Alternatives/Flit vs Handy
Flit vs Handy
Flit types as you speak and finishes the text for you.
The short answer
Flit and Handy both run entirely on your machine, so neither is asking you to trust a server. Handy is free and MIT licensed, runs on macOS, Windows and Linux, and does one thing: hold a key, speak, and the transcript is pasted where you were typing. Its author says plainly that it is not trying to be the best speech-to-text app but the most forkable one, and it was built as an accessibility tool after he broke a finger. Flit is $15 once and spends its effort on what happens between the transcript and your cursor: streaming text, formatting fixed by rules, per-app tone, and a local index of your project. Take Handy if you want a small tool you can read and change. Take Flit if you want the words to arrive finished.
Flit vs Handy, side by side
Flit Handy From Handy’s own published information, checked September 2026. “Not stated” means they do not publish that detail. Prices change, so confirm before you buy.
Why people pick Flit
- Text appears while you are still speaking. Handy pastes once you release the key.
- The transcript is not the deliverable. Flit fixes times, prices, spoken punctuation, snippets and dictionary words by rule, then matches the tone of the app you are writing in.
- It indexes your open project, so file and folder names you say out loud come out spelled right.
- Insertion that keeps working in Chrome and Electron apps, and keeps being fixed as macOS changes.
- One app tuned for Apple silicon, rather than one codebase spanning three operating systems.
Where Handy differs
- Free and MIT licensed.
- macOS, Windows and Linux from one codebase, with GPU acceleration.
- Small and built to be forked.
- Started as an accessibility tool and still aimed at that.
The most forkable, by design
Handy states its goal outright: not the best speech-to-text app, the most forkable one. That sets the terms of this comparison more than any feature does. A tool built to be modified stays small, stays readable, and leaves the opinionated parts to you. A tool built to be finished makes those decisions itself and carries them for you as the operating system moves. Neither is the correct answer in general. If you want to own the behavior, Handy hands you the source and the blessing to change it.
What a formatting pass is worth
Both apps get words out of audio well, using models from the same family. The difference is everything after that. Say "meet at four thirty on the fourteenth, in parentheses, the office" and Handy will give you a faithful transcript of that sentence. Flit gives you "Meet at 4:30 on the 14th (the office)". Multiply that by every timestamp, price, quotation mark and product name in a working day and you are either editing after every dictation or you are not. That gap is what $15 buys, and if you would rather close it yourself in a fork, Handy is the starting point.
The verdict
Flit
Choose Flit if you want finished text rather than a transcript, and you would rather not maintain it yourself.
7 days free · $15 once, for one Mac
HHandy
Choose Handy if you want a free tool you can read, fork and keep, or you dictate on Windows or Linux as well.
Questions
Is Handy really free?
Yes. It is MIT licensed, free to download, and funded by donations. Flit is $15 once for one Mac.
Does Handy work offline?
Yes, entirely. It runs Whisper or Parakeet on your own machine and makes no cloud calls. Flit does the same, on the Mac only.
Does Handy run on Windows or Linux?
Yes, both, alongside macOS. Flit is macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon and has no answer for the other two.
Why would I pay for Flit when Handy is free?
For the part Handy deliberately leaves out. Flit streams text as you speak, formats it by fixed rules, matches the tone of the app you are in, indexes your open project so names are spelled right, and keeps its insertion working in Chrome and Electron apps as macOS changes. If a clean transcript at your cursor is all you need, Handy is free and you should use it.
