Parakeety vs Spokenly

It is tempting to make this about privacy, but that would be unfair to Spokenly. Its free Local Models tier runs Whisper and Parakeet on the device, fully offline, with no account and no usage limits. So both apps can transcribe your speech without anything leaving the machine. Parakeety has no monopoly on on-device.

The honest difference is two things. First, platforms and price model: Spokenly spreads one subscription across macOS, iPhone, and Windows, with cloud accuracy behind $9.99 a month; Parakeety is Mac-native and a one-time $30 with no subscription and no cloud at all. Second, breadth versus focus: Spokenly is a multi-model app with free local options, bring-your-own cloud keys, and a paid cloud tier; Parakeety ships one model and one push-to-talk workflow that runs the moment you install it. Neither is wrong; they serve different buyers.

Yes. Spokenly's free Local Models tier runs Whisper and Parakeet models directly on the device, completely offline, with no account and no usage limits. That is real on-device transcription at no cost, so the privacy story is genuinely good. The only part of Spokenly that leaves the device is its optional cloud accuracy: the Pro tier's high-accuracy models run in the cloud, and the free Your API Keys tier connects to providers like OpenAI, Deepgram, or Groq through keys you supply. Those are choices you opt into, not the default.

Parakeety reaches the same on-device result by a narrower route. There is no model picker at all. Parakeet TDT v3 runs on the Apple Neural Engine, the audio and the transcript both stay on the Mac on every install, and the only outbound traffic is a one-time model download from Hugging Face and periodic license checks. The practical difference is not whether each can run locally, since both can, but that Parakeety has no cloud path to opt into, so there is no setting to get wrong. If the architecture behind that matters to you, the what on-device speech recognition actually means piece and the architectural versus contractual privacy piece go deeper.

Genuinely free, on two of its three tiers. Spokenly's Local Models tier is $0 forever, with unlimited offline use, the Whisper and Parakeet models, and no account required. Its Your API Keys tier is also $0, adding real-time cloud transcription through keys you bring yourself, so Spokenly charges nothing and you pay the API providers directly for what you use. The paid tier is Pro at $9.99 a month, billed monthly, with two months free if you pay yearly (about $99.90 a year). Pro adds high-accuracy cloud models that work out of the box, AI text processing, and priority support across macOS, iOS, and Windows, with a 14-day refund and cancel-anytime billing.

So if a free local model covers your dictation, Spokenly costs nothing and that is a fair, real free option. Parakeety is a different deal rather than a cheaper one: a 7-day free trial with no card, then $30 once with every feature and every future update included and no subscription. The trade is plain. Spokenly is free until you want cloud accuracy, then it is a monthly fee; Parakeety asks for $30 up front and never asks again.

Spokenly runs on macOS, iPhone, and Windows under one subscription, so part of its appeal is reach: dictation on your laptop, your phone, and your PC, on whichever you have in hand. Setup means choosing a tier, whether the free local models, your own cloud keys, or Pro's out-of-the-box cloud models, and picking what suits the task. That breadth is the point, and breadth means there is a right configuration to find.

Parakeety has one door. Install the app, grant microphone and accessibility permission, hold the section key (§) below Esc, talk, release, and the words paste at the cursor in whatever app you were already in. No tier to choose, no provider keys, no model files to fetch by hand. That is the whole setup, and it is Mac-only: Apple Silicon on macOS 14 or later, no iOS or Windows app.

So Spokenly fits people who want one app across Mac, iPhone, and Windows and the option to reach for cloud accuracy. Parakeety fits people who only dictate on the Mac and want it to work on first launch without configuring anything. If push-to-talk at the cursor is the specific behavior you are after, the push-to-talk versus always-on dictation comparison goes deeper on why that loop matters.

Spokenly's strength is the menu: its free local tier runs Whisper and Parakeet models, its API-keys tier reaches cloud providers like OpenAI, Deepgram, and Groq, and its $9.99/month Pro tier ships high-accuracy cloud models out of the box. So you can match the model to a language or a task, and pay for the cloud only when you want the top accuracy. The cost is that the highest accuracy sits behind a subscription.

Parakeety runs one model: Parakeet TDT v3, a transducer model on the Apple Neural Engine. On the Hugging Face Open ASR Leaderboard it posts a 6.32% word error rate against Whisper Large V3's 7.44%, transcribes ten minutes of audio in around 0.2 seconds, and the transducer architecture does not hallucinate phrases on long silences the way some models can. It covers 25 European languages. The point worth making is that this is the same Parakeet family Spokenly offers free and local, so Parakeety's accuracy is competitive without anyone needing to reach for a paid cloud tier to get it. The cost of running one model is no flexibility: if Parakeet does not cover your language, there is nothing to switch to, whereas Spokenly's cloud option can.

• Cross-platform. One subscription covers macOS, iPhone, and Windows, so you are not tied to the Mac.
• A genuinely free local tier. Whisper and Parakeet running offline, unlimited, with no account and no cost.
• Bring your own cloud keys. Plug in OpenAI, Deepgram, or Groq for real-time cloud transcription at $0 to Spokenly; you pay the providers directly.
• Cloud accuracy on tap. The $9.99/month Pro tier adds high-accuracy cloud models that work out of the box.
• AI text processing. Pro can clean up and reshape what you dictate, which Parakeety does not do.
• Wider language reach. A cloud model can cover languages a single local model does not.

• $30 once, no subscription. Spokenly's top accuracy is $9.99 a month; Parakeety is a single purchase that includes its best accuracy, because that accuracy is on-device, not a paid cloud upgrade.
• Mac-native focus. Built for the Mac rather than spread across macOS, iPhone, and Windows, so the one workflow is tuned for one platform.
• No setup. A signed, notarized app that runs on first launch. No tier to pick, no provider keys, no model files to fetch.
• One fast on-device model. Parakeet TDT v3 on the Apple Neural Engine, ten minutes of audio in around 0.2 seconds, with nothing to configure.
• No cloud path to opt into. There is no cloud option at all, so the on-device posture never depends on a setting you might change.
• Push-to-talk at the cursor. Hold the section key, talk, release, paste in any app. The whole product is that loop.
• No silence hallucination. The transducer architecture does not invent phrases on quiet stretches.
• Solo-maker support. Parakeety is a one-person operation; mail the person who builds it and you reach the person who builds it.

For other points in this comparison family, the Parakeety vs SuperWhisper piece covers another Mac model-menu competitor, Parakeety vs VoiceInk covers open source versus a signed app, Parakeety vs MacWhisper covers file transcription versus dictation, and Parakeety vs Wispr Flow is the deeper read on cloud versus local. If you are weighing the open-source end of the field too, the VoiceInk alternatives round-up covers it. If you are still mapping the category, the overview of voice to text on Mac and the roundup of the best Mac dictation app in 2026 are good starting points.

If you dictate across a Mac, an iPhone, and a PC, or you want a free local tier with the option of cloud accuracy later, Spokenly is the broader fit. If you only dictate on the Mac and want one $30 purchase with no subscription, no cloud, and nothing to configure, Parakeety is the smaller, decided answer. Hold the section key (§) below Esc, talk, release; your words paste at the cursor in whichever app you were typing into. There is a free 7-day trial with no card required. After that it is $30 once, all features and all future updates included.

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