Dictator dictation app
Shares rank 20 of 26 dictation apps by recommenders
Free, open-source macOS dictation tool that people find lightweight and controllable, and that works well with local models.
Free, open-source macOS dictation tool that people find lightweight and controllable, and that works well with local models.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
Other dictation apps people recommend
The four most recommended other dictation apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Handy | 150 | 20 | 88% | 12 | 1 mo5 owners | Approved |
| Wispr Flow | 52 | 33 | 61% | 12 | — | — |
| MacWhisper | 31 | 9 | 78% | 12 | — | Approved |
| macOS Dictation | 26 | 44 | 37% | 10 | — | — |
| Dictator dictation appThis page | 6 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
6 of the 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“an absolutely brilliant translation into Globish, a simplified English designed for commerce”
“recent update brought it very close to Wispr on local models only”
“Indeed private as promised per App Privacy Report”
“I've reduced that to just one step and found that it's pretty great”
“my free and open source dictation app”
“I wanted a lightweight, highly controllable voice-to-text tool for macOS”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.