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. Way With Words: Way With Words is a transcription and captioning service that converts audio and video recordings, including meetings and interviews, into accurate text using human transcribers and automatic speech recognition. The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Amical when dictating emails, messages, and documents hands-free with app-appropriate formatting matters most, and Way With Words when producing accessible captions and subtitles for recorded video content matters most. Try them side by side on real calls before deciding — needs vary by team.
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.
Way With Words is a transcription and captioning service that converts audio and video recordings, including meetings and interviews, into accurate text using human transcribers and automatic speech recognition.
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
Way With Words is an audio-to-text services company, founded in 2002 and registered in the UK and South Africa, that turns recordings into text. Rather than joining calls as a bot, it works from files: users upload audio or video through a secure account portal (supporting formats such as MP3, WAV, MP4, MOV, and M4A, up to 8GB per file) and receive transcripts back as DOCX, with PDF and RTF available on request. Its core offering is human transcription, including verbatim, intelligent verbatim, and time-coded transcripts for multi-speaker interviews, focus groups, corporate meetings, hearings, and media. It also provides automatic (ASR) transcription in 50+ languages, video captioning and subtitles, machine-transcript polishing, and custom speech datasets for AI/ASR training. Turnaround is offered in tiers from express through to roughly eight days, with human quality checks emphasized for complex audio. It targets research and academia, legal and compliance, media production, education, corporate teams, public sector and NGOs, and AI developers needing dependable, confidential text from audio.
Best suited for
Amical is open source (open source); Way With Words is a free tier with paid upgrades (paid). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Amical | Way With Words |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Local speech-to-text transcription powered by OpenAI Whisper | Human transcription with verbatim, intelligent verbatim, and time-coded options |
| Standout feature | On-device LLM processing via Ollama, with a cloud fallback option | Automatic (ASR) speech-to-text transcription in 50+ languages |
| Team usage | Context-aware formatting that adapts tone to the active app (email, chat, IDE, terminal) | Video captioning and subtitles for accessibility and broadcast |
| Integrations | Multi-language and mixed-language dictation support | Secure account portal for audio/video upload (up to 8GB per file, batch uploads) |
| Languages & capture | Custom vocabulary for domain-specific terms and configurable hotkeys | Multiple turnaround tiers from express to several days |
| Best-fit workflow | Smart voice notes with summaries and task generation (in development) | Custom speech datasets for AI and ASR training programs |
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.
Way With Words
Choose Way With Words if you need transcribing recorded corporate meetings, interviews, and focus groups into searchable text — strengths include human-reviewed transcripts suited to complex, multi-speaker audio like meetings and focus groups.
Amical
Way With Words
It depends on your workflow. Amical is strong for dictating emails, messages, and documents hands-free with app-appropriate formatting, while Way With Words is strong for transcribing recorded corporate meetings, interviews, and focus groups into searchable text. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Amical is open source and Way With Words is a free tier with paid upgrades. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
You can — some teams pair them when each covers a different part of the meeting workflow.
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