Ranking 2026 · As of October 10, 2026

Top 5 Typeless alternatives

Typeless is a dictation app that runs on five systems, Linux included: it drops filler words, matches the tone to the app and translates your speech into other languages. Still, many people look for alternatives, above all for privacy. Its own page says transcription is performed in the cloud, and your audio and bits of text from the screen go to its servers and to large language model providers such as OpenAI (the maker says it stores none of it). You also need an account, the free plan has a weekly word limit, and Pro costs $144 a year or $30 a month.

We put together the apps that really compete with Typeless for dictation on the Mac. We compared them only on their public pages and pricing (as of October 10, 2026): where your data goes, working offline and without an account, price, free plan, your own API keys, meetings, notes and languages. Here is the result.

Five apps to use instead of Typeless, in order.

  1. 1. Captylo

    Our product

    Captylo is a Mac app that puts privacy first. Speech recognition runs on your Mac, offline too, and your history with recordings, your meetings and your notes stay in a local database on your disk. In the Free plan nothing leaves your computer until you turn on the cloud yourself. There is no telemetry, and you do not even need an account.

    One app gives you dictation into any program, meeting notes without a bot and voice notes, Polish first, with English and 23 other European languages. Free has no word limit; with your own API key it also gives you the cloud and AI modes for dictation and AI in notes. Pro costs $84 a year (about $7 a month) or $9 a month and adds the cloud with no keys plus the meeting AI: notes with decisions and tasks, questions across all meetings and citations that play the recording. The Pro server streams the data and stores none of the content. The app is open source (GPLv3).

    Key features

    • Speech recognition on your Mac, works offline
    • A local database: history, recordings, meetings and notes on your disk
    • No account and no telemetry in the Free plan
    • Dictation into any Mac app with one hotkey
    • AI modes: cleanup, email, to-do list, English and your own
    • Meeting recording without a bot, a live transcript on your Mac
    • AI meeting notes and questions across all meetings (Pro)
    • Voice notes: a hotkey, dictating into a note, audio import
    • Search across meetings and notes
    • A local MCP server for your AI assistant
    Pricing:
    Free with no word limit and no account, forever. Pro $84 a year or $9 a month, 7 days of Pro free for a new account, no card.
    Best for:
    people who care about privacy: they write a lot, have meetings and want their recordings and notes to stay on their Mac.

    Why it is number 1 here

    • It recognises speech on your Mac, offline too. Typeless, by its own page, does it in the cloud.
    • Your recordings never have to pass through a server: your history with recordings, your meetings and your notes sit in a local database on your disk. With Typeless your audio and screen context go to the cloud, including large language model providers.
    • In Free nothing leaves your Mac until you turn on the cloud yourself. There is no telemetry, and the Pro server stores none of the content.
    • No account and no word limit in Free, instead of a required account and a weekly word limit.
    • More than dictation: meeting recording without a bot with a live transcript, voice notes, and in Pro AI meeting notes and questions across all your meetings.
    • Your own API key in Free (the cloud and AI modes for dictation, AI in notes) and a local MCP server for your AI assistant.
    • Polish is its first language, with English and 23 other European languages. Pro costs $84 a year instead of $144, and the app is open source (GPLv3).
  2. 2. Typeless

    Pro: $144 a year or $30 a month

    Typeless is a dictation app by Simply CA LLC, a US company based in Palo Alto. It runs on the Mac (Apple silicon and Intel), Windows, Linux, iOS and Android: you dictate into any app, and Typeless drops filler words and repetitions, keeps only your final version when you correct yourself mid-sentence and matches the tone to the app. Its own page says transcription is performed in the cloud: your audio and limited context from the screen are processed on its servers, with large language model providers such as OpenAI, and the maker says none of it is stored. The dictation history stays on the device unless you turn on cloud sync.

    The free plan has a weekly word limit that the pricing page gives no number for. Pro costs $12 per member a month billed yearly ($144) or $30 month to month and adds unlimited dictation, history sync across devices and team management; Enterprise is priced on request. You need an account. Typeless translates your speech into a language you pick and has Ask anything: editing selected text by voice, questions about selected text and quick answers from the web. There are no meeting notes.

    Key features

    • Dictation into any app on the Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android
    • Removes filler words and repetitions, formats lists and steps
    • Tone matched to the app and learning your writing style
    • Speech translation into a language you pick (Translate)
    • Ask anything: edit or ask about selected text, answers from the web
    • A personal dictionary that adds the words you correct

    Strengths

    • Five systems: Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android
    • The maker says audio is not stored and the history stays on the device
    • ISO 27001, GDPR and HIPAA; SSO, SCIM and a BAA in Enterprise
    • 50% off Pro for students

    Limits

    • Transcription in the cloud, with large language model providers involved
    • An account is required, the free plan has a weekly word limit
    • No meeting notes, no voice notes and no own API key
    • Its 100+ languages are not listed by name
    Pricing:
    Free with a weekly word limit; Pro $12 per member a month billed yearly ($144) or $30 a month; Enterprise on request; students 50% off.
    Best for:
    people who dictate on many systems, Linux included, often write in other languages and do not need meeting notes.

    When to stay with Typeless

    • You dictate on Windows, Linux, iPhone or Android, on an Intel Mac or on macOS older than 14.4.
    • You often write in other languages and want the app to translate your speech into the language you pick as you speak.
    • You want to ask about selected text, look up answers on the web and open pages by voice (Ask anything).
    • You roll dictation out to a team and need central billing, team usage analytics, SSO, SCIM or a BAA.

    Website: typeless.com · facts from the public offer, as of October 10, 2026

  3. 3. Wispr Flow

    Pro: $144 a year or $15 a month

    Wispr Flow is a dictation app by Wispr AI, a company based in San Francisco. It runs on the Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android: you dictate into any app, and Flow drops filler words, builds lists and matches the style to the app as you speak. Speech is always recognised in the cloud, so dictation needs an internet connection, and data is processed and stored in the US. Improving the models with user data is on by default in Free and Pro (you can turn it off).

    The free plan is 2,000 words a week on a computer and 1,000 on a phone. Pro costs $15 a month or $144 a year, and the Growth plans for teams start at $23 per seat a month. You need an account. Notetaker comes with it: it records meetings on the Mac and Windows without a bot, writes summaries and answers questions about your meetings. Meeting transcripts and summaries stay in Wispr’s cloud with no way to opt out, and the audio is deleted after 7 days.

    Key features

    • Dictation into any app on the Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android
    • Styles per app (English only) and context from the screen
    • A dictionary that learns names, and snippets
    • Command Mode and Transforms with your own prompts (beta)
    • Notetaker without a bot, with questions about meetings (Ask Wispr, beta)
    • A hosted MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Cursor

    Strengths

    • One account for the Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android
    • Team features: a shared dictionary, SAML SSO, SCIM, SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001
    • Meetings linked to your calendar and Slack, import from Granola and Otter

    Limits

    • Cloud only: no dictation without internet, data goes to the US
    • Improving the models with your data is on by default in Free and Pro
    • The free plan is 2,000 words a week on a computer, an account is required
    • No own API key and no audio file transcription
    • English-level quality is claimed for 7 other languages
    Pricing:
    Free 2,000 words a week; Pro $15 a month or $144 a year; Growth $23 or $33 a month per seat; Enterprise on request.
    Best for:
    teams that dictate on Macs, Windows PCs and phones, need admin controls, SSO and Slack, and are fine with working in the cloud.

    Website: wisprflow.ai · facts from the public offer, as of October 9, 2026

  4. 4. Willow Voice

    Pro: $144 a year or $15 a month

    Willow Voice is a dictation app by Willow Care. It runs on the Mac, Windows and iPhone (as a keyboard), with Android announced. You hold a key, speak, and Willow inserts formatted text at your cursor, drops filler words and matches the style to the app. Its AI writing feature drafts a message from a rough description, replies to the text on your screen and rewrites selected text on a spoken command. Speech is recognised in the cloud in the US by default; an on-device offline mode comes with Pro.

    The default Private Mode means neither Willow nor its providers keep your audio or dictated text, and your transcript history and recordings stay on your device. An account is required, and Willow collects usage data such as the number of words you dictate. The free plan is unlimited on a weaker model (Frontier Mini) with 20 AI writing uses a week. Pro costs $15 a month or $144 a year, Business $35 or $28 a month. Willow does not record meetings and has no separate voice notes.

    Key features

    • Dictation into any app on the Mac, Windows and iPhone
    • AI writing: a message from a rough description, replies with screen context, editing a selection by voice
    • Styles per app and a memory of your writing style
    • A dictionary that learns names, and text shortcuts
    • Private Mode by default and a local transcript history
    • An on-device offline mode in Pro

    Strengths

    • One account for the Mac, Windows and iPhone
    • By default it keeps no audio or text on its servers; improving the models only with your consent
    • For teams: SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA with a BAA, SSO/SAML and enforced Private Mode
    • Pro discounts for students, educators, nonprofits and veterans

    Limits

    • The cloud by default: offline mode only in Pro
    • An account is required, and it collects usage data (such as word counts)
    • Dictation only: no meeting recording, no voice notes, no file transcription
    • No own API key and no MCP server
    • The iPhone app is English only
    Pricing:
    Free unlimited on a weaker model, 20 AI writing uses a week; Pro $15 a month or $144 a year; Business $35 or $28 a month; Enterprise on request.
    Best for:
    people and teams who dictate on the Mac, Windows and iPhone, need only dictation and AI writing, and are fine with speech recognised in the cloud.

    Website: willowvoice.com · facts from the public offer, as of October 10, 2026

  5. 5. Aqua Voice

    Pro: $96 a year or $10 a month

    Aqua Voice is a dictation app by Aqua Voice, Inc., a US company from Y Combinator (Winter 2024). It runs on the Mac, Windows, iOS and, since October 2026, Android. Speech is recognised in the cloud by its own Avalon model, and on the Mac and Windows there is no offline mode. Polish is on its list of 49 languages, with the maker’s note that accuracy varies between languages.

    The free plan is 1,000 words in total, no card needed. Pro costs $10 a month or $8 billed yearly ($96), Max $30 or $24, and Business from $19 per seat. You need an account. Aqua can edit selected text by voice and has an MCP server, a CLI and an API. Privacy Mode is off by default, so transcripts may be stored to improve the product.

    Key features

    • Dictation into any app, its own Avalon model in the cloud
    • Editing selected text by voice (Edit Mode)
    • Custom instructions (Pro), Realtime and computer control (Max, beta)
    • An MCP server, a CLI and a speech-to-text API
    • Mac, Windows, iOS and Android

    Strengths

    • Runs on the Mac, Windows, iOS and Android
    • Polish is named on its list of languages
    • SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and HIPAA, 70% off for students

    Limits

    • The free plan is 1,000 words in total, not per month
    • Cloud only, no offline mode on the Mac and Windows
    • Privacy Mode is off by default
    • No meeting notes and no Polish interface
    Pricing:
    Free 1,000 words in total; Pro $10 a month ($8 billed yearly); Max $30 ($24 yearly); Business from $19 per seat.
    Best for:
    people who dictate on several systems, Windows and Android included, and do not need meeting notes.

    Website: aquavoice.com · facts from the public offer, as of October 9, 2026

Your data stays on your Mac.

In the Free plan nothing leaves your computer until you turn on the cloud yourself. Your history with recordings, your meetings and your notes sit in a local database on your disk, the app has no telemetry, and you do not even need an account.

That is what our privacy policy says

FeatureCaptyloTypeless
Speech recognised on your MacyesYes, by default; the cloud only if you turn it onnoNo: the maker says transcription is performed in the cloud
History, meetings and notes on your diskyesYes, in a local database on your diskpartlyHistory on the device (cloud sync optional in Pro); there are no meetings or notes
The maker keeps none of your contentyesYes: in Free nothing leaves your Mac, the Pro server stores none of the contentpartlyThe maker says audio and screen context are not stored, but they pass through its servers and AI providers
Works offlineyesYes, by defaultnoNo, transcription needs the cloud
Works without an accountyesYes, Free needs no accountnoNo, an account is required

Captylo and Typeless in detail.

Feature by feature, from the public pages of both apps.

FeatureCaptyloTypeless
Privacy and data
Speech recognised on your MacyesYes, by default; the cloud only if you turn it onnoNo: the maker says transcription is performed in the cloud
History, meetings and notes on your diskyesYes, in a local database on your diskpartlyHistory on the device (cloud sync optional in Pro); there are no meetings or notes
The maker keeps none of your contentyesYes: in Free nothing leaves your Mac, the Pro server stores none of the contentpartlyThe maker says audio and screen context are not stored, but they pass through its servers and AI providers
Works offlineyesYes, by defaultnoNo, transcription needs the cloud
Works without an accountyesYes, Free needs no accountnoNo, an account is required
Price
Paid planPro: $84 a year or $9 a monthPro: $144 a year or $30 a month per member
Free planyesNo word limit, foreverpartlyA weekly word limit, no number given
Dictation
Dictation into any appyesOne hotkey, text at your cursoryesMac, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android
Your own API key in the free planyesYes: cloud and AI modes for dictation, AI in notesnoNot offered on the pricing page or in the help centre
AI modes and your own promptsyesCleanup, email, to-do list, English and your ownyesA tone per app, translation, editing selected text by voice
Meetings and notes
Meeting recording without a botyesYes, with a live transcript on your Mac (Free)noNo
AI meeting notesyesIn Pro: decisions and tasks, 6 templatesnoNo
Questions across all meetingsyesIn Pro: one meeting or all, with sourcesnoNo
Citations that play the recordingyesIn Pro: [12:34] plays that momentnoNo
Voice notesyesA hotkey, dictating into a note, audio importnoNo; there is a dictation history with audio download
Polish
Polish speech recognitionyesYes, Polish is the first languagepartlyOver 100 languages with detection, Polish not named
Polish interfaceyesYes (and English)partlyOn desktop 58 interface languages (no list published), English only on iPhone
Openness and platforms
Access for your AI assistant (MCP)yesA local server: meetings and notes (Free)noNot on the pricing page or in the help centre
Open source appyesYes, GPLv3noNo
PlatformsmacOS 14.4+ (Apple silicon)macOS (Apple silicon and Intel), Windows, Linux, iOS 16.1+, Android

Facts about Typeless come from the maker's public website, as of October 10, 2026. Their offer may change; Captylo's is always current. typeless.com/pricing

Prices side by side.

Every plan from the public pricing pages, no asterisks.

Captylo

  • Free$0, foreverDictation and meetings on your Mac with no limit and no account, cloud and AI with your own key
  • Pro$84 a year or $9 a monthCloud and AI with no keys, the meeting AI, fair use: 20 h of cloud and 3 million AI tokens a month

Prices include VAT. A new account gets 7 days of Pro free, no card.

Typeless

  • Free$0Limited words each week, standard accuracy, standard access during high demand
  • Pro$12 per member a month billed yearly ($144) or $30 a monthUnlimited words, enhanced accuracy, history cloud sync, team management; students 50% off
  • EnterpriseOn requestSSO, SCIM, audit logs, enforced HIPAA controls and a BAA

From the public pricing page of Typeless, as of October 10, 2026. typeless.com/pricing

What a year costs.

The same year of work, in US dollars.

  1. Captylo Free$0 a year
  2. Captylo Pro, yearly$84 a year
  3. Typeless Pro, yearly$144 a year
  4. Typeless Pro, monthly$360 a year

Prices from the public pricing pages, as of October 10, 2026.

Questions we hear most.

Short and concrete, from the public pages of both apps.

What is the best Typeless alternative?

If privacy matters to you, the strongest candidate is Captylo: speech recognition on your Mac, your history, meetings and notes in a local database, a free plan with no word limit and no account, and Pro for $84 a year. Also worth a look: Wispr Flow (meeting notes too, four systems), Willow (Mac, Windows and iPhone) and Aqua Voice (Windows and Android too).

Does Captylo send my recordings to the cloud?

Not unless you turn it on. In the Free plan speech recognition, your history with recordings, meetings, notes and search all run on your Mac, and the data sits in a local database on your disk. The app has no telemetry and you need no account. When you turn on the cloud in Pro, Captylo’s server streams the data and stores none of the content. Typeless, by its own page, always transcribes in the cloud.

Does Typeless run on the device?

According to its own pages, the dictation history stays on the device, while transcription is performed in the cloud. Typeless says your audio and limited context from the screen (the app and relevant text) are processed on its servers in real time and discarded right away, that it uses large language model providers such as OpenAI under zero-retention agreements, and that data may be processed in the US. The history goes to the cloud only if you turn on sync in Pro.

Which languages does Typeless support?

Typeless says it supports more than 100 languages with automatic detection, without listing them, and offers regional variants for English, Chinese, Spanish, French and Portuguese. Its desktop app has 58 interface languages according to its help centre, and its iPhone app is in English only on the App Store. Captylo is built Polish first, with English and 23 other European languages.

Which is cheaper: Captylo or Typeless?

Dictation in Captylo Free has no word limit and costs nothing, while Typeless Free has a weekly word limit. Captylo Pro costs $84 a year or $9 a month, Typeless Pro $144 a year or $30 a month per member.

Can I use Captylo next to Typeless?

Yes. Captylo Free needs no account, so you can download it and compare on your own texts. Just set different hotkeys: Typeless uses Fn on the Mac by default, Captylo the right Option key.

Where do the facts about Typeless come from?

From the public pages of typeless.com (pricing, about, data controls, privacy policy), its help centre on the same site and its App Store listing, as of October 10, 2026. Their offer may change, so the source is linked under the table.

Your next email can be spoken.

Captylo for Mac is free, with no account and no word limit. New versions arrive in the app.

Version 1.0.17 · macOS 14.4 or newer · Apple silicon · signed and checked by Apple

Source code and earlier versions