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. ownscribe: Local-first command-line tool that records, transcribes, and summarizes meetings on macOS entirely on-device, with natural-language search across notes. 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 Aqua Voice when dictating emails, documents, and slack messages hands-free across desktop apps matters most, and ownscribe when keeping fully on-device transcripts and summaries for privacy-sensitive discussions matters most. Run both through a week of actual calls to see which suits your workflow.
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.
Local-first command-line tool that records, transcribes, and summarizes meetings on macOS entirely on-device, with natural-language search across notes.
Aqua Voice is an AI dictation tool built by Aqua Voice, Inc. (a Y Combinator startup) that converts spoken words into written text in real time. Rather than a standalone transcription window, it works system-wide: users hold a key (such as Space) and speak, and the dictated text is inserted into whatever app is in focus, including Gmail, Google Docs, Slack, code editors, and AI chat tools. It runs on macOS and iOS, with the iPhone app now live. Aqua is powered by Avalon, the company's proprietary speech-to-text model trained on prompt-style speech, code, and email, and it refines grammar and phrasing as you talk. It supports context awareness of on-screen content, a custom dictionary for technical terms and names, natural-language editing commands ("make this a list," "rephrase that"), style adaptation, and multilingual input across dozens of languages. It is aimed at developers, knowledge workers, and content creators who want a faster alternative to typing for emails, documents, messages, prompts, and code.
Best suited for
ownscribe is a local-first meeting transcription and summarization command-line tool that records, transcribes, and summarizes meetings entirely on the user's own machine without sending data to external servers. It is MIT-licensed and actively maintained, with v0.12.0 released in June 2026, and is written primarily in Python with a Swift component for system audio capture. On macOS 14.2 and later it captures system audio through Core Audio, and it transcribes with WhisperX to produce word-level timestamps, with optional speaker diarization via PyAnnote. For summaries it ships with a built-in local model (Phi-4-mini) and can also connect to Ollama or OpenAI-compatible backends, offering multiple templates tailored to meetings, lectures, and brief summaries. A standout feature is its natural-language search: the ask command lets users query across their stored meeting notes to retrieve relevant information. Quality-of-life features include silence-based auto-stop so recordings end cleanly when a meeting goes quiet. Because it is a CLI distributed through GitHub and runs entirely on local hardware, ownscribe targets developers and privacy-focused users who prefer scriptable, terminal-driven workflows over a graphical meeting notetaker while keeping all audio and transcripts on-device. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Aqua Voice is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); ownscribe is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Aqua Voice | ownscribe |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | System-wide dictation that inserts text into any focused app (Gmail, Docs, Slack, code editors, AI chats) | Local-first recording, transcription, and summarization via CLI |
| Standout feature | Avalon proprietary speech-to-text model tuned for technical vocabulary, code, and prompt-style speech | System audio capture on macOS 14.2+ through Core Audio |
| Team usage | Custom dictionary for names, brands, and technical terms | WhisperX transcription with word-level timestamps |
| Integrations | Natural-language editing commands like 'make this a list' or 'rephrase that' mid-dictation | Optional speaker diarization via PyAnnote |
| Languages & capture | Context awareness of on-screen content, including code syntax | Local summarization with a built-in Phi-4-mini model, plus Ollama and OpenAI-compatible backends |
| Best-fit workflow | Multilingual input across dozens of languages | Natural-language search across meeting notes with the ask command |
Aqua Voice
Choose Aqua Voice if you need dictating emails, documents, and slack messages hands-free across desktop apps — strengths include low-friction, system-wide voice input that works inside existing apps with no per-app setup.
ownscribe
Choose ownscribe if you need developers capturing and summarizing meetings from the terminal on a mac — strengths include runs entirely on-device with no data sent to external servers.
Aqua Voice
ownscribe
It depends on your workflow. Aqua Voice is strong for dictating emails, documents, and slack messages hands-free across desktop apps, while ownscribe is strong for developers capturing and summarizing meetings from the terminal on a mac. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Aqua Voice is a free tier with paid upgrades and ownscribe 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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