The voice AI landscape in 2026 is vast. From open-source Whisper models to ElevenLabs' commercial TTS platform, there's a tool for every use case. Here's how the major players stack up.
The Two Sides of Voice AI
Voice AI tools fall into two categories:
- Speech-to-Text (STT): Converting your voice into written text. Tools: Andak, Whisper, Apple Dictation, Google Speech-to-Text, DeepGram.
- Text-to-Speech (TTS): Generating audio from written text. Tools: ElevenLabs, Amazon Polly, Google Cloud TTS, Bark.
Andak: Local STT for Mac
Andak is a native macOS app that runs Whisper models locally on Apple Silicon. It's designed for people who type for a living — developers, writers, founders — and want to speak instead.
- Processing: 100% local, no cloud
- Pricing: $20 one-time
- Key feature: Context-aware formatting (adapts output to the active app)
- Languages: 100+ with auto-detection
ElevenLabs: Cloud TTS and Voice Cloning
ElevenLabs is the leading commercial platform for text-to-speech. It excels at generating natural-sounding voice audio and offers voice cloning capabilities.
- Processing: Cloud-based
- Pricing: $5–330/month + overage fees
- Key feature: Voice cloning and multilingual TTS
- Languages: 29
OpenAI Whisper: The Open-Source Foundation
Whisper is the open-source speech recognition model from OpenAI. It's the engine behind many STT tools, including Andak. You can run it directly via whisper.cpp, but you'll need to handle setup, audio capture, and text injection yourself.
- Processing: Local (self-hosted) or cloud (API)
- Pricing: Free (self-hosted) or $0.006/minute (API)
- Key feature: Industry-leading accuracy across languages
- Languages: 100+
Apple Dictation: Built-In but Limited
Every Mac ships with dictation built in. It's convenient and works system-wide, but accuracy lags behind Whisper-based tools, especially for technical jargon and mixed-language input.
Which Tool Is Right for You?
You need voice input (STT)
Choose Andak for a polished, local-first experience on Mac. Choose Whisper directly if you want full control over the model and pipeline.
You need voice output (TTS)
Choose ElevenLabs for the best commercial TTS with voice cloning. Choose Bark or Amazon Polly for open-source or AWS-integrated alternatives.
For the full Andak vs. ElevenLabs breakdown, see our dedicated comparison page.
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