Compare/Dictation

BB RecordervsWispr 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

Where we differ

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.

Side by side

Feature-by-feature

Feature
BB Recorder
Wispr Flow

Privacy

100% local inference optionKey
Works fully offline
Zero Data Retention mode
Pro/Enterprise
No account required

Writing workflow

Global hotkey dictation in any app
Live cleanup (fillers / punctuation)
Custom cleanup instructionsKey
partial
Snippets library
Snippets
Dictation Bar + Notch UI
menu bar only
Personal dictionary

AI engine

Bring your own API keysKey
Bring your own .bin or GGUF model file
Swap transcription + chat providers freely
Apple Intelligence cleanup

Scope

Dictation
Meeting notesKey
Screen recordingKey

Platforms

macOS
iOS
beta
Windows
beta
Android
beta

Pricing

Unlimited words on Mac, freeKey
No Pro tier required for core
Need team features?

Upload to BuildBetter on demand

Every local recording — meeting, dictation snippet, or screen capture — can be uploaded to BuildBetter's SOC 2 / HIPAA-ready cloud for a shared team library, search across all recordings, and org-wide access controls. Opt-in per recording. Never automatic.

See it yourself

Free forever. No account required. Works on macOS.

Download for Desktop