Superwhisper
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 8 of 26 dictation apps by recommenders
Voice dictation app people praise for high accuracy, speed, custom vocabulary and replace rules, with built-in language models. Common caveat: it is a paid subscription and not cheap.
Voice dictation app people praise for high accuracy, speed, custom vocabulary and replace rules, with built-in language models. Common caveat: it is a paid subscription and not cheap.
21 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 17
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 81%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 17 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
High recognition accuracy and speed
“recognition is better (much better) on handy/superwhisper, everything else felt MUCH worse”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Ghost Pepper – 100% local hold-to-talk speech-to-text for macOS” “it transcribes with very high accuracy for me and great speed”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: How can I get better at using AI for programming?” Many features beyond basic transcription
“Tons of features. Language models are built right in without additional charge.”
Comment from 15 Jan 2026 in “Handy – free open source speech-to-text app” “Superwhisper does a lot more than just provide a whisper/parakeet UI”
Comment from 13 Jul 2026 in “Apple's new SpeechAnalyzer API, benchmarked against Whisper and its predecessor” Works well for dictation
“I'm using Wispr flow, but I've also tried Superwhisper. Both are fine.”
Comment from 13 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: How can I get better at using AI for programming?” “run locally and work just fine for dictation”
Comment from 15 Apr 2026 in “Wispr Flow Is Tracking Every App/URL You Visit and Taking Screenshots” Chosen over other dictation tools
“stopped using it when i replaced it with superwhisper”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Warp is now open-source” “Monologue and Superwhisper are my go-tos”
Comment from 23 Sep 2026 in “Anyone using a Wispr Flow alternative that is non-cloud?”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Paid subscription, not cheap
“So why are Willow ($144/year), Wisprflow ($120/year), and SuperWhisper ($120/year) all subscriptions?”
Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “Why do voice transcription apps charge monthly when Whisper runs locally?” “Excellent competitors (Superwhisper, MacWhisper, etc.) are closed/paid.”
Comment from 15 Jan 2026 in “Handy – free open source speech-to-text app” Accuracy still falls short
“That happens in most speech to text systems, even Superwhisper, Monologue and Wispr Flow”
Comment from 2 May 2026 in “VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage” “After using Superwhisper a lot i wanted something more accurate/faster”
Comment from 23 Sep 2026 in “Anyone using a Wispr Flow alternative that is non-cloud?”
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 | — | — |
| SuperwhisperThis page | 17 | 4 | 81% | 8 | — | Approved |
What people said
18 of the 23 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“After using Superwhisper a lot i wanted something more accurate/faster”
“Monologue and Superwhisper are my go-tos”
“you can give it custom vocabulary and replace rules easily”
“looked promising for that exact task”
“Superwhisper does a lot more than just provide a whisper/parakeet UI”
“That happens in most speech to text systems, even Superwhisper, Monologue and Wispr Flow”
“stopped using it when i replaced it with superwhisper”
“Our claude and openCode plugins pipes your voice straight in as a prompt/reply when the agent needs more information”
“run locally and work just fine for dictation”
“recognition is better (much better) on handy/superwhisper, everything else felt MUCH worse”
“otherwise excellent but not cheap”
“Tons of features. Language models are built right in without additional charge.”
“TTS apps like SuperWhisper have proven to be very helpful for me in such situations”
“Excellent competitors (Superwhisper, MacWhisper, etc.) are closed/paid.”
“it transcribes with very high accuracy for me and great speed”
“I'm using Wispr flow, but I've also tried Superwhisper. Both are fine.”
“SuperWhisper free is solid”
“So why are Willow ($144/year), Wisprflow ($120/year), and SuperWhisper ($120/year) all subscriptions?”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.