Akkadu: Akkadu is an AI-powered platform that delivers real-time live captions, subtitles, and remote simultaneous interpretation in 90+ languages for events, meetings, and video content. Handy: Handy is a free, open-source, cross-platform push-to-talk app that transcribes your speech to text completely offline and pastes it into any text field. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Akkadu when adding multilingual live captions and subtitles to conferences, webinars, and hybrid events matters most, and Handy when privacy-sensitive voice-to-text where audio must stay on-device matters most. Try them side by side on real calls before deciding — needs vary by team.
Akkadu is an AI-powered platform that delivers real-time live captions, subtitles, and remote simultaneous interpretation in 90+ languages for events, meetings, and video content.
Handy is a free, open-source, cross-platform push-to-talk app that transcribes your speech to text completely offline and pastes it into any text field.
Akkadu, built by Akkadu Technology, is a platform for breaking down language barriers in live and recorded settings. It listens to a speaker's audio and produces real-time AI live captions and subtitles in more than 90 languages, and can deliver an AI voice translation that voices a speaker's words in another language. Beyond automated transcription and translation, Akkadu also offers remote simultaneous interpretation (RSI), connecting human interpreters to events, plus human live captioning for higher-accuracy needs. It is available as a desktop and web-based application and is designed to work alongside common video conferencing tools such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and Google Meet, as well as on-site and hybrid events. The company states it does not store voice data and gives users control to delete transcripts. Akkadu targets event organizers, conferences, corporate meetings, universities, content creators, and language service providers who need multilingual accessibility. It is offered on a pay-as-you-go hourly model with a free limited demo tier.
Best suited for
Handy is a free, open-source desktop application that turns your voice into text completely offline, with no audio ever leaving your computer. You press a configurable keyboard shortcut, speak, and release (push-to-talk), or use a toggle mode to start and stop; Handy transcribes what you said and automatically pastes the result into whatever text field is active. Because it runs entirely on-device, it is built for privacy-conscious users who want dictation without cloud uploads or subscriptions. Under the hood it is built with Tauri (a Rust backend with a React/TypeScript frontend) and supports multiple local speech-recognition models, including OpenAI's Whisper variants with GPU acceleration and the CPU-friendly Parakeet V3 model with automatic language detection. Silero Voice Activity Detection filters out silence so only speech is processed. Handy runs on macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon), Windows, and Linux, and is released under the MIT license. It positions itself as an accessible, extensible alternative to paid dictation tools, and is best suited for hands-free typing rather than recording multi-party meetings.
Best suited for
Akkadu is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Handy is open source (open source). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Akkadu | Handy |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Real-time AI live captions and subtitles in 90+ languages | Push-to-talk and toggle dictation modes with a configurable global keyboard shortcut |
| Standout feature | AI voice translation that voices a speaker into another language | Fully offline, on-device transcription with no cloud uploads |
| Team usage | Remote simultaneous interpretation (RSI) with human interpreters | Multiple local speech models including Whisper (GPU-accelerated) and Parakeet V3 (CPU, auto language detection) |
| Integrations | Human live captioning option for higher accuracy | Silero Voice Activity Detection to filter silence and process only speech |
| Languages & capture | Works with Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and Google Meet plus on-site/hybrid events | Automatically pastes transcribed text into any active application text field |
| Best-fit workflow | Custom glossaries and accent recognition to improve accuracy | Cross-platform desktop app (macOS, Windows, Linux) built with Tauri |
Akkadu
Choose Akkadu if you need adding multilingual live captions and subtitles to conferences, webinars, and hybrid events — strengths include covers 90+ languages across captions, subtitles, interpretation, and voice translation.
Handy
Choose Handy if you need hands-free dictation into emails, documents, chat apps, and code editors — strengths include completely free, open-source (mit) with no subscription or paywall.
Akkadu
Handy
It depends on your workflow. Akkadu is strong for adding multilingual live captions and subtitles to conferences, webinars, and hybrid events, while Handy is strong for hands-free dictation into emails, documents, chat apps, and code editors. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Akkadu is a free tier with paid upgrades and Handy is open source. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
Often yes: teams combine tools when one handles capture and another handles analysis.
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