Comparison
$79 once, and it records your meetings
The short answer
Flit and Aside both keep your voice on your Mac, so this is a question of scope rather than trust. Aside is a meeting recorder that also dictates: no bot joins the call, transcription runs on your machine, speakers are separated afterwards, and every note lands as Markdown in a folder you choose, for $8 a month or $79 once. Flit only dictates, and spends everything on that: formatting fixed by rules rather than decided by a model, tone that follows the app you are in, and a local index of your open project so spoken file names come out spelled right. If your problem is that meetings disappear, buy Aside. If your problem is that typing is slower than thinking, Flit is $49 once and never asks you to pick an AI provider.
 Flit
| Aside | |
|---|---|---|
| Where transcription happens | Your Mac | Your Mac, for meetings and dictation |
| Price | $49 once, up to 2 Macs | $8/mo with their AI, or $79 once with your own |
| Machines covered | Up to 2 Macs | Every Mac that is yours: the licence is per person |
| Platforms | macOS only | macOS only |
| Text appears as you speak | Yes | Not stated |
| Records meetings | No | Yes, with no bot on the call |
| Speaker labels | Not applicable | Yes, separated on your Mac after the call |
| Notes written to disk | Nothing is written | Markdown, in a folder you choose |
| Writing the note needs a cloud model | There is no AI step | Yes, unless you run a local one with Ollama |
| Knows your codebase | Indexes it locally | No |
| Languages | 99, 25 streaming | About 99, on device |
Compared against Aside’s own published information. “Not stated” means they do not publish that detail. Prices change, so confirm before you buy.
In fairness
Listed because they are true. Aside transcribes on your Mac exactly as Flit does, and says so plainly, so this was never going to be an argument about privacy. The split is scope: Aside covers the call and the cursor, then hands the note to whichever AI you chose. Flit covers the cursor and has no AI step to point anywhere.
Aside is unusual among the tools on this site in that its dictation is not a bolt-on: it is the same on-device model that transcribes the meetings, bound to a hold-to-talk key, with a seven-day trial of its own. If you already want the meeting half, the dictation is close to free. What you do not get is the layer Flit spends its whole existence on, because Aside spends its effort on the call instead: streaming text, deterministic formatting, per-app tone, and a project index. Neither app is trying to be the other, and the honest recommendation for a lot of people is one of each.
Aside is refreshingly clear about the difference, so we will use their framing. The $8 a month includes the model that writes your notes and stops when you stop paying: new recordings and dictation stop, though everything already recorded stays readable. The $79 is the app itself and never stops, but the model behind the notes is then yours to supply, either through your own API key or locally with Ollama. Flit has no equivalent decision, because there is no note to write and no model to rent: $49 buys the app, and the formatting runs on your Mac.
Choose Flit if
dictation is the job, and you would rather not choose an AI provider to finish a sentence.
Download for Mac7 days free · $19 once, up to 2 Macs · macOS 14 or later · Apple silicon
Choose Aside if
your meetings need to become notes you own, or you want one app covering the call and the cursor.
Both. Hold fn, speak, and the text is typed where your cursor is, using the same on-device model that transcribes the meetings. Its dictation is free for seven days after setup and then part of the paid plan.
Flit, marginally, and the shapes differ. Flit is $49 once for up to 2 Macs. Aside is $79 once for every Mac you own, with your own AI behind the notes, or $8 a month with theirs included.
Transcription does, for both meetings and dictation: the speech model runs on your Mac. Writing the meeting note goes online unless you point Aside at a local model with Ollama. Flit is offline end to end because there is no note-writing step.
Plenty of people should, and we will not pretend otherwise. They overlap on one key and diverge everywhere else. If meetings and dictation both matter to you, Aside for the calls and Flit for the writing is a reasonable pair.
Pricing
$19
was $49
once
One payment. No subscription, no account.
The price goes up when they are gone.
$59
was $99
once
Buy it once and never think about it again.
The price goes up when they are gone.
No card for the trial. macOS 14 or later · Apple silicon. 30-day refund, no questions.
$195
$39 per Mac, once. One key for everyone.
$34 per Mac from 10.
More than 100? Let us talk.
macOS 14 or later · Apple silicon
Questions? The pricing page answers the usual ones.
Still deciding?
Flit vs Wispr Flow
$12 a month, in the cloud
Flit vs Superwhisper
A monthly subscription, with a smaller free tier
Flit vs SpeakMac
The other local, buy-once Mac tool
Flit vs Spokenly
Free, cross-platform, cloud on the upsell
Flit vs VoiceInk
Open source, local, and cheaper
Flit vs FluidVoice
Free, open source, local-first