Comparison
Free, MIT, and made to be forked
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 $49 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
| Handy | |
|---|---|---|
| Where transcription happens | Your Mac, always | Your machine, entirely offline |
| Price | $49 once, up to 2 Macs | Free, MIT licensed, donations accepted |
| Source available | No | Yes, MIT |
| Platforms | macOS only | macOS, Windows, Linux |
| Account required | No | No |
| Text appears as you speak | Yes | No, pasted when you release the key |
| Finished formatting | Rules, plus per-app tone | None: the transcript as recognized |
| Models | Ships tuned for Apple silicon | Your choice of Whisper or Parakeet |
| Knows your codebase | Indexes it locally | No |
| Exact times and commands | Fixed rules | Not offered |
Compared against Handy’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 “Not stated” means they do not publish that detail.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. Handy runs offline and its source is public, so trust is settled here on terms nobody has to take on faith, and its author is disarmingly direct that being the best app was never the goal. What is left to compare is how much work happens between the microphone and the cursor.
Handy states its goal outright: not the best speech-to-text app, the most forkable one. That is an unusual and rather good product decision, and it 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.
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 $49 buys, and if you would rather close it yourself in a fork, Handy is the better starting point.
Choose Flit if
you want finished text rather than a transcript, and you would rather not maintain it yourself.
Download for Mac7 days free · $19 once, up to 2 Macs · macOS 14 or later · Apple silicon
Choose Handy if
you want a free tool you can read, fork and keep, or you dictate on Windows or Linux as well.
Yes. It is MIT licensed, free to download, and funded by donations. Flit is $49 once for up to 2 Macs.
Yes, entirely. It runs Whisper or Parakeet on your own machine and makes no cloud calls. Flit does the same, on the Mac only.
Yes, both, alongside macOS. Flit is macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon and has no answer for the other two.
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.
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.
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