COMPARISONEvery claim sourced · verified Jun 2026

Hedy vs Krisp: the honest comparison.

Hedy is the better pick for live coaching during conversations, broad platform coverage, and local speech options. Krisp is better when noise cancellation, speaker identification, and team controls matter more. Ottex is here as our Mac/iOS alternative for people who want dictation, meetings, and finished work in one tool.

Ottex

Mac, iOS · Free tier · $14/mo · PAYG

Ottex is unusually broad for a young Mac/iOS-first tool: it turns dictation and meetings into emails, tickets, CRM updates, notes, and docs, but it is not the pick if you need Windows, Android, web, browser extension, or compliance paperwork.

Choose if

You want one tool for system-wide dictation, meeting recording, and finished written outcomes like follow-up emails, Linear tickets, CRM updates, PRDs, and docs
You want a real free path: unlimited local dictation, file transcription, and meetings on Mac with Whisper/Parakeet, or BYOK instead of a forced subscription
You need multilingual dictation with 100+ languages, auto-detection, mixed-language speech, personal vocabulary, and per-app output rules

Look elsewhere if

You need Windows, Android, Linux, web access, or a browser extension
You need mature team infrastructure such as a shared workspace, API/webhooks, third-party note destinations, or assistant chat over transcripts today.

Hedy

Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, Web · Limited free · $12.99/mo · $299 one-time

Hedy is strongest as a bot-free live meeting coach and searchable conversation memory, with local/offline options and broad platform support, but it is not a system-wide dictation tool and lacks proven speaker labels, hotkeys, snippets, or

Choose if

You want real-time coaching during meetings, with questions, blind-spot alerts, talking points, summaries, to-dos, and follow-up recaps after the session.
You need bot-free capture for Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, in-person conversations, or imported audio/video, with apps across iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and web
You value privacy controls: local speech recognition by default, optional local AI, optional cloud sync, GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC 2 Type I claims.

Look elsewhere if

You need system-wide dictation that inserts polished text into any app; Hedy explicitly does not support system-wide insertion or context-aware dictation.
You need meeting transcripts with publicly claimed speaker identification, timestamp exports, or speaker labels; those claims are not present here.

Krisp

Mac, Windows, Android, Web · Limited free · $16/mo

Krisp is strongest as a noise-cancelling meeting assistant with solid notes, summaries, and compliance signals, but it is not a live dictation tool for writing across apps.

Choose if

You want bot-free meeting recording and transcription on macOS or Windows, with noise cancellation as a core part of the workflow.
You spend a lot of time in calls and want summaries, action items, speaker identification, decisions, and chat across past meetings.
You need team or enterprise controls such as SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, GDPR, encryption at rest, and SSO/SCIM on Enterprise.

Look elsewhere if

You need system-wide live dictation, hotkey-triggered insertion, voice commands, snippets, or per-app writing rules.
You want a local/offline transcription setup; Krisp’s noise cancellation is on-device, but meeting recordings and notes use cloud services broadly speaking.

The evidence

What actually differs, claim by claim.

Each section opens with the takeaway. The table underneath is the receipt — every cell carries its source and the date we checked it.

Pricing

Hedy is the cleanest buy if you want predictable pricing: limited free, $12.99/mo Pro, or $299 one-time Lifetime. Krisp starts with a broader free daily allowance, then costs $16/mo for Pro with 1200 min/month transcription or $30/seat/mo for Business with unlimited transcription. Ottex has the best real free path for Mac/iOS users, with free local AI or BYOK, plus $0.2/hour PAYG, $14/mo Pro, and $24/seat/mo Team.

See the evidence — 13 claims across 3 toolsverified Jun 2026

	Ottex	Hedy	Krisp
Free tier	YesWhisper & Parakeet run on your Mac. Dictation and meetings, $0.	PartialUp to 5 hours per month; Real-time AI insights (first 30 min/session)	Partial60 min/day noise cancellation; 2 meetings/day to take notes; 60 min/day transcription; 10 min/day accent conversion
Subscription	$14/mo$14/mo — unlimited dictation and meeting intelligence, all hosted models included.	$12.99/moPro adds unlimited sessions, recording import, cross-session organization, Zapier, and API integrations.	$16/moPro is priced at $16 monthly or $8/month billed yearly.
Pay-as-you-go / one-timeEscape the flat subscription	$0.2/hourHosted models at cost: dictation ~$0.2/h, meetings ~$0.5/h (~$3/mo average).	$299 one-timeAll future updates included	NoSubscription only
Bring your own keyPay the model provider, not the middleman	YesOpenRouter, Google AI, OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, and compatible providers.	No public claim	NoNo bring-your-own-model-key support is published.
Education discount	NoSame pricing for everyone.	No public claim	YesStudents, teachers, faculty, and staff can apply for a 50% education discount.

Platforms

Hedy wins coverage with Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, and Web. Krisp covers Mac, Windows, Android, and Web, but the digest does not list iOS. Ottex is much narrower on platform coverage with Mac and iOS only, so it loses this section if Windows, Android, or web access is required.

See the evidence — 5 claims across 3 toolsverified Jun 2026

	Ottex	Hedy	Krisp
Platforms	Mac, iOS	Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, Web	Mac, Windows, Android, Web
Native app footprintLight on memory, instant to invoke	YesNative Swift app, ~50MB RAM.	YesVendor describes a native macOS application.	No public claim

Meetings & team memory

Hedy is strongest for broad bot-free capture across Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, in-person conversations, imported audio/video, and 5 hours/month free with real-time insights for the first 30 min/session. Krisp also supports bot-free meeting recording and transcription on macOS and Windows, and it has the clearer speaker-identification claim, with 2 meetings/day and 60 min/day transcription on Free or 1200 min/month on$

See the evidence — 17 claims across 3 toolsverified Jun 2026

	Ottex	Hedy	Krisp
Meeting recordingThe call is captured at all	YesWith speaker separation.	YesHedy records live sessions and meeting conversations.	YesKrisp can record and transcribe online and in-person meetings.
Bot-free captureNo "recording bot" joins your call	YesSystem-audio capture, no bot joins the call.	YesFeature page says no bot joins calls.	YesThe desktop app can record and transcribe meetings without adding a bot to the call.
Speaker separation	Yes	No public claim	YesKrisp supports speaker identification for meeting transcripts.
Calendar detection	YesCalendar-based meeting detection.	YesGoogle Calendar is listed in the help center and news page.	YesKrisp detects meetings from the desktop app and prompts to record or transcribe.
Cross-meeting search	Yes	YesPro users can group sessions and ask questions across conversations weeks ago.	YesKrisp AI Chat can answer questions across Krisp meetings.
Shared team memory	PartialPublic share links, not a full team workspace.	YesSharing sessions and topics is listed in the help center.	PartialMeeting notes can be shared, but no persistent team memory model is publicly described.

From meeting to finished work

Hedy wins when the job is live meeting help: questions, blind-spot alerts, talking points, summaries, to-dos, and follow-up recaps. Krisp wins when the meeting workflow centers on cleaner calls, summaries, action items, speaker identification, decisions, and chat across past meetings. Ottex goes further on finished work, turning meetings into follow-up emails, Linear tickets, CRM updates, PRDs, docs, and notes, but H

See the evidence — 8 claims across 3 toolsverified Jun 2026

	Ottex	Hedy	Krisp
Decisions, owners, action itemsLeave the meeting with next steps clear	YesDecisions with owners extracted.	YesGoogle Play listing says Hedy can find decisions across past conversations.	YesKrisp AI Chat can highlight decisions from meeting content.
Follow-up email draftedThe outcome is sent, not summarized	YesDrafted from templates or your own.	YesAuto-recap emails are listed for sharing insights.	No public claim
CRM update / ticket draft	YesStructured for the target app.	No public claim	No public claim
Your rough notes steer the result	YesRough notes and instructions steer the result.	YesHedy 3 added in-meeting note-taking that powers AI suggestions.	No public claim

Dictation & transcription AI

Hedy and Krisp both lose as system-wide dictation tools because neither supports live dictation, hotkey insertion, voice commands, snippets, or per-app writing rules. Hedy still has an edge over Krisp for speech flexibility with 30 languages and local speech recognition by default, while Krisp has no language count and no local/offline transcription setup. Ottex wins this section with system-wide dictation, local AI,

See the evidence — 12 claims across 3 toolsverified Jun 2026

	Ottex	Hedy	Krisp
Engines	Cloud: Whisper, Gemini 3 Flash, Voxtral. Local: Whisper, Parakeet v3.Hosted routing, BYOK, or fully local.	Two local and two cloud speech recognition providersUsers can choose between private on-device transcription and cloud-based speech recognition.	No public claim
Local / on-device optionAudio never leaves the machine	YesWhisper and Parakeet v3 run fully on-device.	YesLocal speech recognition and local AI processing can run on-device and offline.	NoLive system-wide dictation is not a supported feature.
Model selection per task	YesChoose the model per task and per provider.	YesSpeech recognition provider can be changed in Settings > Speech & AI.	NoNo user-selectable speech recognition model is published for live dictation.
Languages & mixed speechWork that crosses languages mid-sentence	Yes100+ languages · Mid-sentence language switching.	Yes30+ languages · App Store listing says Hedy supports multilingual conversations while returning insights in the preferred language.	No public claim
Per-app output rules	YesPer-app output rules: exact in AI chats, polished in email.	No public claim	NoNot supported

Cost

What a year actually costs at your volume.

Personal or team — switch tabs. Subscriptions are flat; usage-based pricing depends on how much you speak and meet.

You dictate about 3 h a week≈ 23,400 words at ~130 wpm

0 h5 h10 h

and sit in 4 h of meetings a weekhours you'd want captured and turned into follow-ups

0 h7.5 h15 h

Fill the gaps with:

Dictation appadded to meetings-only toolsMeetings appadded to dictation-only tools

KrispPro$96/yr$96 + $0Pro is priced at $16 monthly or $8/month billed yearly. · Unlimited noise cancellation; unlimited meetings to take notes; 1200 min/month transcription; 60 min/day accent conversion

OttexOttex Provider — PAYG$135/yrHosted models at cost: dictation ~$0.2/h, meetings ~$0.5/h (~$3/mo average).

OttexPro$168/yr$14/mo — unlimited dictation and meeting intelligence, all hosted models included.

KrispBusiness$180/yr$180 + $0Business is priced at $30 per user monthly or $15/user/month billed yearly. · Unlimited noise cancellation; unlimited meetings to take notes; unlimited transcription; 60 min/day accent conversion

Estimates, not quotes. Striped bar segments are the cost of the second app you picked above to cover the gap — rankings use that combined total. PAYG and BYOK usage are estimated at provider at-cost rates ($0.2/h dictation, $0.5/h meetings) — bring-your-own-key plans still pay the model provider per use. One-time licenses are amortized over 2 years. Subscriptions use published pricing, checked Jun 2026.

FAQ

Questions people actually ask.

Hedy vs Krisp: which should I pick?

Pick Hedy if you want live coaching during meetings, local speech options, and the broadest device coverage across Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, and Web. Pick Krisp if your calls need noise cancellation, speaker identification, summaries, decisions, and team controls more than live coaching.

Is Hedy free?

Yes, but it is limited: Hedy Free gives up to 5 hours per month, with real-time AI insights only for the first 30 minutes of each session. That is useful for trying Hedy, but serious meeting use points to $12.99/mo Pro or the $299 one-time Lifetime plan.

Is Krisp free?

Yes, but the free plan is capped: 60 min/day noise cancellation, 2 meetings/day to take notes, 60 min/day transcription, and 10 min/day accent conversion. It is a trial-style daily allowance, not the same as Krisp Pro at $16/mo or Business at $30/seat/mo.

How much does Hedy cost compared with Krisp?

Hedy is cheaper month to month at $12.99/mo Pro, and it has a $299 one-time Lifetime option. Krisp Pro is $16/mo, Business is $30/seat/mo, and Enterprise is custom.

Is Hedy safer than Krisp?

Hedy is the better privacy pick if local speech recognition, optional local AI, optional cloud sync, GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC 2 Type I claims are the deciding factors. Krisp has on-device noise cancellation, but its meeting recordings and notes use cloud services broadly speaking, with SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, GDPR, encryption at rest, and SSO/SCIM on Enterprise.

Is it worth switching from Hedy to Krisp?

Switch from Hedy to Krisp if noise cancellation, speaker identification, decisions, action items, and chat across past meetings matter more than live coaching. Stay with Hedy if you rely on real-time questions, blind-spot alerts, talking points, local options, iOS support, or the $299 Lifetime plan.

Does Hedy or Krisp work on Windows and Android?

Both work on Windows and Android. Hedy also lists iOS and Web alongside Mac, Windows, and Android, while Krisp lists Mac, Windows, Android, and Web but not iOS.

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