My Wispr Flow trial ran out and I did not renew it. Not because it was bad. It is genuinely a good product. But paying 12-15 EUR a month to talk to my own computer felt wrong to me.
So I built Codictate instead. The full story is in Any language. Any application. Anytime., but the short version is: I wanted a Wispr Flow alternative for MacBook that was free, local, and open source. Now it exists.
Where they overlap
Both do the same core job. You speak, text appears where you are typing. Both work across apps on Mac. Both feel like native tools, not browser hacks.
If all you need is "speak and get text," either one works.
Where Codictate is different
It is free. No subscription, no trial, no account. Download, grant permissions, use it. The source is on GitHub if you want to read it first.
Everything stays on your Mac. Codictate runs on Apple Silicon using Parakeet TDT v3 (via Core ML) or Whisper. Your audio is processed locally on the Neural Engine. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Stream mode and translate mode. Wispr Flow does not have either of these. Stream mode lets you talk continuously and see words appear in real time, no micromanaging record and stop. Translate mode lets you speak in whatever language you think in and get English text on the page. Both run locally on your Mac.
You pick the model. Wispr Flow has its own pipeline. With Codictate you choose between Parakeet for stream dictation and Whisper for batch and translation. If a better model shows up tomorrow, it can be added without changing the product model.
The dictionary learns how you talk. This is the feature I did not expect to love. You add terms Codictate gets wrong (fuzzy match for proper nouns, exact replacements for abbreviations), and it corrects them going forward. Turn on auto-learn and it watches your post-dictation corrections and picks up patterns on its own. After a few days it starts nailing words it used to miss. Wispr Flow has its own correction features, but having a local dictionary that learns without uploading anything feels different.
What Wispr Flow does better (honest take)
Wispr Flow has been around longer. It has more polish in some areas, and if you are already paying for it and happy, switching might not be worth the effort for you.
But if the subscription is the thing that bugs you, or if you want your voice data to stay on your machine, or if you want to try stream dictation and translate mode without committing to a monthly payment, Codictate is built for exactly that.
Getting started
Press Option+Space, speak, press again. Works on MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and any Apple Silicon Mac.
Full setup guide: How To Use Dictation on Your Mac. More on why it is free: Free Dictation Tool for Mac.