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. Swell AI: Swell AI transcribes podcast audio and video with automatic speaker labeling and turns the transcript into show notes, articles, summaries, and social posts. 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 Swell AI when turning a single episode into show notes, a blog article, and social posts for distribution 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.
Swell AI transcribes podcast audio and video with automatic speaker labeling and turns the transcript into show notes, articles, summaries, and social posts.
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
Swell AI is a transcription and content-repurposing platform built for podcasters, content creators, marketers, and agencies. Users upload audio or video, or pull episodes in from sources such as RSS feeds, Apple Podcasts, YouTube links, and cloud storage like Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive. Swell AI generates a transcript in which speakers are automatically identified and labeled, and provides a transcript editor where you can highlight and clip sections, which the platform saves for reuse across a team. From the same transcript it produces repurposed content: show notes, summaries, long-form SEO articles, newsletters, titles and keywords, and social posts such as LinkedIn posts, Twitter/X threads, and Instagram captions. It can also export highlighted sections as video clips and audiograms, and create an episode-trained chatbot that can be embedded on a site. The platform offers a REST API for custom integrations and a dashboard for managing multiple shows. It is distinct in pairing accurate transcription with a broad, podcast-focused repurposing pipeline rather than transcription alone.
Best suited for
Amical is open source (open source); Swell AI is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Amical | Swell AI |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Local speech-to-text transcription powered by OpenAI Whisper | Audio and video transcription with automatic speaker identification and labeling |
| Standout feature | On-device LLM processing via Ollama, with a cloud fallback option | Transcript editor for highlighting and clipping sections, with AI-suggested compelling segments |
| Team usage | Context-aware formatting that adapts tone to the active app (email, chat, IDE, terminal) | Content repurposing into show notes, summaries, SEO articles, newsletters, and social posts |
| Integrations | Multi-language and mixed-language dictation support | Video clip and audiogram export from highlighted transcript sections |
| Languages & capture | Custom vocabulary for domain-specific terms and configurable hotkeys | Bulk import from RSS feeds, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and cloud storage (Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive) |
| Best-fit workflow | Smart voice notes with summaries and task generation (in development) | REST API and multi-show dashboard for teams and agencies |
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.
Swell AI
Choose Swell AI if you need transcribing podcast episodes and labeling speakers for an accurate, editable transcript — strengths include combines accurate transcription with a wide range of automated repurposing outputs in one tool.
Amical
Swell AI
It depends on your workflow. Amical is strong for dictating emails, messages, and documents hands-free with app-appropriate formatting, while Swell AI is strong for transcribing podcast episodes and labeling speakers for an accurate, editable transcript. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Amical is open source and Swell AI 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.
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