Sayburst vs Wispr Flow: local dictation or a cloud subscription?
Wispr Flow sends every dictation to the cloud for $12–15 a month. Sayburst transcribes on your Mac for $29 once. Here's how they compare, honestly.
Wispr Flow and Sayburst do the same everyday job: hold a key, talk, and clean text appears in whatever app you're using. The difference is where your voice goes and how you pay for it.
| Sayburst | Wispr Flow | |
|---|---|---|
| Where speech is transcribed | On your Mac | In the cloud, always |
| Works offline | ● | — |
| Account required | — | ● |
| Price | $29 once (1 Mac), $49 (3 Macs) | $15/mo, or $12/mo billed yearly |
| Free option | 7-day trial, every feature | 2,000 words/week; 14-day Pro trial |
| Removes fillers, fixes punctuation | ● | ● |
| Custom vocabulary | ● | ● |
| AI rewriting | Optional, your provider | Built in (cloud) |
| Platforms | Mac (iPhone coming) | Mac, Windows, iOS, Android |
Prices and features checked October 2, 2026 on wisprflow.ai/pricing and wisprflow.ai/data-controls.
Where your voice goes
Wispr Flow's own documentation is clear: "Transcription always occurs on the cloud." Every word you dictate is uploaded, processed on their servers, and returned. With its Context Awareness feature on (the default), it also sends text around your cursor, on-screen text and app information with each dictation. You can turn that off.
Sayburst runs the speech model on your Mac's Neural Engine. After a one-time model download, nothing you say needs to leave the machine — you can turn off Wi-Fi and keep dictating. If you want AI polish, you choose the provider, including local ones like Ollama, and Sayburst shows exactly what will be sent before you turn a cloud provider on.
What you pay
Wispr Flow Pro costs $144 a year on the annual plan. Sayburst costs $29 once for one Mac — less than three months of Wispr — and includes every 1.x update. There's no subscription because there's no server doing the work.
Where Wispr Flow is better
- Every platform. If you dictate on Windows, Android or iPhone too, Wispr has one account across all of them.
- Teams and compliance. Shared dictionaries, SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA options matter for some companies.
- Polish without setup. Its AI rewriting works out of the box; with Sayburst you connect a provider if you want more than the built-in cleanup.
Our take
If you write on a Mac and care where your voice goes, Sayburst does the core job — hold, talk, clean text — on your own machine, offline, for a one-time $29. If you need dictation on Windows and Android under one subscription, Wispr Flow is the better fit.
Try Sayburst free for 7 days — no account, no card.
Download SayburstQuestions people ask
Does Wispr Flow work offline?
No. Wispr Flow's own data-controls page says transcription always happens in the cloud, so it needs an internet connection.
Is Sayburst cheaper than Wispr Flow?
Yes. Sayburst is $29 once for one Mac. Wispr Flow Pro is $15 a month, or $12 a month billed annually ($144 a year).
Which is better for Windows or iPhone?
Wispr Flow. It runs on Mac, Windows, iOS and Android. Sayburst is Mac-only today; an iPhone app is coming.