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. Notewise: Handwriting and PDF note-taking app for Apple devices with AI audio transcription for lectures and meetings. 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 Amical when dictating emails, messages, and documents hands-free with app-appropriate formatting matters most, and Notewise when annotating course pdfs and slides with synced audio matters most. Run both through a week of actual calls to see which suits your workflow.
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.
Handwriting and PDF note-taking app for Apple devices with AI audio transcription for lectures and meetings.
Amical is an open-source, MIT-licensed AI dictation application that turns speech into formatted text directly on your device. It runs OpenAI's Whisper for speech recognition locally and uses open-source LLMs (via Ollama) for intelligent processing, so dictation can work offline once a local model is set up; for machines that can't handle local inference, it offers a cloud fallback. Built with Electron and TypeScript, it runs on Mac and Windows as a desktop app with a floating widget interface and configurable hotkeys. Its standout feature is context-aware formatting: it detects the active application and adapts tone and structure accordingly, producing professional text in email, casual phrasing in chat apps, or prompt and command-style output in IDEs and terminals. It supports many languages plus mixed-language dictation, and custom vocabulary for domain-specific terms. Beyond dictation, it is adding smart voice notes with summaries and task generation. It targets privacy-conscious writers, developers, and professionals wanting a free alternative to paid dictation tools.
Best suited for
Notewise is a note-taking app for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro that combines handwritten notes and PDF annotation with AI features for students and other learners. It offers low-latency handwriting with palm rejection, multiple pen and highlighter styles, shape and table tools, and image insertion, alongside PDF markup and annotation. Its AI capabilities include audio transcription that turns lectures, meetings, and memos into text, with the transcription synced to the moment in your handwritten notes so you can tap a note and hear what was being said. Notewise also provides handwriting OCR across more than 20 languages, letting users search across handwriting, typed notes, audio transcripts, and PDFs in one place. Additional AI tools include a chat interface to query your notes, context-aware question answering on highlighted content, and auto-generated audio summaries of notes. Real-time collaboration in shared notebooks and cloud sync across devices round out the feature set. Notewise is well suited to students who take handwritten lecture notes on an iPad and want recorded audio transcribed and tied back to what they wrote, with export to PDF and other formats. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Amical is open source (open source); Notewise is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Amical | Notewise |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Local speech-to-text transcription powered by OpenAI Whisper | AI audio transcription of lectures and meetings synced to handwritten notes |
| Standout feature | On-device LLM processing via Ollama, with a cloud fallback option | Low-latency handwriting with palm rejection plus PDF annotation |
| Team usage | Context-aware formatting that adapts tone to the active app (email, chat, IDE, terminal) | Handwriting OCR across more than 20 languages with unified search |
| Integrations | Multi-language and mixed-language dictation support | AI chat to query notes and context-aware Q&A on highlighted content |
| Languages & capture | Custom vocabulary for domain-specific terms and configurable hotkeys | Auto-generated audio summaries of notes |
| Best-fit workflow | Smart voice notes with summaries and task generation (in development) | Real-time collaboration in shared notebooks and cross-device cloud sync |
Amical
Choose Amical if you need dictating emails, messages, and documents hands-free with app-appropriate formatting — strengths include fully open source (mit) and actively maintained with frequent releases.
Notewise
Choose Notewise if you need handwriting lecture notes on an ipad while recording and transcribing class audio — strengths include ties lecture audio transcription directly to the moment in handwritten notes.
Amical
Notewise
It depends on your workflow. Amical is strong for dictating emails, messages, and documents hands-free with app-appropriate formatting, while Notewise is strong for handwriting lecture notes on an ipad while recording and transcribing class audio. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Amical is open source and Notewise is a free tier with paid upgrades. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
Yes. Many teams run more than one meeting assistant when the workflows are complementary.
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