Wavenote as a superwhisper alternative
A Whisper dictation app that started on the Mac and now covers Windows and iOS too. It can run the model on your machine, which makes it the closest thing to Wavenote architecturally.
What superwhisper does better
superwhisper lets you choose among several Whisper model sizes and point it at cloud models with your own API keys, so you can trade speed for accuracy yourself. Wavenote ships one model per language and does not expose that choice. It also runs on Windows and iOS and works on Intel Macs through its cloud models, and Wavenote does none of that. Both now record meetings; superwhisper has been doing it longer and summarises them in its own app.
Where Wavenote is different
- Wavenote runs Parakeet on the Neural Engine rather than Whisper, which is faster for the same audio on Apple Silicon.
- File transcription with SRT and VTT export is in the $4.90 app, not behind a subscription.
- A meeting is recorded by hearing your microphone and what your Mac is playing, and Wavenote asks for System Audio Recording Only. superwhisper does not say what its Meeting Mode uses.
- AI rewriting goes through a proxy that stores nothing, so there is no API key to bring.
Side by side
| Wavenote | superwhisper | |
|---|---|---|
| Runs on your Mac | Yes | Yes |
| Choose your own model | No | Yes |
| Windows and iOS | No | Yes |
| Records meetings | Yes | Yes |
superwhisper pricing: Free tier, $8.49 a month, $84.99 a year, or $249.99 once. Checked against superwhisper.com on 7 August 2026.
Want more detail? The full superwhisper review works through it feature by feature.