Comparison

Flit vs Muesli

Free, MIT, and it does meetings too

The short answer

Muesli is free, MIT licensed, and covers more ground than Flit: local dictation, meeting transcription with no bot on the call, an iPhone app, Apple Shortcuts and Siri actions, and a spoken-instruction rewrite it calls Quill. It runs on Apple silicon and lets you pick your model, with an optional hosted route through OpenAI or OpenRouter if you want one. Flit is $49 once, covers less, and spends it all on the dictation: formatting fixed by rules rather than decided by a model, a local project index that spells your file names right, and no hosted path to configure or double-check. If you want one free app for calls and writing, take Muesli. If dictation is the job, Flit.

Download for Mac Visit Muesli

Side by side

  Flit Muesli
Where transcription happens Your Mac, always Your Mac, with an optional hosted route
Price $49 once, up to 2 Macs Free, MIT licensed
Source available No Yes, MIT
Platforms macOS only macOS on Apple silicon, plus an iPhone app
Account required No Only for the hosted models, if you use them
Text appears as you speak Yes Not stated
Records meetings No Yes, with no bot on the call
Choice of model Ships tuned for Apple silicon Parakeet, Qwen3, Gemma and others
Knows your codebase Indexes it locally No
Exact times and commands Fixed rules Not stated

Compared against Muesli’s own published information. “Not stated” means they do not publish that detail. Prices change, so confirm before you buy.

Why people pick Flit

  • No hosted route at all. Muesli offers optional dictation through OpenAI or OpenRouter, which is a setting worth checking before a sensitive dictation. Flit has nothing to check.
  • Times, prices, spoken punctuation, snippets and dictionary words are fixed by rules, so the same sentence formats the same way every time.
  • A local index of your open project, so spoken file and symbol names come out spelled right.
  • Per-app tone, so a commit message and a client email do not arrive in the same register.
  • One job, supported and shipped on a schedule rather than at a community’s pace.

In fairness

  • Free and MIT licensed, installable with one Homebrew command.
  • It records and summarizes meetings from your own computer audio, with no bot joining the call. Flit does not record meetings.
  • An iPhone app, plus Apple Shortcuts and Siri actions for dictation and recording. Flit has neither.
  • You choose the model, from Parakeet and Qwen3 to Gemma, with Indic language support added separately. Flit ships what it ships.
  • Quill rewrites selected text from a spoken instruction, or writes at the cursor with no selection.

Listed because they are true. Muesli’s default is local and its whole pitch is that speech should not be rented to the cloud, so the two apps start from the same conviction. The differences are breadth against depth, and the fact that Muesli keeps a hosted door open while Flit has none to keep.

What actually decides it

Breadth against depth, again

This is the same shape as the Snaply comparison and the honest answer is the same. Muesli covers meetings, notes, an iPhone, Shortcuts, a model picker and a spoken rewrite tool, and it charges nothing for any of it. Flit covers one key and what happens after you release it. If you are choosing an app to own the whole speech surface of your Mac, breadth is the right criterion and Muesli is remarkable value. If you are choosing the tool you will hold down forty times a day to write, depth is the right criterion, and depth is what the $49 is for.

Optional cloud is still a setting

Muesli added hosted dictation through OpenAI and OpenRouter as a choice, alongside its local models, and being able to choose is genuinely useful. It also means that "is this dictation local?" becomes a question with a settings screen behind it, and settings get changed, inherited from a teammate’s config, or forgotten. Flit does not offer the option, which is a real limitation if you wanted a bigger hosted model, and a real guarantee if you did not. Neither position is cost-free. Ours is the one you cannot misconfigure.

The verdict

Choose Flit if

dictation is the job, and you want formatting that cannot drift and no hosted path to check.

Download for Mac

7 days free · $19 once, up to 2 Macs · macOS 14 or later · Apple silicon

Choose Muesli if

you want one free, open-source app for meetings and dictation, an iPhone app, or your pick of model.

Questions

Is Muesli free?

Yes. It is MIT licensed and free, with the source on GitHub and an official Homebrew cask. Flit is $49 once for up to 2 Macs.

Is Muesli local?

By default, yes: its dictation and meeting transcription run on Apple silicon. It also offers optional hosted dictation through OpenAI or OpenRouter if you turn it on. Flit has no hosted option at all.

Does Muesli record meetings?

Yes, from your own computer audio, with no bot joining the call, and it can re-summarize a saved meeting with a different model. Flit does not record meetings.

Does Muesli run on Intel Macs?

No. Its site states Apple silicon, as does Flit’s. For an Intel Mac, look at SpeakMac or FluidVoice instead.

Pricing

Pay once. Keep it forever.

Flit for Mac

$19

was $49

once

One payment. No subscription, no account.

Launch price for the first 50 licenses 50 left

The price goes up when they are gone.

Get it for $19 Or try it free for 7 days
  • 2 Macs, move it whenever you like
  • All 99 languages, every engine included
  • A year of updates, then keep the app forever
  • Runs offline. Nothing you say leaves your Mac

Flit Lifetime

$59

was $99

once

Buy it once and never think about it again.

Launch price for the first 50 licenses 50 left

The price goes up when they are gone.

Get Lifetime for $59 Or try it free for 7 days
  • 2 Macs, move it whenever you like
  • Every update, forever. Nothing to renew
  • All 99 languages, every engine included
  • Runs offline. Nothing you say leaves your Mac

No card for the trial. macOS 14 or later · Apple silicon. 30-day refund, no questions.

Questions? The pricing page answers the usual ones.

Still deciding?

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