FreeFlow vs superwhisper
The closest thing to a direct rival — local models, deep customisation, and a subscription attached to it.
superwhisper is the honest comparison in this list, because it is the one app here that already agrees with FreeFlow about the important thing: dictation should be able to run on your own machine. It ships local Whisper and Parakeet models, works offline, and has the deepest mode system in the category.
FreeFlow's modes were built to read superwhisper's schema, so if you have spent time tuning modes there, they drop straight in. That was deliberate. Switching should cost you an import, not an afternoon.
The differences are narrower here and mostly come down to two things: what you pay, and what the app does when you are not looking.
Local, but not only local
superwhisper is hybrid by design. Local models are there, and they are good, but the app also offers cloud models — GPT-5, Claude, Gemini, Llama — for transcription and post-processing. That flexibility is genuinely useful, and it is also a surface: which mode you are in determines whether this sentence leaves your Mac.
FreeFlow has no cloud path at all. There is one behaviour to reason about, not two. That is a smaller product and, for some people, a worse one — but you never have to check which mode you are in before dictating something you would not paste into a web form.
The pricing shapes are genuinely different
superwhisper Pro is $8.49/mo or $102/yr, with a $249.99 lifetime option. FreeFlow is $99 once for three Macs.
Against the annual plan, FreeFlow pays for itself inside the first year. Against superwhisper's lifetime tier, you are comparing $99 to $249.99 — for which superwhisper gives you Windows and iOS, a larger model catalogue, and a longer track record.
There is no clever argument to make here. It is a straightforward question of whether the extra $150 buys you things you will use.
What FreeFlow does differently
Incognito: for as long as it is on, dictation still types into your app, but no audio and no transcript is written to disk, and the text is not left on your clipboard afterwards.
The clipboard restore is the small thing people notice. FreeFlow pastes into the frontmost app and then puts back whatever you had copied, so dictating does not cost you the URL you were holding.
And the HUD is a pill, a panel, or the notch — the notch option in particular means the interface is somewhere your eyes already are.
Pick superwhisper instead if…
- You need Windows or iOS. FreeFlow is Mac-only, Apple Silicon only.
- You want cloud AI post-processing — rewriting, summarising, tone changes — as a first-class feature. FreeFlow deliberately has none.
- You want the largest model catalogue and the most mature mode ecosystem. superwhisper has had longer to build both.
- You have an Intel Mac. superwhisper supports it with cloud models; FreeFlow does not support it at all.
The verdict
These two apps want the same thing and stop in different places. superwhisper is broader — more platforms, more models, cloud when you want it. FreeFlow is narrower on purpose: one machine, one behaviour, one payment. If you already run superwhisper's local modes and never touch the cloud ones, FreeFlow is that setup with the subscription removed, and your mode files come with you.
Questions people actually ask
Can I import my superwhisper modes?
Yes. FreeFlow's mode files use the superwhisper schema, so existing ones drop straight in.
Does FreeFlow have cloud models like superwhisper does?
No, by design. Every model runs on-device. If cloud post-processing is central to how you work, superwhisper is the better fit and this is not a close call.
Which is cheaper?
FreeFlow at $99 once beats superwhisper's $102/yr in year one and every year after. Against superwhisper's $249.99 lifetime tier, FreeFlow is $150 cheaper but Mac-only.