Alternatives/Flit vs Aqua Voice
Flit vs Aqua Voice
Flit can read the thread too, on your Mac, and never uploads it.
The short answer
Both apps read your screen to write better text; Flit is the one that does it without uploading anything. Aqua sends that context to its servers and charges $8 to $24 a month with an account. Flit reads the focused field on your Mac, holds it in memory for exactly one dictation, writes it nowhere, and costs $19 once. If the thing on your screen is the reason you want dictation to be smart, it is also the reason you should not send it anywhere.
Flit vs Aqua Voice, side by side
Flit Aqua Voice From Aqua Voice’s own published information, checked July 2026. “Not stated” means they do not publish that detail. Prices change, so confirm before you buy.
Why people pick Flit
- The screen context never leaves your Mac. That is the whole difference between the two products.
- One payment rather than $8 or $24 every month.
- No account.
- It works with no connection at all.
- Times, punctuation, and dictionary words are handled by fixed rules, so the same input always produces the same output.
Where Aqua Voice differs
- Mac and iPhone.
- A free tier of 1,000 words.
- Publishes a 97.3% accuracy figure for its Avalon model.
“Your screen is its dictionary” cuts both ways
Reading the screen is what makes dictation feel intelligent: names from the thread, terminology from the document, code from the file. It also means the most sensitive thing on your machine is the input. Aqua does this in the cloud. Flit does the same thing on your Mac, keeps the capture in memory for exactly one dictation, never writes it to disk, and skips secure fields entirely.
Two speed claims, two baselines
Aqua states 5x faster than typing, from 230 words per minute against 40. Flit states 4x, from 124 words per minute measured across real dictations against about 31 for composition typing. The gap is mostly the baseline: a speaking rate is not the same as finished text arriving, and typing while you think is slower than copying text. We chose the more conservative pair, which is why our number is lower.
The verdict
Flit
Choose Flit if the context it reads is the exact thing you do not want uploaded.
7 days free · $19 once, up to 2 Macs
AAqua Voice
Choose Aqua Voice if you want it on iPhone too, or you want to try it free before deciding.
Questions
Does Aqua Voice run on your Mac?
Its site does not say the processing happens on your Mac, and the screen context feature implies it is handled on their servers. Flit runs on your Mac only, and you can check that with a network monitor.
Which reads context better?
We have not benchmarked theirs, so we do not claim to. What we can say is where the reading happens: Aqua in the cloud, Flit on your Mac in memory for one dictation.
Is there a free version of Flit?
No free tier. There is a 7-day trial, with no card and no account.
