The open-source alternatives to Wispr Flow are Handy, VoiceInk, OpenWhispr and Whispering. All four do the same core job: hold a key, speak, and the text lands at your cursor. Handy and OpenWhispr run on macOS, Windows and Linux; VoiceInk is macOS only. Each can run the speech model on your own machine, using Whisper or NVIDIA's Parakeet, so the audio never leaves it. OpenWhispr and VoiceInk add an optional language-model step to clean up the text. A team switches when it wants dictation with no subscription, no cloud, and a licence it can read.
Wispr Flow, in the vendor's own words: "the voice-to-text AI that turns speech into clear, polished writing in every app", by its own description. wisprflow.ai.
| Project | Openness | Licence | Runs as | Platforms | Self-host | Hosted option | Last release | Stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Handy | OSI | MIT | Desktop app | macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon), Windows x64, Linux x64 | Yes | No | Aug 24, 2026 | 31,790 |
| OpenWhispr | OSI | MIT | Desktop app | macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Windows, Linux | Yes | Yes | Sep 15, 2026 | 8,286 |
| VoiceInk | OSI | See LICENSE | Desktop app | macOS 14.4 or later | Yes | Yes | Aug 27, 2026 | 6,435 |
| Whispering | OSI | See LICENSE | Built from source (Bun), Desktop app (Tauri), Browser | Desktop via Tauri, browser build | Yes | Yes | Dec 27, 2025 | 4,801 |
Licence, release and star figures read from GitHub on September 16, 2026. Openness labels: The code, and the weights where the project is a model, carry a licence on the OSI approved list. The code is public, and the licence limits what you may do with it. Read the LICENSE file before commercial use. The model weights can be downloaded and run. The training data or code is closed, or the weights carry a restriction the code does not.
A free, offline push-to-talk dictation app for macOS, Windows and Linux that runs Whisper or NVIDIA Parakeet on your own machine and pastes the text at your cursor, under MIT.
Desktop app · macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon), Windows x64, Linux x64 · Runs on your own machines
A dictation and meeting-notes app under MIT that runs Whisper or Parakeet locally or cloud models with your own key, detects Zoom, Teams and FaceTime calls, and labels speakers on device.
Desktop app · macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Windows, Linux · Runs on your own machines · Hosted version available from the maintainers
A macOS dictation app under GPL-3.0 whose README names Superwhisper and Wispr Flow as the tools it replaces, with local models, per-app modes, a personal dictionary and an AI assistant mode.
Desktop app · macOS 14.4 or later · Runs on your own machines · Hosted version available from the maintainers
A speech-to-text app inside the Epicenter monorepo under AGPL-3.0 that records, transcribes with a provider you choose, cloud or local, optionally polishes the text, and pastes it at the cursor.
Built from source (Bun), Desktop app (Tauri), Browser · Desktop via Tauri, browser build · Runs on your own machines · Hosted version available from the maintainers
For macOS, Windows and Linux with everything local, Handy (MIT) or OpenWhispr (MIT). For macOS only with a language-model cleanup step and a personal dictionary, VoiceInk (GPL-3.0). Whispering (AGPL-3.0) lets you pick the transcription provider, cloud or local, and is built from source. All four paste the text at your cursor after a hotkey.
Handy and VoiceInk run the speech model on your computer only, and both READMEs say no audio leaves the device. OpenWhispr offers both: local models (Whisper, Parakeet and others) or cloud models with your own API key. Whispering sends audio only when the transcription provider you chose needs an upload.
Handy ships installers for macOS, x64 Windows and x64 Linux. OpenWhispr ships .dmg, .exe, .AppImage, .deb and .rpm files. VoiceInk is macOS 14.4 or later only. Whispering is built from source with Bun and runs as a desktop app or in a browser.
VoiceInk and OpenWhispr both run the transcript through a language model you choose, which is where the cleanup happens; OpenWhispr names GPT, Claude, Gemini, Groq and local models as options. Handy has a post-processing toggle in its command line, and its README does not say what the step does. Whispering describes an optional polish step.
All four are built on Whisper, and three also support NVIDIA's Parakeet: Handy (Parakeet V2 and V3), VoiceInk (Parakeet through FluidAudio, plus SenseVoice Small) and OpenWhispr (Parakeet plus Cohere Transcribe). Parakeet is the CPU-friendly option in Handy, which lists an Intel 6th generation or equivalent as the minimum.
Yes, VoiceInk is built for macOS and is GPL-3.0; you can build it from source or install it through Homebrew, and the maintainers also sell a compiled build with automatic updates. Handy and OpenWhispr both run on Intel and Apple Silicon Macs too.
Running one of these inside your own environment, with your own data and your own security rules, is the kind of work Reveneau does. Read how a forward deployed engagement works.