Dictation
BB Recorder vs Wispr Flow
Flow's speed. On your device.
Wispr Flow is a fantastic cloud dictation product. BB Recorder is its local-first counterpart — same speed, custom cleanup prompts, pick any model, and you get meeting recording and screen recording in the same app.
BB Recorder
100% local option · BYO keys + models
Meeting recorder, dictation, and screen recording in one app. Free forever.
Wispr Flow
Voice-to-text that works 4× faster than typing.
Free capped · $12/mo Pro
Key differences
Local inference option
Flow streams your voice to their servers. BB Recorder can run transcription and cleanup fully on your Mac — Apple Intelligence, Whisper, or your own GGUF model.
Custom cleanup prompts
Give the cleaner extra instructions: keep your voice, always end with 'Thanks,', use British spelling, preserve Slack emojis. BB Recorder's custom cleaner instructions are yours to tune per use case.
Bring your own keys + models
Flow picks the model. BB Recorder lets you use Apple Intelligence, Whisper, Groq, OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama — or drop a GGUF file and run it.
Dictation + meetings + screen
Flow is dictation only. BB Recorder has a no-bot meeting recorder and a screen recorder in the same app, with shared hotkeys and library.
No word cap
Flow's free tier caps you at 2,000 words/week on desktop. BB Recorder is unlimited and free on macOS.
Snippets mode
Capture quick dictation clips into a searchable library — not just paste-at-cursor. BB Recorder's Snippets view is a dedicated dictation archive.
Feature comparison
| Feature | BB Recorder | Wispr Flow |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy | ||
| 100% local inference option | Yes | No |
| Works fully offline | Yes | No |
| Zero Data Retention mode | Yes | Pro/Enterprise |
| No account required | Yes | No |
| Writing workflow | ||
| Global hotkey dictation in any app | Yes | Yes |
| Live cleanup (fillers / punctuation) | Yes | Yes |
| Custom cleanup instructions | Yes | partial |
| Snippets library | Yes | Snippets |
| Dictation Bar + Notch UI | Yes | menu bar only |
| Personal dictionary | Yes | Yes |
| AI engine | ||
| Bring your own API keys | Yes | No |
| Bring your own .bin or GGUF model file | Yes | No |
| Swap transcription + chat providers freely | Yes | No |
| Apple Intelligence cleanup | Yes | No |
| Scope | ||
| Dictation | Yes | Yes |
| Meeting notes | Yes | No |
| Screen recording | Yes | No |
| Platforms | ||
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | beta | Yes |
| Windows | beta | Yes |
| Android | beta | Yes |
| Pricing | ||
| Unlimited words on Mac, free | Yes | No |
| No Pro tier required for core | Yes | No |
When Wispr Flow is the better pick
Flow's cross-platform coverage is more established. BB Recorder is available in beta on iOS, Windows, and Android; choose Flow if you need a mature cross-platform dictation experience today.
Try it on your next call.
Free. Works offline. No account required.
Rolling it out to a team? BuildBetter adds SSO, admin controls, and a shared workspace.
