MurmelaMurmela or Wispr Flow?
Wispr Flow is a cloud dictation app with AI clean-up for Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android. Murmela is a dictation, translation and transcription app that runs entirely on an Apple-silicon Mac. They were built for different people, and this page tries to say plainly which one you are.
Choose Wispr Flow if…
You want your text cleaned up as you speak, and the same dictation on your phone and your Windows machine as on your Mac. Wispr Flow's site describes auto-editing of fillers and corrections, a tone per app, a Command Mode for editing by voice, a dictionary that learns as you go, and a Notetaker that records meetings without a bot. The free plan is capped at 2,000 words a week on desktop; Pro is $15 a month, or $12 a month billed annually. If your firm's IT department needs paperwork before it approves a tool, Wispr Flow lists SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 and offers a self-serve HIPAA agreement on any plan, covering dictation.
If those are your needs, Wispr Flow is the better choice, and nothing on this page should talk you out of it.
Choose Murmela if…
Your words are other people's secrets, and you would rather not explain to a client, a patient or an ethics board which company's servers hold the audio. Murmela has no cloud mode to switch off, because there is none: speech recognition, translation and file transcription all run on your Mac, and the app keeps working with Wi‑Fi off. There is no account and no usage data. You can translate as you dictate, in nine languages in both directions, and transcribe recordings of up to six hours with speaker labels. The free version has every speech model and no word cap; Pro is $19 once with a year of updates, Lifetime $49 for the first 500 founders and $99 after that.
The honest trade: your text arrives a second or two after you let go, nothing rewrites your words, there is no meeting recorder, and it runs on Apple-silicon Macs only.
Where the two differ.
What each product's own pages say, in October 2026. No row is a score; several of them are reasons to pick Wispr Flow.
| Murmela | Wispr Flow | |
|---|---|---|
| Where your speech is processed | On your Mac. There is no cloud mode, and the app works with Wi‑Fi off. | In their cloud, on every plan. Their privacy page says there is no offline mode. |
| Account and usage data | No account. No usage data is collected; the update check can be switched off. | Account required. Their privacy page says usage statistics are collected regardless of settings. |
| What the app reads besides your voice | Only which app is in front, so it can paste where your cursor is. It does not read the text on your screen. | Their privacy page says the app always uses the app name and the surrounding text-box content. |
| Rewriting | None. Punctuation is handled; nothing else is changed. | Fillers and corrections are edited out automatically; a tone per app; Command Mode for editing by voice. |
| Translation | Nine languages, in both directions, offline. As you dictate, for pasted text, and for whole documents with Pro. | None listed. |
| Meetings and recordings | No meeting recorder. Audio and video files you already have, up to six hours, are transcribed on your Mac; speaker labels with Pro. | Notetaker records meetings without a bot and processes them in their cloud. |
| Compliance paperwork | None. No data reaches us, so there is no vendor to audit or to contract with. The compliance decision stays with your practice. | SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 are listed; a self-serve HIPAA agreement is offered on any plan, for dictation. See their lawyers page. |
| Platforms | Mac with Apple silicon, macOS 11 or later. | Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android, with sync between them. |
| Price | Free, with every speech model and no word cap. Pro $19 once with a year of updates; Lifetime $49 for the first 500 founders, then $99; three Macs; 30-day refund. | Free up to 2,000 words a week on desktop. Pro $15 a month, or $12 a month billed annually. |
Checked on October 14, 2026 on Wispr Flow's homepage, pricing, privacy, data controls and lawyers pages. Plans and features change. If something here is wrong or out of date, write to hello@murmela.com and it will be corrected.
Try Murmela. It's free.
Apple silicon · macOS 11 or later · about 230 MB
Signed and notarized by Apple. Automatic updates, which you can switch off.
Memory: 8 GB runs dictation and the compact translation model. 16 GB runs the best translation model. 18 GB or more runs VibeVoice, the most accurate engine for files.
Pro $19 once · Lifetime $49 $99 for the first 500 · 30-day refund