5.1.2. Why run Galaxy on your computer?

Running Galaxy on your computer i.e., a local instance, has some advantages:

Data storage is local

— on your computer, whereas, if you use a public instance, it will be stored on a server, possibly unencrypted [2].

Access more tools

— that are not installed on public servers by installing them on your local instance.

CPU and storage limits

— are dependent on your computer, whereas on public servers, there are limits on CPU and storage usage per user [2].

[2] (1,2)

This is the case on https://usegalaxy.org — the main Galaxy instance. For more information, please read the https://galaxyproject.org/main/#user-data-and-job-quotas.