AI · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to MacWhisper
High quality text transcription with OpenAI's whisper on Mac
Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Prices are shown for the 3 we have checked on their own sites, 3 of them free or with a free tier. MacWhisper launched in 2023; newer entries below may have overtaken it.
- 1
superwhisper▲274Extremely accurate, AI powered voice-to-text for macOS
2023 · superwhisper.com · its alternatives →
- 2
WhisperWizard▲149Speech to text with smarter transcription
2024 · whisperwizard.com · its alternatives →
- 3
Local transcripts with speaker labels, timestamps, + export
Dec 2025 · whispersnapper.com · its alternatives →
- 4
Extremely accurate, AI powered voice-to-text
2024 · superwhisper.com · its alternatives →
- 5
I wanted a voice-to-text app but didn't trust any of the proprietary ones with my privacy. So I decided to see if I could vibe code it with 0 macOS app & Swift experience. It uses a local binary of whisper.cpp (a fast implementation of OpenAI's Whisper voice-to-text model in C++). Github: https://github.com/richardwu/openwhisper I also decided to take this as an opportunity to compare 3 agentic coding harnesses: Cursor w/ Opus 4.6: - Best one-shot UI by far - Didn't get permissioning correct - Had issues making the "Cancel recording" hotkey being turned on all the…
Feb 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 6
Supercharge your transcription workflow using OpenAI Whisper
2023 · store.getwavery.com · its alternatives →
- 7
Whisper Notes▲115Offline AI Speech to Text Transcription for iOS & macOS
2025 · whispernotes.app · its alternatives →
- 8
GoWhisper▲150Cross-platform, privacy-first audio transcription app
2023 · gowhisper.io · its alternatives →
- 9
HyNote for Mac▲368Free local transcription that is 100% Private
Aug 2026 · hynote.ai · its alternatives →
- 10
Transcribe & summarize looooong voice memos
2025 · macwhisper.com · its alternatives →
- 11
AI Audio Kit▲92Easy audio transcription from your macOS desktop
2024 · aiaudiokit.pages.dev · its alternatives →
- 12
Silkwavefree tier, from $19.99/mo▲104AI transcription app and note taker for macOS. Record meetings, lectures, and podcasts or import audio files you already have, transcribe in 10+ languages using on-device Apple models, see who said what with on-device speaker identification, get ChatGPT-powered summaries, and chat with your recordin
Jan 2026 · silkwave.ai · its alternatives →
- 13
Hey HN, I built superwhisper out of frustration with the native dictation capabilities of macOS. Inaccurate, required manual punctuation, didnt activate in some contexts or would have audio capture issues. I wanted a replacement that worked offline, had cross language support, was configurable and worked in any application. Under the hood the app is using whisper.cpp, which runs really well on the Apple Silicon chips. You can use the base and standard size models for free, larger models sizes and languages other than english are paid. Let me know what you think! For context, I launched this…
2023 · superwhisper.com · its alternatives →
- 14
Schibsted created a transcription service for our journalists to transcribe audio interviews and podcasts really quick.
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 15
I was laid off recently and, instead of looking for another job right away, I decided to build something I always wanted: a transcription tool that respects user privacy. Existing transcription tools often require internet connectivity, send your private audio to cloud servers, or lock you into monthly subscriptions. I wanted something different—so I built WhisperBuddy, a privacy-first AI transcription app that runs entirely on your machine. WhisperBuddy uses OpenAI’s Whisper model (see: https://github.com/openai/whisper). While the model may not always deliver the…
2025 · whisperbuddy.com · its alternatives →
- 16
Dictatofree tier, from $20.82/mo▲93I built a macOS dictation app where everything runs on-device. Transcription, auto-correct, translation. No audio or text leaves your machine. It ships with 4 transcription engines you can swap between: WhisperKit (99 languages), NVIDIA Parakeet TDT 0.6B (25 European languages, fastest of the bunch), Qwen3-ASR 0.6B (30 languages), and Apple Speech on macOS 26+. They all run through CoreML/Metal. Whisper is the most versatile, Parakeet wins on raw latency for European languages, Qwen3 does better with CJK. I went with a protocol-based architecture so you pick the engine that fits your…
Feb 2026 · dicta.to · its alternatives →
- 17
Walkie▲228Dictation + meetings + read aloud in one app on-device
Apr 2026 · trywalkie.com · its alternatives →
- 18
Free AI transcription: convert video and audio to text, translate into 120 languages, download SRT, VTT, ASS or TXT, or export the video with subtitles on it.
2022 · freesubtitles.ai · its alternatives →
- 19
Yapfree▲140Open-source voice dictation for Mac, fully on-device
Jul 2026 · frigade.com · its alternatives →
- 20
Aloud▲118Turn spoken feedback into tasks your coding agent can run
Aug 2026 · aloud.sh · its alternatives →
- 21
Hey HN! I wanted to share this OSS project I've been working on. It's called Yap and its a small menu-bar app for macOS that does voice to text for any input. You'll set a hotkey, press it, talk, press it again, and the text gets pasted into whatever field you were in. Everything runs locally and never leaves your computer. Fully OSS and MIT licensed. With macOS 26, Apple recently added two new APIs, SpeechAnalyzer and SpeechTranscriber, that do streaming on-device speech to text using models the OS ships and manages. So the app ships no model of its own and loads nothing before the first…
Jul 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 22
Record voice memos on iPhone or Apple Watch and get AI transcriptions and summaries delivered to your email. The best voice to text app for capturing ideas on the go.
2022 · whispermemos.com · its alternatives →
- 23
AI Transcribe▲136Easily transcribe & translate lectures and meetings
2025 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →
- 24
Free, local voice-to-text transcription using OpenAI Whisper
Mar 2026 · overseedai.github.io · its alternatives →
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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 →