Harker vs Apple Dictation
Apple Dictation is free, built into every Mac, and requires zero setup. For occasional dictation, it may be all you need. This comparison covers where the two differ: how they behave across apps, what happens to your text after you speak, and what each costs.
Download Harker FreeLast updated: June 2026
| Feature | Harker | Apple Dictation |
|---|---|---|
| Works in any app | Yes. One global shortcut, and the text auto-pastes at your cursor in any app | Works in most text fields, but behavior varies from app to app |
| Always available | Persistent: trigger it from anywhere with a shortcut or hold-to-listen | Started per text field, inside whatever app you're in |
| AI writing features | Yes, with Premium: writing styles, smart formatting, grammar fixes, translation | No. You get raw transcription only |
| Offline transcription | Yes. Local Whisper models, fully offline | Partial. On-device for some languages and devices |
| Privacy | Free tier is 100% local; audio never leaves your Mac. Premium sends only text to the cloud, never audio | Mixed. Processing is on-device in some cases, on Apple servers in others |
| Price | Free, unlimited, no account. Premium $7/month or $69/year ($5.75/month) | Free, included with macOS |
Choose Harker if…
- You dictate every day and want one shortcut that behaves identically in every app, from email to Slack to your code editor.
- You want clean, usable text (formatted emails, bullet points, corrected grammar), not a raw transcript you edit by hand.
- You want certainty about where your audio goes: with Harker it stays on your device, full stop.
- You want to choose your own trade-off between speed and accuracy, with Whisper models from nano to large.
Choose Apple Dictation if…
- You dictate occasionally and raw transcription is good enough. Apple Dictation is right there and it keeps improving.
- You don't want to install anything. Zero-install, zero-config is a real advantage, and Apple wins it outright.
- Cost is the deciding factor and you won't use AI features. Free and built-in beats free-plus-a-download.
The honest takeaway
Apple Dictation is a capable default, and if you use dictation a few times a week, sticking with it is a reasonable choice. Harker earns its place when dictation becomes part of how you work: it's always one shortcut away in any app, it transcribes locally and offline, and Premium turns rambling speech into formatted, corrected text. The free tier has no word caps and needs no account, so trying both side by side costs nothing.
My favourite part about Harker compared to all the other voice-to-text tools is that it's built for privacy... everything stays locally, and my thoughts and brilliant ideas are not floating around in the cloud somewhere.
Tara Thompson
Questions
Try Harker free
Unlimited local transcription, no account required. Upgrade to Premium whenever you want.