Alternatives to Willow
An AI dictation app that turns speech into edited text in any app on Mac, Windows and iPhone. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Willow
An AI dictation app that turns speech into edited text in any app on Mac, Windows and iPhone.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Willow.
Wispr Flow
A voice dictation app that turns speech into cleaned-up text in any application.
Wispr Flow is freemium dictation for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS that cleans up filler words and self-corrections, adding an Android app Willow lacks.
Superwhisper
A voice dictation app that turns speech into text in any app, using offline or cloud recognition.
Superwhisper runs on Windows, macOS, Android and iOS with offline on-device recognition as well as cloud options and custom AI modes.
Aqua Voice
An AI voice dictation app that turns speech into cleaned-up text in any app.
Aqua Voice is freemium dictation for Windows, macOS and iOS with push-to-talk and AI cleanup, and handles technical and coding dictation.
Spokenly
A dictation app for Mac, Windows, Linux and iPhone that uses local Whisper or cloud models.
Spokenly is free, runs on Mac, Windows, Linux and iPhone, and offers offline local Whisper dictation with a local-only mode that blocks network requests.
VoiceInk
A native macOS dictation app that transcribes speech to text offline with local AI models.
VoiceInk is a paid macOS-only app with fully offline transcription, per-app modes and no subscription, dropping Windows and iPhone support.
Handy
Dictate into desktop text fields with local speech recognition.
Handy is free and MIT-licensed, keeping dictation local on Windows, macOS and Linux, though it needs a downloaded speech model and has no iPhone app.
Voice In
A browser extension for Chrome and Edge that types what you say into any website.
Voice In is a free Chrome and Edge extension that dictates into websites, but it does not work in desktop apps.
nerd-dictation
A single-file Python script for offline speech-to-text dictation on Linux, using the VOSK speech recognition engine.
nerd-dictation is a free Linux-only script using VOSK for offline dictation, with command-line setup and no graphical interface.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Speechnotes
A browser-based dictation notepad and automatic transcription service for audio and video files.
Braina
A desktop AI assistant for Windows and macOS with voice commands, dictation and a local LLM interface.
Speechify
A text-to-speech and voice typing app that reads documents, PDFs and web pages aloud.
Laxis
AI note taker and voice keyboard that records meetings, writes summaries and turns speech into typed text.
whisper.cpp
C/C++ port of OpenAI's Whisper for fast offline speech-to-text on your own hardware.
Voicenotes
An AI notetaker that records meetings and voice notes, then produces summaries and action items.
