Overview
Sayburst is a native menu bar dictation app. Hold fn to speak and insert text into the app you use. Speech recognition runs locally with Whisper or Parakeet. Local history and recovery help retrieve dictation if insertion does not go as planned. Optional cloud writing providers receive text and any enabled context; audio transcription remains local.
Pricing: 7-day free trial, no account or card. Solo $29 once for one Mac; Personal $49 once for three Macs. Both include 1.x updates.
Minimum macOS: 14.0 (Sonoma)
Architecture: Apple Silicon
Key Features
- fn push-to-talk dictation
- Local Whisper and Parakeet speech models
- Custom vocabulary and text replacements
- Per-app writing modes
- Local dictation history and recovery
- Optional writing providers
Tags
Sayburst Alternatives
VoiceInk
Open-source local dictation for Apple Silicon Macs
Liltio
On-device dictation for Mac with a one-time Local license
VibeSonic
Privacy-first AI dictation with Whisper and Parakeet, no subscription
SuperWhisper
Flexible voice-to-text with local models and custom modes