FreeFlow vs Willow Voice
Very fast cloud dictation with a generous free tier — and the same upload every other cloud app makes.
Willow Voice competes on latency, and it competes well — sub-200ms is the number it advertises and the experience matches. It also has the most generous free tier of any paid cloud app here: unlimited dictation on its smaller model, which is enough for a lot of people to never pay.
Like Wispr Flow and Aqua, it is a cloud service. Audio goes up, text comes back, and the app stops working when your connection does.
FreeFlow is competing on the opposite property. Not faster than Willow on a good connection — bounded by your hardware instead of your network, which is a different promise.
Latency you control versus latency you hope for
Willow's speed on a good connection is excellent. The catch is the phrase 'on a good connection'. Cloud latency is your Wi-Fi, your ISP, and their capacity — none of which you can do anything about mid-sentence.
On-device latency is your Neural Engine, which behaves the same in a café, on a plane, and in a basement. Willow is likely faster than FreeFlow at a desk with good fibre. FreeFlow is faster than Willow anywhere Willow does not work.
The free tier is real, and worth using first
Unlimited dictation on the smaller model is a genuinely good offer, and anyone weighing $99 should try it before spending anything. If Willow's free tier covers your work and you have no concerns about uploading audio, you have found your answer without paying either of us.
FreeFlow's equivalent is a 14-day trial of the complete app, no card and no account. Different shape: full features, limited time, versus limited features, unlimited time.
Zero retention is not the same as never sent
Willow states it does not retain audio, and there is no reason to doubt it. But 'we delete it after' and 'it never left your Mac' are different guarantees, and only one of them survives a policy change, a breach, or an acquisition.
FreeFlow's version needs no trust: there is no server. Turn the network off and it still types.
Pick Willow Voice instead if…
- You want the fastest possible dictation on a reliable connection and uploading audio is fine for your work.
- You need Windows or iOS alongside your Mac.
- The free tier covers what you do — in which case pay neither of us.
- You have an Intel Mac. FreeFlow requires Apple Silicon.
The verdict
Willow is a strong cloud product with the best free tier in this comparison, and if your work can be uploaded it is a legitimate choice. FreeFlow is for the case Willow structurally cannot serve: dictation that happens with no network and no third party, at a fixed one-time price. Try Willow's free tier first — if you find yourself wishing it worked offline, you already know which one you need.
Questions people actually ask
Does Willow Voice work offline?
No. It is cloud-based and needs a connection for every dictation.
Is FreeFlow faster than Willow?
On a good connection, probably not. Off one, Willow does not run at all. FreeFlow's latency depends on your Mac rather than your network, so it is consistent rather than peak-fast.
Willow says it retains no audio. Isn't that the same as on-device?
No. Not retaining audio is a policy about data already sent; on-device means it was never sent. Policies can change and servers can be breached — architecture cannot.