Brainote: Brainote is an AI note-taking and study app that transcribes audio, video, and speech into text and turns it into summaries, notes, and study materials. 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. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Brainote when recording and transcribing meetings or lectures into shareable notes and minutes 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.
Brainote is an AI note-taking and study app that transcribes audio, video, and speech into text and turns it into summaries, notes, and study materials.
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.
Brainote is an AI-powered note-taking and study application available on the web, iOS, and Android. It captures content from multiple sources, including recorded voice memos and audio, uploaded PDFs, YouTube links, web pages, and handwritten notes via image OCR. Its core engine transcribes audio, video, and speech to text and then generates concise summaries and structured notes. For meeting and lecture scenarios, Brainote can transcribe recordings, convert meeting minutes into text, and produce organized AI meeting notes alongside study guides. Beyond transcription, it offers an AI chat assistant to clarify and refine notes, plus learning-focused tools such as automatically generated flashcards, quizzes, and spaced-repetition review. Transcripts and summaries can be exported for sharing. The product is marketed primarily toward students and learners preparing for exams, but its transcription and summarization capabilities also serve professionals capturing meetings and lectures. The free tier provides limited generation, while a Pro subscription unlocks unlimited use. No third-party meeting-platform integrations are advertised on its site.
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
Brainote 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 | Brainote | MacParakeet |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | AI transcription of audio, video, and speech to text | On-device meeting recording with live transcript preview and note-taking |
| Standout feature | Voice memo and audio recording capture | Meeting calendar integration via macOS EventKit with optional auto-start |
| Team usage | Automatic summaries, notes, and study guides from recordings | System-wide dictation with hotkey and push-to-talk modes |
| Integrations | Multi-source input: PDFs, YouTube links, web pages, and handwritten-note OCR | File and URL transcription on the device |
| Languages & capture | AI chat assistant to refine and clarify notes | Local NVIDIA Parakeet TDT speech recognition with no cloud STT |
| Best-fit workflow | Flashcard and quiz generation with spaced-repetition review | Text cleanup pipeline including filler removal and custom replacements |
Brainote
Choose Brainote if you need recording and transcribing meetings or lectures into shareable notes and minutes — strengths include available across web, ios, and android with a permanently free tier.
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.
Brainote
MacParakeet
It depends on your workflow. Brainote is strong for recording and transcribing meetings or lectures into shareable notes and minutes, while MacParakeet is strong for capturing and transcribing meetings locally on a mac without a bot. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Brainote 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.
Sure. Running both makes sense when their strengths don't overlap and the budget allows.
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