We ship & support it · nothing leaves your network
FileFerret is private AI search across your firm’s documents, images, audio, and video — delivered as a turnkey appliance we ship, install, and support for years. Search by meaning, ask questions and get cited answers, without a single client file ever leaving your network.
Live demo available on request.
Shipped, installed & supported. Indexing, search, and AI all run on a private appliance on your premises.
What self-hosting solves
A stack of regulations makes you responsible for vetting and certifying every vendor your client data passes through — and every one of their subprocessors. FileFerret keeps the data on a box you control, so the third parties — and the obligations that come with them — simply aren’t there.
Put client data in the cloud and it flows through hosting providers, AI vendors, and their subprocessors — and the rules make you responsible for diligencing and contractually binding every link in that chain. On a FileFerret appliance there is no chain: the data never leaves your network, so there is nothing — and no one — to certify.
Anyone who touches protected health information has to be under a signed agreement, and so does every one of their subcontractors. Self-hosting keeps PHI inside your walls, so there is no business associate to contract with, audit, or be breached on your behalf.
Defense and controlled-data mandates restrict where data may live, who may access it, and forbid uncertified or foreign-hosted clouds. Running on a box you physically control satisfies the boundary by construction — no cloud authorization package to inherit or maintain.
Professional-conduct and safeguards rules require reasonable efforts to protect client information and to supervise any third party who handles it. With no third party in the loop, the supervision obligation is satisfied at the root rather than managed vendor by vendor.
Regulations are named for orientation only and vary by jurisdiction, data type, and engagement; this is not legal advice. Confirm your obligations with counsel.
Why this matters
Consumer and cloud AI tools are powerful — but using them on confidential client material means handing that material to someone else. Here is what that exposes a firm to, and how an on-premises appliance we ship and support removes each risk at the root.
How we compare
How FileFerret stacks up against the tools firms usually weigh it against — public cloud AI, cloud eDiscovery and review platforms, and cloud document management. Representative products are named for orientation only.
| Capability | FileFerret Shipped & supported | Public cloud AI ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini | Cloud eDiscovery Relativity, Everlaw, DISCO | Cloud document mgmt iManage, NetDocuments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs on-premises on hardware we ship you | Yes | No | No | No |
| No client file ever leaves your network | Yes | No | No | No |
| Semantic search with cited answers | Yes | Yes | Partial | Partial |
| Searches audio & video (transcribed) | Yes | Partial | Partial | No |
| Your files never train the vendor’s models | Yes | No | Partial | Partial |
| Per-client ethical walls & full audit log | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Vendor can support the box but can’t read your files | Yes | No | No | No |
| You choose the offsite backup location | Yes | No | No | No |
| Keeps working during internet or vendor outages | Yes | No | No | No |
| No per-seat, usage, or pay-as-you-go metering | Yes | No | No | No |
| Typical pricing model | Fixed monthly — hardware + software, shipped & supported | Subscription + per-use token fees | Per-matter + per-GB hosting + seats | Per-seat subscription + storage |
Comparison reflects the standard, publicly documented offerings of representative products and is provided for general guidance; specific plans and configurations vary. All product names are trademarks of their respective owners.
How it works
We deliver a preconfigured FileFerret appliance to your office and point it at the documents, images, audio, and video on the storage you already run — all inside your own network.
Staff search by meaning or ask questions in plain language, and get answers drawn from your files with every source cited.
Indexing, search, and analysis all run on-premises. No client file is ever sent to an outside cloud or AI service.
Capabilities
Find by meaning, not just keywords.
Ask in plain language and get back the documents that actually match the idea — ranked by similarity, across every file you have indexed, with keyword and wildcard filters when you need precision.
Learn more →Answers you can trace back to the source.
Pose a question over a matter and get a written answer assembled from your own files — every claim linked to the exact document and passage it came from, so nothing is taken on faith.
Learn more →Documents, images, audio, and video — searchable.
FileFerret reads far more than text. Scanned pages are run through OCR, recordings and video are transcribed, and images are described — so a phrase buried in a voicemail or a scanned exhibit is just as findable as one in a Word file.
Learn more →Gather, tag, and export your findings.
Turn a search into a case file. Group results into named projects, flag the files that matter with an interest score and a note, and export the tagged set as a clean spreadsheet for review or discovery.
Learn more →Per-client collections, access you control.
Each client’s material lives in its own collection. Administrators decide exactly which staff can reach which client, so a search never crosses a boundary it should not.
Learn more →A complete record of who did what.
Every login, search, file open, and admin action is written to an activity log you can review — the kind of accountability your clients, insurers, and regulators expect of a firm holding their most sensitive material.
Learn more →Ask & analyze
Pose a question over an entire matter and FileFerret assembles the answer from your own documents — with every statement linked back to the exact file and passage it came from. It reads scanned exhibits, transcribes recordings, and never sends a word to an outside service.
See it in action
Who it’s for
Discovery, depositions & privilege — handled in-house
Search a matter’s entire record and get cited answers, without a single privileged file leaving your office.
See how it helps Legal →Every workpaper, return & client note — instantly findable
Put years of client records within instant reach of your staff, while sensitive financials stay on a private appliance we ship and support.
See how it helps CPA →Survive tax season with every document one search away
From organizers to signed 8879s, find the right client document instantly — without sending a single return to the cloud.
See how it helps Tax →Find your CUI before your assessor does
Scan the shares you already have, see exactly where Controlled Unclassified Information lives, and keep the whole search on hardware you control.
See how it helps Defense →We’ll scope your firm’s needs, ship and install a private FileFerret appliance, train your team, and support you for years to come. No client data leaves your office — ever.