Genio: Assistive note-taking tool (formerly Glean) that records and transcribes lectures and classes for students. 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 Genio when university students recording and reviewing lectures matters most, and MacParakeet when system-wide dictation across applications for privacy-conscious users matters most. Run both through a week of actual calls to see which suits your workflow.
Assistive note-taking tool (formerly Glean) that records and transcribes lectures and classes for students.
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.
Genio, formerly known as Glean, is an assistive note-taking platform that helps students capture and learn from lectures and classes. It records class audio and provides live captions during the session, then generates a full transcript afterward, letting students focus on understanding rather than frantically writing notes. Genio lets learners add their own notes, organize material with AI-generated outlines, import slides and reading material, and review with study features such as quizzing, tying recorded audio together with class content. The platform is widely used by students, including learners with specific learning difficulties, and is adopted by educational institutions that provide it as a study and accessibility support tool. It works online or offline across devices, which suits classroom and lecture-hall environments. Genio is positioned as a mainstream learning tool that also supports accessibility needs. It is actively operating in 2025 and 2026, reporting use by well over a hundred thousand students and more than a thousand institutions, with active sign-in, pricing, and ongoing product development. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
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
Genio 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 | Genio | MacParakeet |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Class and lecture audio recording with live captions | On-device meeting recording with live transcript preview and note-taking |
| Standout feature | Full transcript generation after the session | Meeting calendar integration via macOS EventKit with optional auto-start |
| Team usage | AI outlines and student-added notes tied to the recording | System-wide dictation with hotkey and push-to-talk modes |
| Integrations | Import of slides and reading materials into notes | File and URL transcription on the device |
| Languages & capture | Offline and cross-device capture for classrooms | Local NVIDIA Parakeet TDT speech recognition with no cloud STT |
| Best-fit workflow | Class and lecture audio recording with live captions | Text cleanup pipeline including filler removal and custom replacements |
Genio
Choose Genio if you need university students recording and reviewing lectures — strengths include purpose-built for education and lecture capture.
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.
Genio
MacParakeet
It depends on your workflow. Genio is strong for university students recording and reviewing lectures, while MacParakeet is strong for capturing and transcribing meetings locally on a mac without a bot. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Genio 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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