[metalogical]

Whisper runs fine locally. So why are Willow ($144/year), Wisprflow ($120/year), and SuperWhisper ($120/year) all subscriptions?

I got frustrated paying monthly for something that could run on my Mac, so I built Lucid Voice:

- 100% offline (Nvidia Parakeet + Llama)

- $20 one-time (mainly to cover Apple's notarization costs)

- Runs on surprisingly low-end hardware (M1 base models work fine)

- No cloud, no data collection

Open to feedback on anything - pricing, the tech stack, or if this should just be free: https://lucidvoice.app

[joshribakoff]

Thanks for sharing. As someone who used dragon naturally speaking, which did fine tuning back in the 90s, i was genuinely surprised at the implementation gap.

[dockerd]

The pricing is good for customer.

At the same time, I think you shouldn't give away "Lifetime updates" for same pricing tier. Are you planning to support it for the next 10+ years and across next 5-10 mac hardware/version without any new license cost?

[metalogical]

Honestly not trying to make serious money from this - more validating if people want local-first tools. If it takes off, might add a support tier, but ultimate goal isn't profit. Just wanted something that works without monthly charges.

[amanzi]

Can you build a Linux version? :-)

Still haven't managed to find one that works as well as MacWhisper.

[wild_egg]

Get your favourite coding agent to make one. These things are incredibly simple. You really only need a few ingredients:

- `sherpa-onnx` bindings for your favourite language

- package for capturing your mic input

- package for hotkey capture

- package for clipboard management (or shell out to `xclip`)

- shell out to `xdotool key --clearmodifiers "ctrl+v"` to paste

Tell it to go research all the above and then assemble into whatever form you want. I had Claude write a Go daemon that loads parakeet and runs as a systemd user service listening for Alt-Space in about 20 minutes.

[KetoManx64]

Check out SpeechNote, works great on both CPU based and GPU based machines depending on the model you use: https://github.com/mkiol/dsnote

[gopalv]

> Can you build a Linux version? :-)

Generally speaking, it is the hardware not the OS that makes it easier to build for Macs right now.

Apple Neural Engine is a sleeping giant, in the middle of all this.

[daemonologist]

Parakeet still runs at 5x realtime on a middle-of-the-road CPU; it should be quite doable (at the cost of some battery life).

[metalogical]

Mac-only for now but might port to Linux if there's enough demand. What desktop environment are you using?

[amanzi]

Gnome on Debian. I'm a simple man.

[cebert]

Good idea. I was hoping to at least see an overview of this from my phone, but when I opened the link, it said it’s for desktop only and became uninterested.

[metalogical]

Just pushed an update for mobile - should work now. Happy to give you a free license key if you want to try it on your Mac. Would love feedback

[ottobonn]

I have been looking for this on Linux (Gnome) and would love something like it. I can't find a simple way to get system-level voice input.

[metalogical]

Yeah, hearing this a lot. I'll definitely into Linux support

[steveharman]

Pleaee talk me into buying your product! :-) I currently use the free version of Superwhisper on Mac.

[metalogical]

Hey Steve! SuperWhisper free is solid - main reason to switch is avoiding subscriptions entirely. For $20 one-time you get AI formatting (removes filler words, cleans up corrections) that SuperWhisper charges $120/year for. I'm building features users ask (e.g. file transcription) for and all future updates are included. Runs light on base M1s. Not trying to maximize profit here - just testing if people actually want local-first tools vs subscriptions. If it's not worth it after a week, email [e-mail] for a refund :)

[steveharman]

I'm pretty sold. downloaded it earlier, had an issue with Lucid not automatically appearing in the list of apps to permit accessibility permission, but after a coffee I remembered that apps can be manually added (so you can ignore my support email! :-) ). My minor niggle would be no trial option, that always puts me off slightly - although I appreciate your refund offer. Oh hell, I'll just buy it. It's worth it to reward the slick onboarding process! :-)

[rvz]

> - No cloud, no data collection

How can this be guaranteed if it is closed source?

Other than that, great project.

[metalogical]

You can block it with Mac's firewall and verify zero network calls. Privacy policy at https://lucidvoice.app/privacy

Might open source if there's demand - testing that now

[amluto]

Some developers seem to do okay by writing open source software and selling it on the App Store. I’ve even paid for software like that :)

[Multiplayer]

Does this do the formatting that wisprflow will do kind of thing?

[metalogical]

Yes - makes corrections, removes filler words, formats naturally. That's what the Llama post-processing does

[nextworddev]

Can you open source this

[randyrand]

you mean give it away for free? how would he require payment?