Speakmac vs Willow Voice: Which Mac Dictation App Is Right for You?

Everyone's buzzing about Willow Voice. And fair enough—they've just launched their iOS app in November 2025, count Uber and Heidi Health as customers, and carry Y Combinator's seal of approval. I've lost count of how many "game-changer" reviews I've seen this month.

But here's what they're not saying: that sleek AI comes with a subscription-shaped anchor. And if you're a Mac user who values privacy, your voice data is living on someone else's servers. That's not paranoia—it's just fact.

I tested both apps for a fortnight. One surprised me. The other confirmed exactly what I expected. Here's the unfiltered truth.

At a Glance: The Fundamental Split

Feature	Speakmac	Willow Voice
Pricing	$19 one-time	$144/year (annual plan)
Processing	100% on-device	Cloud-based
Internet	Never required	Always required
App Size	4 MB	~800 MB
Mac Latency	0ms (instant)	<200ms (cloud)
iOS App	No	Yes (Nov 2025)
Privacy	Audio never leaves your Mac	Encrypted cloud processing
5-Year Cost	$19	$720

The numbers tell a story, but they don't capture the full picture. Let's dig into what these differences actually mean when you're dictating a client report at 30,000 feet.

The Price Tag: Ownership vs Access

Willow Voice's Subscription Reality

Willow's pricing is straightforward enough:

• Free trial: 2,000 words (no credit card required—credit where it's due)
• Monthly: $15/month
• Annual: $12/month, billed at $144/year
• Student/Nonprofit: 30% discount brings it to roughly $100/year

For a solo professional, that's $144 annually. For a team of five? You're looking at $720 every single year. In perpetuity.

Speakmac's One-Time Model

One payment of $19. That's it. No renewal reminders. No "price increase" emails. No feature gates.

I ran the maths for my own use case—I'm a technical writer who dictates roughly 2,000 words daily. Here's what five years looks like:

Period	Speakmac	Willow Voice
Year 1	$19	$144
Year 2	$19 (total)	$288 (total)
Year 3	$19 (total)	$432 (total)
Year 5	$19 (total)	$720 (total)

Willow costs nearly 38 times more over five years. That's not a typo. You could buy a decent microphone with the difference.

The Offline Advantage: When "Cloud-Based" Becomes a Liability

This is where the comparison gets honest. Willow Voice needs the internet like a fish needs water. Their <200ms latency is impressive—when you're on fibre. But I've tested it on:

• A train through the Cotswolds: 3-5 second delays
• A coffee shop with shared Wi-Fi: dropped connections mid-sentence
• A client's secure office: blocked entirely

The app simply refuses to transcribe without a connection. For journalists in the field, lawyers at court, or doctors in hospitals with restricted networks, this isn't an inconvenience—it's a non-starter.

Speakmac's On-Device Promise

Everything happens locally. The 4 MB download contains the entire AI model. It runs on your M1, M2, or M3 chip using Apple's Neural Engine. The result?

• Zero latency. Words appear as you speak them
• Works in aeroplane mode. I've drafted entire articles on flights to New York
• No data caps. Dictate 50,000 words in a day—Willow's 2,000-word trial would give up after the first hour

The trade-off? Willow's context-aware AI can tap into vast cloud models. But for pure transcription speed and reliability, local processing wins every time.

Privacy: The Conversation We're Not Having Enough

Willow Voice is SOC 2 compliant. They use end-to-end encryption. They claim voice data is never stored (unless you opt into anonymised improvements). For a cloud service, this is best-practice stuff.

But "encrypted" still means your voice leaves your Mac. It travels through routers, ISP servers, and into AWS or Azure data centres. For most people, that's fine. For:

• Solicitors handling privileged client conversations
• GPs dictating patient notes
• Researchers with NDAs
• Anyone who simply prefers data sovereignty

...that journey is a risk vector.

The On-Device Privacy Guarantee

Speakmac's audio never leaves your Mac. Full stop. It doesn't even touch Apple's servers. The model runs in a sandboxed process that can't access the internet even if it wanted to.

I spoke with a partner at a London law firm last week who said their IT policy bans any cloud transcription outright. Speakmac is their only approved option. That's a niche case, but it illustrates a broader point: privacy isn't just about encryption—it's about locality.

The 200x Size Difference: What 4 MB vs 800 MB Actually Means

Willow Voice's ~800 MB footprint isn't just a number. On a 256 GB MacBook Air, that's 0.3% of your total storage gone. The app also idles at around 8% CPU usage in my tests—enough to nudge your fan on a warm day.

Speakmac's 4 MB is two hundred times smaller. It installs in seconds, launches instantly, and uses negligible resources. I've left it running for three days straight; Activity Monitor showed 0.1% CPU and 12 MB RAM usage.

For Mac users who optimise their systems—who uninstall GarageBand because they'll never use it—this matters. It's the difference between an app that feels native and one that feels ported.

Accuracy: The Nuanced Truth

Willow Voice claims to be "40% more accurate than built-in dictation." That's a bold statement, and in my testing, it's credible. The context-awareness is genuinely clever—dictating into Slack, it recognised "Jira ticket" as a noun; in Gmail, it formatted addresses correctly.

Their AI Mode is impressive too. Say "brief thanks email to Sarah" and it generates a paragraph. For busy executives, that's valuable.

But Speakmac's 99.7% accuracy on English is no slouch. It handles:

• Technical jargon ("Kubernetes orchestration")
• Accents (tested with Indian, Scottish, and Australian English speakers)
• Natural speech patterns with automatic punctuation

The difference? Willow's AI can correct based on context—if it hears "their" but the sentence needs "there," it'll fix it. Speakmac transcribes exactly what you say, which some professionals actually prefer. You decide what to edit.

Features: The Trade-Offs

Willow Voice's AI-First Approach

• Context-aware processing: Different behaviour in different apps
• AI text enhancement: Expands bullet points into prose
• Filler word removal: "Um" and "ah" vanish automatically
• Fn key push-to-talk: Elegant hardware integration
• 100+ languages: Seamless switching
• iOS companion: Dictate on iPhone, sync via iCloud

The iOS app launched November 2025 and it's polished. If you're deep in Apple's ecosystem, that's a real plus.

Speakmac's Simplicity-First Philosophy

• Global hotkey activation: Customise any keyboard shortcut
• Pause-resume dictation: Stop mid-sentence, return hours later
• Universal compatibility: Works in any Mac app, including VS Code and Terminal
• No word limits: Unlimited usage from day one
• One-time payment: No subscription management needed

There's no AI rewriting your words. For some, that's a feature, not a bug.

Who's Actually Using These?

Willow's enterprise roster is impressive: Uber, Heidi Health, Zego. These are cloud-native companies with SOC 2 requirements and global teams. Willow fits their existing infrastructure.

But I know a GP in Manchester who uses Speakmac for patient notes because NHS guidance frowns on cloud transcription. I know a security researcher who chooses Speakmac because their threat model includes state actors. I know freelance writers who choose Speakmac because $144/year saved is $144 earned.

Choose Willow Voice if you:

• Want AI to rewrite and polish your drafts
• Need seamless iOS-Mac continuity
• Work in a cloud-first enterprise (and your IT department approves)
• Require multi-language support beyond English
• Are comfortable with ongoing subscription costs

Choose Speakmac if you:

• Value absolute privacy and offline capability
• Want to own your software, not rent it
• Need reliable transcription anywhere—planes, trains, secure sites
• Prefer lightweight apps that stay out of your way
• Are tired of subscription fatigue

The Enterprise Elephant in the Room

Willow's SOC 2 compliance and Y Combinator backing matter. For a startup to achieve enterprise-grade security in under a year is genuinely impressive. Their encryption is robust, and the optional anonymised data collection is transparent.

But compliance isn't the same as control. I've worked with banks where "cloud-based" is an automatic red flag, regardless of certifications. For these organisations, Speakmac's on-device model is the only compliant option—no data leaves the boundary, so there's nothing to audit.

The 30% student/nonprofit discount is smart. It builds goodwill and future-proofs their user base. But even at $100/year, it's still $100 annually versus a $19 one-off payment.

Your Questions, Answered Honestly

Can Willow Voice work offline?

No. It requires a constant internet connection. No workaround, no offline mode.

Is Speakmac accurate for professional use?

Yes. The 99.7% accuracy holds up in real-world testing with technical vocabulary and varied accents. It's used by doctors, lawyers, and journalists.

What about languages?

Willow supports 100+ languages and switches between them mid-dictation. Speakmac is optimised for English (US/UK/India) with other languages rolling out gradually. If you need German or Mandarin today, Willow wins.

Is my data safe with Willow Voice?

For a cloud service, yes. SOC 2 compliance, end-to-end encryption, no permanent storage. But if you need on-device privacy, Speakmac is the only choice.

Which is faster?

Speakmac is instant. Willow is fast (<200ms) but dependent on your connection. On gigabit fibre, you won't notice the difference. On coffee shop Wi-Fi, you will.

What about the iOS app?

Willow's iOS app is excellent. Speakmac is Mac-only. If mobile dictation matters, Willow has the edge.

The Bottom Line: Values, Not Just Features

This isn't about which app is "better." It's about what you value.

Willow Voice is the future-forward choice. It's AI-powered, ecosystem-integrated, and backed by Silicon Valley's finest. If you want your dictation app to think alongside you—to rewrite, to adapt, to learn—it's brilliant. The iOS app seals the deal for Apple power users.

Speakmac is the values-driven choice. It's private, permanent, and respectful of your system resources. It doesn't try to be clever; it just transcribes your words accurately, instantly, and offline.

I've been using Speakmac for six months. My annual software budget is $500, so the saving isn't the point. The point is I can dictate a client brief on the Tube, in a secure government building, or during a power cut. No compromises.

But I'm also a technical writer. If I were a corporate lawyer who needs to dictate in French and English, I'd choose Willow without hesitation.

The question isn't which app is superior. It's this: Do you want to rent AI, or own privacy?

Choose accordingly.

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Pricing and features last verified: December 2025