Amical

Amical is open source speech-to-text that works in any app—emails, Slack, code editors, literally anywhere you type. The pitch is simple: speak 4x faster than you type and let their AI clean up the mess. But here's what makes it different from every other dictation tool out there—they give you a choice. Local models for Maximum privacy so your voice never touches a server, or cloud AI when you need raw speed. Flip a switch, done.

Most speech-to-text tools force you one way or the other. Amical says why not both? It's open source, it's private-by-design, and it handles 100+ languages. Works on Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android so you're covered whether you're at a desk or on the go. The auto-formatter handles punctuation, capitalization, all the messy bits you'd normally go back and fix manually.

At $49 for a lifetime license—this was $180—it's basically a steal for open source software with cloud + local options. Usually you pay monthly for these things. AppSumo currently has it listed in productivity if you want to pick it up.