AI · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to 100% open-source voice assistant – as a HAL9000
It started in 2018 with my first 3D printer and some openscad designs - just something that looks like a HAL9000 (and had a controlled red LED for the visuals) - it ended up being a full software-project...that hasn't ended yet. But: it is at a (quality-)point at which I am OK with putting it up on stage. My project goals: A digital voice-assistant that is... - actually usable (response times, error rates, ...) - performs everything on-device ("look ma, no cloud") - is entirely Free/Libre Open-Source-Software - is as-easy-as-possible to build I consider all four goals to be accomplished…
This project is an open-source voice assistant designed to resemble HAL9000, offering fully on-device processing without cloud dependency. Built entirely with free and open-source software, it prioritizes usability… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. 100% open-source voice assistant – as a HAL9000 launched in 2024; newer entries below may have overtaken it.
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A fast, open-source voice assistant powered by Groq, Cartesia, and Vercel.
2024 · swift-ai.vercel.app · its alternatives →
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Hey HN! Braden here, creator of Whispering, an open-source speech-to-text app. I really like dictation. For years, I relied on transcription tools that were almost good, but they were all closed-source. Even a lot of them that claimed to be “local” or “on-device” were still black boxes that left me wondering where my audio really went. So I built Whispering. It’s open-source, local-first, and most importantly, transparent with your data. Your data is stored locally on your device, and your audio goes directly from your machine to a local provider (Whisper C++, Speaches, etc.) or your chosen…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
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I've been obsessed for the past ~year with the possibilities of talking to LLMs. I built a bunch of one-off prototypes, shared code on X, started a Meetup group in SF, and co-hosted a big hackathon. It turns out that there are a few low-level problems that everybody building conversational/real-time AI needs to solve on the way to building/shipping something that works well: low-latency media transport, echo cancellation, voice activity detection, phrase endpointing, pipelining data between models/services, handling voice interruptions, swapping out different…
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
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A few years ago, right after high school, I decided to try to make a simultaneous translation app for Android as a side project, it took longer than expected (about 2 years) and I had to make a lot of compromises (I had to use Google's API and therefore make users use a developer key because at the time there were no free solutions for speech recognition and translation that had good quality). At the end of university, I decided to pick it up again and finally, using OpenAi's Whisper for speech recognition and Meta's NLLB for translation (with both running locally on the phone), I managed to…
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
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As the Home Assistant project says, it's the year of voice! I love Home Assistant and I've always thought the ESP BOX[0] hardware is cool. I finally got around to starting a project to use the ESP BOX hardware with Home Assistant and other platforms. Why? - It's actually "Alexa/Echo competitive". Wake word detection, voice activity detection, echo cancellation, automatic gain control, and high quality audio for $50 means with Willow and the support of Home Assistant there are no compromises on looks, quality, accuracy, speed, and cost. - It's cheap. With a touch LCD display, dual…
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
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The open-source framework for real-time AI voice
2025 · videosdk.live · its alternatives →
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Welcome to Project S.A.T.U.R.D.A.Y. This is a project that allows anyone to easily build their own self-hosted J.A.R.V.I.S-like voice assistant. In my mind vocal computing is the future of human-computer interaction and by open sourcing this code I hope to expedite us on that path. I have had a blast working on this so far and I'm excited to continue to build with it. It uses whisper.cpp [1], Coqui TTS [2] and OpenAI [3] to do speech-to-text, text-to-text and text-to-speech inference all 100% locally (except for text-to-text). In the future I plan to swap out OpenAI for llama.cpp [4]. It is…
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Voiceflow▲607Build voice apps in your browser without coding
2019 · voiceflow.com · its alternatives →
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Our goal with this project is to build a completely open source, state of the art turn detection model that can be used in any voice AI application. I've been experimenting with LLM voice conversations since GPT-4 was first released. (There's a previous front page Show HN about Pipecat, the open source voice AI orchestration framework I work on. [1]) It's been almost two years, and for most of that time, I've been expecting that someone would "solve" turn detection. We all built initial, pretty good 80/20 versions of turn detection on top of VAD (voice activity detection) models. And…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
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Whispering▲195Open-source, local-first dictation you can trust
2025 · epicenter.so · its alternatives →
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Voxos is an open-source desktop voice assistant that aims to put Clippy to shame while supporting new desktop workflows powered by LLMs. Tired of copy and pasting ChatGPT responses between your web browser and IDE? Does your copilot not quite do what you need it to do? I invite you to give Voxos a try and maybe even become a contributor!
2024 · gitlab.com · its alternatives →
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AI Voice assistant in 3 minutes. Built for non-developers
Nov 2025 · klariqo.com · its alternatives →
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OpenWispr▲190100% local open source AI speech-to-text model
2025 · openwhispr.com · its alternatives →
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Hi HN! Last year the project I launched here got a lot of good feedback on creating speech to speech AI on the ESP32. Recently I revamped the whole stack, iterated on that feedback and made our project fully open-source—all of the client, hardware, firmware code. This Github repo turns an ESP32-S3 into a realtime AI speech companion using the OpenAI Realtime API, Arduino WebSockets, Deno Edge Functions, and a full-stack web interface. You can talk to your own custom AI character, and it responds instantly. I couldn't find a resource that helped set up a reliable, secure websocket (WSS) AI…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
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VISEO Bot Maker▲150Create chatbots and vocal apps in just a few clicks
2017 · bot.viseo.io · its alternatives →
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Voicebun▲189Hey HN, I built Voicebun as a pet project because I was frustrated with how locked-down and rigid voice agents still are—many tools are either closed platforms, lack deep customization, or charge a lot just to test ideas. I wanted a way to quickly spin up AI voice agents that I could fully control—from the voice itself to the logic behind every word. Voicebun is an open-source voice agent builder. You can: - Clone voices and generate audio using your own scripts and prompts - Dynamically change prompts based on user input - Add custom logic through functions and webhooks (e.g. hit an API,…
2025 · voicebun.com · its alternatives →
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Stet▲68Smart open-source dictation that sounds like you, not AI.
Apr 2026 · stet.me · its alternatives →
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Edith▲86An open-source voice assistant for vscode
2020 · marketplace.visualstudio.com · its alternatives →
Also compare
- A fast OSS voice assistant alternatives
- Whispering – Open-source, local-first dictation you can trust alternatives
- An open source framework for voice assistants alternatives
- I made an open source and local translation app alternatives
- Willow – Open-source privacy-focused voice assistant hardware alternatives
- OpenAI GPT-4o Audio Models alternatives
Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →