AudioPen: AudioPen records spoken voice notes, transcribes them, and rewrites the rambling speech into clear, structured text in a style you choose. 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 AudioPen when capturing and refining personal ideas, journal entries, or brainstorms by voice matters most, and MacParakeet when system-wide dictation across applications for privacy-conscious users matters most. Test each on your own meetings; the right choice tends to become obvious quickly.
AudioPen records spoken voice notes, transcribes them, and rewrites the rambling speech into clear, structured text in a style you choose.
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.
AudioPen is a voice-to-text tool that captures spoken thoughts and turns them into polished written notes. You record your voice (or upload an audio file), and AudioPen transcribes the speech, then rewrites it into clear, structured text by fixing grammar, cutting filler words, and organizing rambling input into coherent prose. Rather than producing a verbatim transcript, it reshapes what you said into finished writing in a style you select or train over time, with preset and custom styles available. It supports multiple languages and can transcribe speech in one language while writing the output in another. A SuperSummaries feature combines several notes into a single cohesive summary, and existing notes can be reformatted for different purposes such as emails or to-do lists. Built by independent developer Louis Pereira, it runs across iOS, iPad, Apple Watch, Android, Mac, and a Chrome extension, with Zapier and webhook integrations for sending notes elsewhere. It is aimed at people who think out loud and want to convert informal speech into professional written content.
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
AudioPen 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 | AudioPen | MacParakeet |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Records voice notes and transcribes speech to text | On-device meeting recording with live transcript preview and note-taking |
| Standout feature | Rewrites rambling speech into clear, structured prose with grammar fixes and filler removal | Meeting calendar integration via macOS EventKit with optional auto-start |
| Team usage | Audio file upload for transcribing and rewriting existing recordings | System-wide dictation with hotkey and push-to-talk modes |
| Integrations | Preset and custom writing styles that adapt to your voice over time | File and URL transcription on the device |
| Languages & capture | Multi-language support, including speaking in one language and writing output in another | Local NVIDIA Parakeet TDT speech recognition with no cloud STT |
| Best-fit workflow | SuperSummaries to combine multiple notes, plus Zapier and webhook integrations | Text cleanup pipeline including filler removal and custom replacements |
AudioPen
Choose AudioPen if you need capturing and refining personal ideas, journal entries, or brainstorms by voice — strengths include fast, low-friction way to turn spoken thoughts into clean, usable writing.
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.
AudioPen
MacParakeet
It depends on your workflow. AudioPen is strong for capturing and refining personal ideas, journal entries, or brainstorms by voice, while MacParakeet is strong for capturing and transcribing meetings locally on a mac without a bot. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
AudioPen 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.
You can — some teams pair them when each covers a different part of the meeting workflow.
More head-to-head comparisons involving AudioPen and MacParakeet.
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