Measured September 20, 2026 · by Jesse Meria, who makes Halopen
A Wispr Flow alternative
that writes what you said.
On identical audio, Halopen kept 10 of 12 constructions as spoken. Wispr Flow kept 2. The raw results
We make Halopen. Every number below links to the raw output it came from.
01 / The short answer
Two apps, two
different promises.
Both apps do the same thing on a Mac: hold a key, speak, and your words appear where your cursor is. Where they differ is what happens to those words on the way. At its defaults, Wispr Flow tidies what you say into standard written English. Halopen’s default is Verbatim: it writes what you said, and cleanup is something you turn on (method and raw output).
If you want your own words — your phrasing, your dialect, the way you actually talk — that tidying is the thing to avoid.
02 / Your words
What each app did
to the same sentences.
We wrote twelve short constructions that a cleanup model is tempted to “correct” — dialect, filler, a doubled word, a common malapropism — and played the identical audio into each app three times. Halopen kept 10 of 12 as spoken (83%). Wispr Flow kept 2 of the 11 we could score (18%); one of the twelve came back in a form we could not score either way, so we left it out rather than count it for either side. Wispr Flow’s three runs were identical (its raw output, Halopen’s).
| What was said | What Wispr Flow wrote |
|---|---|
| “just as good” | “just as well” |
| “me and him went” | “he and I went” |
| “we was running late” | “we were running late” |
| “should of checked” | “should have checked” |
| “there’s three files” | “there are three files” |
| “this is real important” | “this is really important” |
| “the the config” | “the config” |
| “irregardless of the deadline” | “regardless of the deadline” |
| “it don’t matter” | “it doesn’t matter” |
Some of those changes you may want. “Should of” is a misspelling of “should have”, and a doubled “the the” is a slip. Others are not errors at all: “we was running late” and “it don’t matter” are how many people speak, and turning them into “we were” and “it doesn’t” rewrites the speaker rather than the typing. A dictation app that decides which is which, silently, on every sentence, is making a choice about your voice.
03 / How we tested
So you can check us.
Builds: Halopen 1.8.29 and Wispr Flow 1.6.897, both at their default settings, on one MacBook Pro with its built-in microphone, September 20, 2026. Only one app ran at a time — both listen for the same key, so a take answered by the wrong app would be void.
Fidelity audio: spoken by macOS itself, so anyone can rebuild it byte for byte: say -v Samantha -r 170 reading this script. Each app heard it 3 times.
Everything we recorded, including the limits, is in the README next to the raw files.
04 / Why Halopen
What you get.
- Your words, as you said them. Verbatim by default: your phrasing and your dialect, with cleanup only when you ask.
- Every Mac app. Slack, Mail, Notes, Cursor, the terminal, the browser.
- Cloud and on-device in one app. Cloud transcription that streams while you talk, or on-device on Apple Silicon.
- You can see what it sends. Every cloud call is written to a log on your Mac.
Try it for 14 days
Everything unlocked, no card. Then Pro is $19 a month, $179 a year, or $499 once. macOS 14.0 or later.
06 / Questions
Before you switch.
Answers from our measurements of September 20, 2026.
Is there a Wispr Flow alternative that doesn’t rewrite what you say?
On identical audio measured September 20, 2026, Halopen 1.8.29 kept 10 of 12 constructions that cleanup models tend to correct, as spoken. Wispr Flow 1.6.897 at its defaults kept 2 of the 11 we could score. Halopen’s default output mode is Verbatim; its cleanup modes are optional.
Can I check these results myself?
Yes. The fidelity audio is spoken by macOS itself (say -v Samantha -r 170) from a script we publish, so you can rebuild identical audio and play it into any dictation app. The raw output from every run is published alongside it.
Does Halopen also clean up dictation?
Yes, if you ask it to. Polish and Editorial modes tidy your text, and Halopen shows what they changed. The difference is the default: Verbatim writes what you said until you choose otherwise.
Try it on your own words
Say it your way.
See it written that way.
No credit card. macOS 14.0 and later.