No cloud path at all
Murmela
Dictation, translation and transcription with no cloud option anywhere. Hold one key and speak, and the text lands in any app; dictate in one language and paste in another, in nine languages both ways; transcribe files up to six hours and record calls, all on your Mac. No account and no usage data. The app connects only to download the models you pick, to check for updates (which you can switch off) and to activate a Pro license once. The source is open under the GPL 3.0, and the security page lists every connection.
Best for: people who dictate other people's confidential matters (patients, clients, sources) and want nothing to configure. Watch for: no rewriting of your words, Mac with Apple silicon only, and the most accurate engines take a second or two after you let go. Free has every speech model; Pro is $19 once, Lifetime $49 for the first 500.
A small, playful dictation app with on-device Whisper and no accounts. Its privacy policy lists the model download, the payment provider and an optional iCloud settings sync, and says there are no analytics or crash reports. It transcribes files you drop in, but has no vocabulary, history, translation or speaker labels. Apple silicon, macOS 14 or later.
Best for: plain dictation at the lowest one-time price. Watch for: Free stops at 30 minutes of dictation a month and trims files to ten seconds; Pro is $19.99 once for five Macs.
Built into macOS. On Apple silicon it runs on the device, and the Keyboard settings say whether your input is processed there. Sharing recordings to improve Siri and Dictation is opt-in. It stops after 30 seconds of silence and has no custom vocabulary and no file transcription.
Best for: short messages when you don't want to install anything. Watch for: names and jargon it can't learn. Murmela or Apple Dictation, compared.
Local, with a cloud option to keep off
Free, MIT-licensed push-to-talk dictation for Mac (Intel too), Windows and Linux, with local models. An optional clean-up step, off by default, sends the text to OpenAI, Anthropic, Groq or OpenRouter with your own key. It can translate into English. There is no file transcription in the app and no speaker labels. Murmela is built on the same framework, Tauri.
Best for: free, open-source dictation on any desktop. Watch for: no files, speaker labels or translation into other languages.
Open-source (GPL 3.0) dictation with a wide choice of local models, Parakeet by default. Cloud transcription and clean-up are optional and use your own API keys; its privacy policy describes them and says nothing about app analytics either way. Files are transcribed in a queue, without speaker labels. No translation is listed. Apple silicon, macOS 14.4 or later, and there is now an iPhone app.
Best for: people who like modes, models and workflows, and want an iPhone companion. Watch for: license activation needs a connection. $25, $39 or $49 once for one, two or three Macs.
Dictation for Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone and Android. Cloud models are the default and free local models are a download away; Local Only Mode blocks every connection except model downloads. Anonymous analytics are on by default and Local Only Mode blocks them too. Translation runs through instructions to a language model, which can be cloud or local.
Best for: people on several platforms who will switch on Local Only Mode. Watch for: privacy is a setting, not the default. Free local dictation; Local+ $29 once; Pro $9.99 a month.
The most complete file-transcription toolkit here: meetings, subtitles, batches, speaker recognition with Pro (on M-series Macs, or through ElevenLabs or Deepgram). It runs Whisper and Parakeet locally first and offers cloud transcription through several providers. Its privacy policy, dated February 2024, mentions anonymous license-status analytics. Translation into most languages goes through DeepL's servers. Now on iPhone and iPad too.
Best for: heavy file and meeting transcription. Watch for: the cloud options sit next to the local ones. Pro €64 once. Murmela or MacWhisper, compared.
Each mode uses a local or a cloud model, and the first mode setup creates uses cloud models. Free has unlimited local Whisper and two modes; Pro adds more local models, files, meetings and speaker separation, and their docs say the most accurate speaker labels come from a cloud model. Its privacy policy, dated October 8, 2026, logs metadata of calls to their servers and paywall and onboarding events, but no content. Translation is into English only.
Best for: people who want the widest choice of models and four platforms. Watch for: deciding mode by mode what stays local. Pro $84.99 a year or $249.99 lifetime. Murmela or Superwhisper, compared.
Dictation and meeting notes sold for confidential work. On an Apple silicon Mac you choose on-device or cloud at setup; Windows and Intel Macs are cloud only, and meeting notes are always processed in the cloud. An account is required. Its security page lists Sentry crash reports and Datafast and Google Analytics. Optional formatting sends the text to Cerebras. No file transcription and no translation.
Best for: teams that want dictation and meeting notes on Mac and Windows. Watch for: the account and analytics. $99 a year or $199 lifetime for dictation.
Murmela