Dictation tools, compared with Deixis
One page per tool. Deixis runs on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android, with the speech recognition on the device on all four, and each page puts the two side by side on the things that actually differ: where the speech recognition runs, what leaves your machine and when, what it costs, and where the other tool is the better choice. The facts about the other tool are taken from its own site, dated, and linked, and the list of where Deixis loses is never empty.
Alternatives
One page per tool
The Wispr Flow alternative that keeps your voice on your PC
Wispr Flow transcribes in the cloud and needs an account. Deixis recognises speech on your PC, Mac or phone, free, with no sign-in and no audio leaving.
The Typeless alternative that never uploads your voice
Typeless processes your voice on its cloud servers and needs a sign-in. Deixis recognises speech on your PC, Mac or phone, free, no account, no cap.
Talon, if all you want is to dictate
Talon is hands-free control of the whole computer, and right if you need that. If you only want to dictate, Deixis needs no scripts and no learning.
Whisperstream, and then some
Both dictate on your PC, no upload, no account. Deixis is free, knows which field you are in, records meetings and the screen, and runs on Mac and phone.
Win+H, but on your own PC
Win+H voice typing sends your voice to Microsoft and needs the internet. Deixis recognises speech on your own PC, offline, free, with no account.
Dragon, without the price tag
Dragon Professional has no price on its page and needs activation, a profile and 12 GB. Deixis dictates on your PC for free, with no account and no upload.
Otter, without the bot
Otter puts a bot in your call and your audio in its cloud, with minute limits. Deixis records both sides locally, names the voices, free, no account.
What you get
More than dictation. One key, and everything behind it.
Hold the key and press a letter: free mode, a grab, a meeting, a recording, a translation, your own buttons. All of it on your own device, all of it free, none of it behind an account.
Dictation, where your cursor is
Hold a key, speak, release. Clean, punctuated text lands in whatever has focus, on your PC, your Mac and your phone, with your clipboard handed back.
Free mode: talk and point
Narrate for as long as you like while you grab a region, pick a button on screen or take a selection. One note, what you said interleaved with what you pointed at, pasted where you finish and saved as Markdown.
Screen grabs, annotated
Freeze every screen at the keypress, drag a region, add arrows, boxes, text and numbered steps, and pixelate what is private. Saved as a PNG that stays editable.
Screen recording, shared as a link
Record the screen with your narration. The recording writes itself up with a title, chapters and a summary, and from your Deixis account it shares as a link anyone can open without one. The Loom you can stop paying for.
Meetings, no bot, names included
Your microphone and the other side, transcribed on your machine while the call runs. Deixis tells the voices apart and remembers the ones you name, and never uploads a voice.
Your own buttons and workflows
Add a button to the palette: it gets the note on stdin and types back whatever it prints. Send finished notes to any URL you own. Chain steps: read the text off a screenshot, translate it, summarise it, post it.
Hold a key. Speak. Keep working.
Deixis is free, needs no account, and runs on your own CPU.
v0.9.0 · 64‑bit Windows 10/11 · 46.7 MB · nothing else to install