Castmagic: AI content platform that transcribes podcasts, videos, and recorded meetings with speaker diarization and turns them into show notes, summaries, and other assets. Handy: Handy is a free, open-source, cross-platform push-to-talk app that transcribes your speech to text completely offline and pastes it into any text field. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Castmagic when transcribing podcast episodes and generating show notes and summaries matters most, and Handy when privacy-sensitive voice-to-text where audio must stay on-device matters most. Trial each on a few real meetings before you commit — the better fit usually shows fast.
AI content platform that transcribes podcasts, videos, and recorded meetings with speaker diarization and turns them into show notes, summaries, and other assets.
Handy is a free, open-source, cross-platform push-to-talk app that transcribes your speech to text completely offline and pastes it into any text field.
Castmagic is an AI-powered content platform that transforms recorded audio and video into transcripts and a range of derived content. After a file is uploaded or imported, Castmagic transcribes it with speaker diarization and then automatically generates summaries, show notes, timestamps, titles, social media posts, newsletters, and other assets from the same recording. The platform integrates with sources including YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Google Drive, and Zoom, so recorded meetings and interviews can flow directly into a workspace for processing alongside podcast episodes. Castmagic includes semantic search across a media library, brand-voice customization, reusable templates, and commenting and approval workflows aimed at teams and agencies that manage content for multiple brands. While its marketing centers on podcasters and creators, the transcription, speaker labeling, and summary features make it applicable to meeting and interview recordings as well. It is intended for content teams, marketing agencies, podcasters, coaches, and sales organizations that want to convert recorded conversations into transcripts and repurposed written content rather than only a raw transcript. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Handy is a free, open-source desktop application that turns your voice into text completely offline, with no audio ever leaving your computer. You press a configurable keyboard shortcut, speak, and release (push-to-talk), or use a toggle mode to start and stop; Handy transcribes what you said and automatically pastes the result into whatever text field is active. Because it runs entirely on-device, it is built for privacy-conscious users who want dictation without cloud uploads or subscriptions. Under the hood it is built with Tauri (a Rust backend with a React/TypeScript frontend) and supports multiple local speech-recognition models, including OpenAI's Whisper variants with GPU acceleration and the CPU-friendly Parakeet V3 model with automatic language detection. Silero Voice Activity Detection filters out silence so only speech is processed. Handy runs on macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon), Windows, and Linux, and is released under the MIT license. It positions itself as an accessible, extensible alternative to paid dictation tools, and is best suited for hands-free typing rather than recording multi-party meetings.
Best suited for
Castmagic is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Handy is open source (open source). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Castmagic | Handy |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Transcription of audio and video with speaker diarization | Push-to-talk and toggle dictation modes with a configurable global keyboard shortcut |
| Standout feature | Automatic generation of summaries, show notes, titles, and timestamps | Fully offline, on-device transcription with no cloud uploads |
| Team usage | Repurposing of recordings into social posts, newsletters, and blog content | Multiple local speech models including Whisper (GPU-accelerated) and Parakeet V3 (CPU, auto language detection) |
| Integrations | Direct import from sources including YouTube, Google Drive, and Zoom | Silero Voice Activity Detection to filter silence and process only speech |
| Languages & capture | Semantic search across a media library of past recordings | Automatically pastes transcribed text into any active application text field |
| Best-fit workflow | Multi-brand workspaces with templates and approval workflows for teams | Cross-platform desktop app (macOS, Windows, Linux) built with Tauri |
Castmagic
Choose Castmagic if you need transcribing podcast episodes and generating show notes and summaries — strengths include goes beyond transcription to produce ready-to-use written content from recordings.
Handy
Choose Handy if you need hands-free dictation into emails, documents, chat apps, and code editors — strengths include completely free, open-source (mit) with no subscription or paywall.
Castmagic
Handy
It depends on your workflow. Castmagic is strong for transcribing podcast episodes and generating show notes and summaries, while Handy is strong for hands-free dictation into emails, documents, chat apps, and code editors. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Castmagic is a free tier with paid upgrades and Handy is open source. 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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