16 |
| Developer | The Browser Company | DeepSeek |
| Pricing | Free + paid plans | Free |
| Usable for free | Yes | Yes |
| iPhone & iPad | — | ✓ |
| Android | — | ✓ |
| Mac | ✓ | — |
| Windows | ✓ | — |
| Web | — | ✓ |
Common questions
Is Dia better than DeepSeek?
Dia is the better app overall, scoring 8.1 to 7.5. Dia wins on 4 of the 5 scores, DeepSeek on 1.
Which is cheaper, Dia or DeepSeek?
Dia: Free browser has no AI; Better Answers is $10 a month and Better Days $100. DeepSeek: Free app and website; developers pay separately for the API. On value for money, DeepSeek scores higher.
Do Dia and DeepSeek work on the same devices?
Only Dia runs on Mac, Windows. Only DeepSeek runs on iPhone & iPad, Android, Web.
Which is more private, Dia or DeepSeek?
Dia scores higher on privacy (8.2/10). History, chats and files are encrypted on your device, and Sync is end-to-end encrypted. AI partners can't train on your data. Dia keeps some unlinked content 30 days to improve itself unless you opt out.
Strengths and weaknesses
Dia
- Calm, uncluttered design from the makers of Arc
- Data is stored and encrypted on your device
- AI partners are barred from training on your data
- New users' free plan has no AI features
- Better Days plan costs $100 a month
- Windows version is still an early build
Dia comes from the team behind Arc and puts an AI chat beside your tabs that can read what's open and pull in context from Slack, Notion and Teams. Its Morning Brief, meeting prep and deck building are aimed squarely at office work. Privacy is better than most AI browsers, with your data stored on your device. Since August 2026, though, new users get no AI on the free plan, and the Windows version is still young.
Full Dia review
DeepSeek
- Strong reasoning and coding help for free
- Reads pictures and very long documents
- Open models you can run yourself
- Your data is stored on servers in China
- Can't make images, and has few extras beyond chat
DeepSeek gives you strong reasoning and coding help for free. Its open-weight models use the MIT license, so anyone can run them. Expert mode takes on harder problems, and web search is built in. The app now reads photos and very long documents. It's still basic next to paid rivals and can't make images. Its privacy policy says data is stored in China, and several governments limit it on official devices.
Full DeepSeek review
