Alternatives
Products that do what Open-source macOS dictation replacement, 5Mb does
I wanted Whisper-level dictation on my Intel 2020 iMac without: * paying a monthly fee for the privilege of using my own API key, * hauling an 800 MB local model, or * copy-paste gymnastics from a floating window. So I built VTS (Voice Typing Studio). What it is: * 5 MB notarised menu-bar app. Press a toggle hot-key → talk → text lands wherever the cursor is. * Bring-your-own OpenAI / Groq key. Nothing touches my servers. * Universal binary – runs on Intel and Apple silicon. * MIT-licensed; core stays free/open. If future features justify it, a pro tier may appear. Repo, DMG, and…
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Hello all, I made a small transcription app for your Mac based on OpenAI’s Whisper. Would love some feedback. My plan is to make it easy to load weights from any fine-tuned whisper model to enable specialized dictation for any subfield. It’s still early in development. Thanks!
2023 · twitter.com
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Hi HN, I'm a longtime web dev, but this is my first macOS app. Feedback is very welcome <3 I built TongueType because every dictation app I tried failed at least one of three things: it sent my audio to someone's cloud, it charged me monthly fee, or it felt clunky or enterprisy. The cloud thing kills it for anything sensitive. The subscription thing is insulting for what amounts to "Whisper + a hotkey." TongueType runs Whisper locally on Apple Silicon via CoreML. It's built to feel like a second keyboard: tap the hotkey, talk, let go, words appear. It sits in the menu bar (no dock icon, no…
May 2026 · tonguetype.app
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I built Open WhisperScribe after struggling with the complexity, paywalls, or limitations of most speech-to-text tools for macOS and elsewhere. My main requirements were: Simple, <5-min setup Runs fully offline, locally (no data leaves your machine) Works seamlessly in any app — just press a hotkey, speak, and your words appear where your cursor is (code editors, terminal, you name it) Fast and distraction-free It uses OpenAI’s Whisper model under the hood, but wraps it in a lightweight CLI tool that sits quietly in the background. The project is open source (Apache 2.0). Setup is a single…
2025 · github.com
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I built FnScribe because I'm pretty privacy concious and wanted a wispr flow-like app that kept everything local and on device. Currently works for Mac (sillicon and intel). It's dead simple. Hold the fn key, speak and release. I use a quantized Wisper small.en model for transcription. It inserts the text into the active application. There's also a hands-free model for longer dictation. Audio transcription is kept in memory. There's no account or transcription history. Clipboard contents are restored after it inserts it. GPLv3, Mac-only, English only..still in alpha. Hope you enjoy it! Would…
9d ago · github.com
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Over the last couple of months I have designed and written Keys, a Mac application the helps learning typing and that is supposed to meet Mac users standards for a well-designed application. My goal is to become a micro-ISV or indie developer. The app is only in the Mac app store for now (no trial yet), since end of May, and I have been busy putting together a website and a personal blog since. I would be very interested what the HN community thinks about the application, how you like it, and how it is presented, from a business angle. Prior to this project, I have done much more work on…
2012
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I built Whispering because I believe transcription is too fundamental a tool to be locked behind paywalls. It's a cross-platform desktop and web transcription app that turns speech into text with a keyboard shortcut, among other things. The app lets you bring your own API key (OpenAI, Groq, etc.) and make direct calls. If you want complete privacy, it also supports local transcription. Either way, your audio never goes through any middleman servers. It's super lightweight (~22MB), built with Svelte 5 and Tauri, and works on Mac, Windows, and Linux. I've been using it daily for the past few…
2025 · github.com
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Local-first dictation. Your voice never leaves your PC
Jul 2026 · hiventiq.ai
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Hey HN, I'm Josiah. We love voice dictation, but wanted an open source version for transparency, privacy, and something that everyone could contribute to. So we built Voquill, an open source alternative to WisprFlow, Monologue, and Willow. It lets you dictate into any desktop app. Press a hotkey, talk, text gets inserted. You can run Whisper locally, use our server, or wire up any provider you want (OpenAI, Claude, Groq, OpenRouter, whatever). You have full control over where your data goes. Runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Open source, AGPLv3, built with Tauri and Rust. We're working on a…
Feb 2026 · github.com
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I use dictation a lot for writing, notes, and prompting agents. After trying a bunch of dictation tools, I kept running into the same issues: recurring cost, unclear privacy/data handling, and not much control over how the final text was cleaned up. So I built Utter. The main idea is simple: it should work as both a fast dictation tool and a longer-form voice note / meeting capture tool, while still giving the user control over where processing happens and what the output looks like. A few things it does today: - global dictation with customizable shortcuts - saved modes for…
Mar 2026 · utter.to
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