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. MacParakeet: Free, open-source local voice app for Apple Silicon Macs offering on-device meeting recording, live transcripts, dictation, and file transcription powered by NVIDIA Parakeet. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
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 MacParakeet when system-wide dictation across applications for privacy-conscious users 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.
Free, open-source local voice app for Apple Silicon Macs offering on-device meeting recording, live transcripts, dictation, and file transcription powered by NVIDIA Parakeet.
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
MacParakeet is a free, open-source voice application for Apple Silicon Macs that runs speech recognition entirely on-device using NVIDIA's Parakeet TDT model via FluidAudio CoreML. Beyond system-wide dictation and file or URL transcription, it includes a meeting recording mode with live transcript preview, in-app note-taking, and export, plus meeting calendar integration through macOS EventKit that can show reminders and optionally auto-start recording. Because all speech recognition runs locally, the project states that audio remains on the device, with no cloud speech-to-text, no required accounts, and opt-out telemetry. It supports around 25 European languages with automatic detection and includes a text cleanup pipeline for filler removal, custom word replacements, and snippet expansion. Optional AI features such as summaries, chat, and text formatting can be enabled through cloud or local providers when the user chooses. Built with Swift and SwiftUI and distributed under the GPL-3.0 license, MacParakeet is actively maintained on GitHub and can be installed via a notarized DMG, a Homebrew cask, or built from source. It is positioned as a privacy-respecting, bot-free option for capturing meetings directly from the Mac. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Akkadu is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); MacParakeet is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Akkadu | MacParakeet |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Real-time AI live captions and subtitles in 90+ languages | On-device meeting recording with live transcript preview and note-taking |
| Standout feature | AI voice translation that voices a speaker into another language | Meeting calendar integration via macOS EventKit with optional auto-start |
| Team usage | Remote simultaneous interpretation (RSI) with human interpreters | System-wide dictation with hotkey and push-to-talk modes |
| Integrations | Human live captioning option for higher accuracy | File and URL transcription on the device |
| Languages & capture | Works with Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and Google Meet plus on-site/hybrid events | Local NVIDIA Parakeet TDT speech recognition with no cloud STT |
| Best-fit workflow | Custom glossaries and accent recognition to improve accuracy | Text cleanup pipeline including filler removal and custom replacements |
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.
MacParakeet
Choose MacParakeet if you need capturing and transcribing meetings locally on a mac without a bot — strengths include free and open source with on-device speech recognition.
Akkadu
MacParakeet
It depends on your workflow. Akkadu is strong for adding multilingual live captions and subtitles to conferences, webinars, and hybrid events, while MacParakeet is strong for capturing and transcribing meetings locally on a mac without a bot. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Akkadu is a free tier with paid upgrades and MacParakeet is a free tier with paid upgrades. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
Sure. Running both makes sense when their strengths don't overlap and the budget allows.
More head-to-head comparisons involving Akkadu and MacParakeet.
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. Alice Recorder: Privacy-focused iOS and web recorder that transcribes meetings and interviews in 100+ languages with AI summarization. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
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. Allego: Conversation intelligence within a broader sales enablement platform that records, transcribes, and analyzes sales calls for coaching and deal insights. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
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. Allo: Mobile-first AI business phone system that records and transcribes sales calls, writes follow-ups, and syncs everything to your CRM automatically. We compare them on cost, capture approach, and day-to-day fit so you can choose faster.
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. Aloware: Sales engagement and contact platform with a power dialer plus AI conversation intelligence that records, transcribes, and analyzes calls for coaching. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
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. Alter: macOS-native AI meeting assistant that records and transcribes calls locally with built-in Whisper and Parakeet models, no bots required. The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.
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. Amber Notes: EU-focused AI meeting notetaker by Dutch company Amberscript, with EU-only data hosting, multilingual transcription and an Ask Amber chat. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
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. Amberscript: Audio and video to text service offering automatic and human-verified transcripts and subtitles. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
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. Amical: Amical is an open-source, local-first AI dictation and voice-notes app that transcribes speech to text on your own machine using Whisper and open-source LLMs. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
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. AmpUp: AI sales coaching platform with a native notetaker that records and transcribes calls, then delivers prep briefs, debriefs, and practice scenarios. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
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. AmplifAI: AmplifAI is an AI-powered contact center platform that transcribes and analyzes customer conversations across voice, chat, and messaging to automate quality assurance, coaching, and CX intelligence. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
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. Anarlog: Open-source, local-first AI meeting notepad (formerly Hyprnote) by Fastrepl that records and summarizes private meetings on your own device with no bot. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
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. Aqua Voice: Aqua Voice is an AI-powered, system-wide voice dictation app that turns speech into refined text in real time across the apps you already use on Mac and iPhone. We compare them on cost, capture approach, and day-to-day fit so you can choose faster.