Common questions answered

We can expand what you have. If you start with one tool and add another later, we build on top of what's already there. No need to rip everything out and start over. There's a cost for the new tool, but it's clean.

Optional support ($200–$500 a month, depending on what you need) covers: making it faster, security updates, fixing problems, and quick response if something breaks. Some teams don't need it once things are stable. Others like having us around. Your choice.

Not really — every project is different. A law firm and a healthcare provider need different setups even for the same tools (different rules). We quote based on what you actually need. Contact us for a free conversation about your situation.

Everything keeps running. You own the hardware and the setup. If you need updates or repairs, you'll need someone to maintain it, but the software isn't locked down. We bet on staying useful — we don't trap you.

Maybe not. A lot of existing servers (even used ones) work fine for light AI tasks. We'll check what you have during the scoping call. If it's not strong enough, we'll help you pick affordable hardware. You own whatever you buy.

Usually 2–4 weeks. We handle hardware setup, OS configuration, tool installation, hooking everything together, testing, and training your team. Bigger or custom jobs might take longer. We'll give you realistic timelines upfront.

If it's our fault, we fix it free during the first 90 days. After that, optional support covers it. If the hardware dies, that's on you (but we can help you find a replacement). Most hardware lasts 5+ years if it has good power and cooling.

Technically yes — you could run Raven on AWS or Azure. But then you're paying cloud costs, you lose the privacy advantage, and you're back to needing internet. That defeats the point of Raven. If you need the cloud, we can talk about hybrid setups.

Everything still works. All the AI processing happens right on your machine. You lose email and things that need the web, but your core tools keep going. This is huge for businesses where an outage costs thousands an hour.

Electricity is the main cost—around $100–$300 a month depending on your hardware and how much you use it. No software fees after setup. Updates and maintenance are free. Optional support adds $200–$500/month if you want it.

Depends on what you need. Light work (search, sorting stuff)? A $5K server works. Heavy work (training, real-time processing)? You'll need $15K–$50K in hardware. We'll tell you exactly what you need before you commit.

You can upgrade the hardware — add RAM, swap in a better GPU, add more machines. These are standard IT moves, not vendor lock-in. We'll guide you and can help with the installation.

Nowhere. It all stays on your hardware, in your office or data center. We don't copy it, store it, or send it anywhere. Period. (We log errors and performance stuff for support, but with strict limits on how long we keep it.)

By default, yes — because your data never leaves your building, HIPAA and GDPR compliance is much simpler. We build in encryption at rest and in transit, and we can help with audit trails. For SOC 2, that depends on your overall setup; we can work with your auditors.

Only if you give us permission for support. We don't have secret backdoors. If you want no remote access, you handle all updates and fixes yourself. Most teams give us limited, logged access for emergencies.

We push security patches as soon as they're ready (usually within 48 hours). If you're on support, we install them. If not, you'll patch manually. Either way, you're not waiting for a vendor to fix something in the cloud.

Yes. We can hook it into most APIs (Slack, Zapier, custom webhooks, databases). If Raven needs to send results to your CRM or grab documents from your file server, that's part of setup.

Open-source models (Llama, Mistral, others) run on your hardware. Paid APIs (like Claude) work through your own credentials with zero data sent to us. We'll recommend what fits your use case during scoping.

Absolutely. Your data is already on your hardware. We'll help you move it to a new system if you need to. No lock-in. You own everything.

Raven Quill is our document editor — think of it like Google Docs but running on your own machine. Create, format, and organize documents with full rich text editing. Export to HTML or plain text. Everything stays on your computer, offline-first.

Raven Grid is our spreadsheet application — full spreadsheet capabilities on your hardware. Build spreadsheets, run formulas, analyze data. Export to CSV, TSV, or plain text. No cloud syncing, no unexpected changes. Just straightforward spreadsheet work.

Raven Deck is our presentation tool — build presentations right on your computer. Multiple slide layouts, professional themes, intuitive slide builder. Export as HTML or JSON. Present offline, never worry about internet connectivity.

Absolutely. They're designed to work independently but share the same environment. You can have a document, spreadsheet, and presentation all running on the same system. They work together cleanly without conflicts.

Functionally similar, fundamentally different. Google's tools track you, live in the cloud, and require internet. Raven's tools run offline-first on your hardware, don't track anything, and give you complete control. Same workflow, zero surveillance.

You can export and import — Quill exports HTML, Grid exports CSV, Deck exports HTML/JSON. So a Grid export can become a table in a Quill document or included in a Deck presentation. Not automatic syncing, but clean data flow.

Raven Vault is an optional cloud backup service that automatically encrypts and backs up your Raven documents, spreadsheets, and presentations to our secure servers. It's the peace-of-mind layer — you work locally offline-first, Vault protects your data automatically.

Computers fail. Hard drives die, ransomware happens, fires and floods occur. Vault backs up your work automatically every day, encrypted, so you never lose a critical document. It's insurance — you hope you never need it, but you're protected if you do.

Yes. Vault uses military-grade 256-bit AES encryption, both in transit and at rest. Your encryption keys are managed separately from your data, so even we can't decrypt your files without your permission. It's true end-to-end encryption.

Every day automatically. Changes sync in the background when your computer is online. You don't have to think about it — set it up once and Vault handles the rest. If your computer goes offline, it syncs when you reconnect.

Completely. You can access your backed-up files from the Vault dashboard on any device — download them, view them, or restore them to your original computer. Full version history for the last 30 days, so you can recover an older version if needed.

Vault is $10–$50 a month depending on storage amount. 100GB is $10/month, 1TB is $30/month, 5TB is $50/month. One-time setup fee is $0 — it's ready to go. You can cancel anytime; your files stay on your computer.

No. Your original files stay on your computer. When you cancel, your cloud backups stay encrypted in our servers for 90 days — you can restore them during that time. After 90 days, they're deleted. You're never locked in.

Vault backs up files created in all three tools. Whether you use them locally on one machine or across multiple computers, Vault keeps everything protected and synced.

Completely optional. Raven works standalone without Vault — your files stay on your computer, zero cloud involvement. Vault is for teams that want automatic encrypted backups. Choose what works for you.