Archie
@archielvc
Switched from Wispr a while ago to Willow. Now I’m using Aqua Voice and is my fav so far
Willow Voice alternative
Aqua Voice vs Willow Voice
Same three platforms, two different bets. Aqua Voice runs its own model, Avalon, with accuracy you can verify, at $8/mo against Willow’s $12 on the same annual billing. Here’s the honest comparison.
97.3% accuracy, published$8/mo, not $12Independently benchmarked
Why people pick Aqua over Willow
umiyosh
@umiyosh
I ran Willow and Aqua Voice side by side for about two weeks. In the end, the one that stuck was Aqua Voice.
utanutan5
@utan_utan5
Above all, the response is really good. … On input accuracy, a complete upgrade over Willow.
See the difference, live
Aqua Voice refines your words as you speak: punctuation, formatting, and technical terms landed in real time. That is the accuracy Willow doesn’t publish.
Aqua Voice vs Willow Voice, in short
Both are Y Combinator startups shipping real-time dictation on Mac, Windows, and iPhone, so platforms are a tie and neither has an Android app yet. Aqua Voice has been at this since YC’s W24 batch in early 2024; Willow is a Spring 2025 company. Willow bets on breadth: 100+ languages, a free tier with no word cap, and HIPAA compliance with a signable BAA. Aqua Voice bets on the model itself, one it owns and benchmarks publicly, at a lower price, with a developer API behind it.
Pick Aqua Voice if
You want accuracy you can verify against a public benchmark and an independent press test; you would rather pay $8/month than $12; or you dictate code and technical terms and want a model purpose-built for them, with a developer API behind it.
Pick Willow if
You dictate in a language outside the 49 Aqua Voice covers, your work needs a HIPAA BAA, or you want to keep using a dictation app for free rather than upgrade.
Accuracy you can check before you pay
Aqua Voice publishes its accuracy and Willow doesn’t. Avalon, the model inside Aqua Voice, scores 97.3% on AISpeak, our public benchmark of AI and technical vocabulary, and ranked #1 among proprietary systems on the OpenASR leaderboard, an independent benchmark maintained by Hugging Face, at its October 2025 debut. Independent reviewers have checked it too: 9to5Mac measured Aqua at 1 error to Apple Dictation’s 17 on the same passage.
Aqua Voice (Avalon)AISpeak benchmark, published
97.3%Willow VoiceNo accuracy benchmark published
N/AOn AISpeak-10, the hardest labeled subset, Avalon scores 97.4% against ElevenLabs Scribe at 78.8% and Whisper Large v3 at 65.1%. Willow hasn’t disclosed which speech model it runs, and publishes no accuracy or word-error-rate figures, so there’s no public number to verify. You can see Avalon’s results on the OpenASR leaderboard and read more in our Avalon write-up.
Aqua Voice vs Willow Voice, feature by feature
The head-to-head on model, accuracy, languages, privacy, and price. Where a number is Willow’s own claim rather than a verified figure, it’s marked.
Aqua VoiceOwn model · 97.3% published
Willow VoiceModel & accuracy undisclosed
vsAqua Voice
Willow Voice
Speech model
Avalon (own, benchmarked publicly)
Undisclosed (Frontier Mini / Pro)
Public benchmark
#1 proprietary on OpenASR (Oct 2025 debut)
Not listed
Technical-term accuracy
97.3% (AISpeak, our benchmark)
Not published
Independent press test
✅ 9to5Mac (1 error vs Apple's 17)
None published
Latency (both vendor-stated)
~450ms after you stop
"as little as 200ms"
Mac / Windows / iPhone
✅
✅
Android
❌
❌ ("coming soon")
Languages
49, auto-detected
100+ claimed, no list published
Free tier
1,000 lifetime words
Unlimited on its weaker model
Custom dictionary
✅ up to 800 terms on Pro
✅
Reads the active app
✅
✅
Offline mode
❌ cloud-based
Advertised, undocumented
SOC 2 Type II
✅
✅
Zero Data Retention
✅ (Enterprise)
✅ (Business, per Willow)
HIPAA BAA
❌ none published
✅ signable in-app (per Willow)
Developer API
Avalon API ($0.39/hr)
None public
Pro price
$8/mo annually, $10 monthly
$12/mo annually, $15 monthly
Teams
$12 per seat/mo annually
$28/mo annually, 3 seats minimum
Best for
Verifiable accuracy, price, developers
Language breadth, HIPAA work, staying free
Speech model
Aqua VoiceAvalon (own, benchmarked publicly)
Willow VoiceUndisclosed (Frontier Mini / Pro)
Public benchmark
Aqua Voice#1 proprietary on OpenASR (Oct 2025 debut)
Willow VoiceNot listed
Technical-term accuracy
Aqua Voice97.3% (AISpeak, our benchmark)
Willow VoiceNot published
Independent press test
Aqua Voice✅ 9to5Mac (1 error vs Apple's 17)
Willow VoiceNone published
Latency (both vendor-stated)
Aqua Voice~450ms after you stop
Willow Voice"as little as 200ms"
Mac / Windows / iPhone
Aqua Voice✅
Willow Voice✅
Android
Aqua Voice❌
Willow Voice❌ ("coming soon")
Languages
Aqua Voice49, auto-detected
Willow Voice100+ claimed, no list published
Free tier
Aqua Voice1,000 lifetime words
Willow VoiceUnlimited on its weaker model
Custom dictionary
Aqua Voice✅ up to 800 terms on Pro
Willow Voice✅
Reads the active app
Aqua Voice✅
Willow Voice✅
Offline mode
Aqua Voice❌ cloud-based
Willow VoiceAdvertised, undocumented
SOC 2 Type II
Aqua Voice✅
Willow Voice✅
Zero Data Retention
Aqua Voice✅ (Enterprise)
Willow Voice✅ (Business, per Willow)
HIPAA BAA
Aqua Voice❌ none published
Willow Voice✅ signable in-app (per Willow)
Developer API
Aqua VoiceAvalon API ($0.39/hr)
Willow VoiceNone public
Pro price
Aqua Voice$8/mo annually, $10 monthly
Willow Voice$12/mo annually, $15 monthly
Teams
Aqua Voice$12 per seat/mo annually
Willow Voice$28/mo annually, 3 seats minimum
Best for
Aqua VoiceVerifiable accuracy, price, developers
Willow VoiceLanguage breadth, HIPAA work, staying free
Aqua Voice is SOC 2 Type II certified and Willow says it is too. If you want the model rather than the app, Aqua exposes Avalon through the Avalon API. And if Wispr Flow is also on your shortlist, there is a side-by-side for that too.
Where Aqua Voice is better
Accuracy you can verify
Avalon's results are public: 97.3% on AISpeak, Aqua's benchmark of AI and technical speech, #1 among proprietary systems on the independent OpenASR leaderboard at its October 2025 debut, and a 9to5Mac test measuring 1 error against Apple Dictation's 17. Willow publishes no accuracy figure at all, so there is nothing to check before you pay.
Its own model, not a brand name
Aqua trains and operates Avalon itself, which is why it can publish benchmarks and keep tuning the model for the speech its users actually produce. Willow brands its tiers Frontier Mini and Frontier Pro but publishes nothing about what runs behind those names, and its security page refers only to unnamed AI subprocessors. This is the most defensible difference between the two: one of these companies publishes independent benchmarks and the other does not.
A developer API behind the same model
The Avalon API exposes the model that runs the app, OpenAI-compatible, at $0.39 per hour of audio. If you want dictation inside your own product rather than only in an app, Aqua is something you can build on and Willow lists no public developer API.
Built for technical and AI vocabulary
Most speech models are trained on audiobook and meeting speech, so they mangle kubectl, tsconfig, zshrc and the names of the tools you actually work in. Avalon was trained on human-computer interaction speech instead: code, prompts and terminal commands. The desktop app reads the active window so it writes casually in Slack and code-aware in Cursor or Claude Code, and Pro carries a custom dictionary of up to 800 terms for the names no model can know. Willow publishes no accuracy data on technical speech, so there is no way to compare on the vocabulary that breaks most dictation apps.
Less per month, on either billing period
Aqua Voice Pro is $8/month billed annually ($96/year), or $10 month to month. Willow Pro is $12/month billed annually, or $15 month to month. Compare annual against annual or monthly against monthly and Aqua costs about a third less either way, and the free Starter plan lets you test the accuracy claim before paying anything.
Where Willow wins
More languages
Willow advertises 100+ languages, against Aqua Voice's 49 with automatic detection. Willow publishes no language list and its own help center still says 50, so the exact number is unauditable, but breadth is clearly their bet and not ours. If you dictate in a language Aqua doesn't cover, check Willow.
HIPAA compliance, with a BAA you can sign
Willow advertises HIPAA compliance and a business associate agreement signable inside the app, available to individual users as well as teams. Aqua Voice does not publish a HIPAA BAA at all. If you dictate patient information or anything else covered by HIPAA, Willow is the better fit and no accuracy or price argument should change that.
A free tier without a word cap
Willow's free plan offers unlimited dictation on its weaker Frontier Mini model. Aqua Voice's free Starter plan is 1,000 lifetime words, roughly seven minutes of talking, and then you decide. If you want to use a dictation app indefinitely without paying, Willow lets you and Aqua Voice doesn't.
The dictation app people switch to
Used by people at
れん学長のAIビジネスラボ
@renkon40
There’s no going back. The shock of Aqua Voice turning voice input into a “weapon.” I can’t use Mac’s standard voice input anymore.
usutaku
@usutaku_channel
I used to think Mac’s built-in voice input was convenient enough, but after trying Aqua Voice, there’s no going back. The accuracy and overall experience are just on another level.
くらげ＠通常運行モード
@kurage313book
While researching voice input on Note, I came across an article praising an app called Aqua Voice. I decided to give it a try, and it completely blew me away. I was so impressed I subscribed immediately.
anna-sofia
@annasofialesiv
so @aquavoice_ is completely changing how I write — it's by far the most convenient speech-to-text product I've ever used
Stammy
@Stammy
i've been waiting for Aqua (YC W24) to have a mac app for ages; finally here. It's like a faster Superwhisper or Wisprflow but it also has context of your screen/apps so it's even more accurate. perfect for vibe coding
Tom Blomfield
@t_blom
I've been using Aqua Voice for the last few months and it's awesome. Talking with your computer beats typing.
Grzegorz Kossakowski
@gkossakowski
I find @aquavoice_ ’s voice dictation excellent for vibe coding. The effectiveness of vibing scales with how much context you can feed into the LLM. You can speak 3–4x more words per minute than you can type, and Aqua nails the low-friction experience voice needs to actually work.
Product Hunt 😸
@ProductHunt
"Every single comment I've made on Forums this week has been done with @aquavoice_ " - Product Hunt's Head of Product Operations.
kwindla
@kwindla
I have given many, many, many demos. I've been on stage at TED. I went to grad school at a place where the more-or-less official motto was "demo or die." @finnatsea 's mic drop moments in his @aquavoice demo are right up there with the best demos I've seen.
John Lindquist
@johnlindquist
Switching to @aquavoice_ as my default dictation app. Loving the "real-time" mode.
Priced below Willow
Individuals
MonthlyAnnual
Starter
Get started for free
Free
1,000 free words
Aqua Engine
5 Custom Dictionary values
Pro
Unlimited, tuned dictation
$8/ month
Unlimited words
Aqua Engine
Avalon model
800 Custom Dictionary values
Tune with Custom Instructions
Max
AI power-user features
$24/ month
Everything in Pro
Realtime mode
Voice commands like “send it”
New features coming soon
Priority support
Organizations
Team
For small teams
$12/ user / month
Everything in Pro
Avalon model
Centralized team billing
Team wide settings
Enforce privacy mode org-wide
Enterprise
For large organizations
Custom
SSO/SAML + SCIM
Zero Data Retention
Advanced Reporting
Team-Wide Dictionaries
Volume Discounts
1,000 free words is about 7 minutes of talking at a normal pace. No credit card required. Comparing individual plans: Aqua Pro is $8/mo billed annually or $10 monthly, against Willow Pro at $12/mo billed annually or $15 monthly.
Frequently asked questions
Is Aqua Voice a good Willow Voice alternative?
Yes, and the two are unusually easy to compare because they ship the same platforms: Mac, Windows, and iPhone, with no Android app on either side. Aqua Voice runs its own model, Avalon, with published benchmarks and an independent 9to5Mac press test, and Pro costs $8/month billed annually against Willow Pro at $12. Willow advertises 100+ languages to Aqua's 49, a free tier with no word cap, and HIPAA compliance with a signable BAA. If accuracy you can verify and price matter most, Aqua Voice is the stronger pick.
Is Aqua Voice better than Willow Voice?
It depends on what you weigh most, and this page lays out both sides. Aqua Voice is the stronger pick if you want accuracy you can verify (97.3% on the AISpeak benchmark, plus #1 among proprietary systems on the OpenASR leaderboard at its October 2025 debut), a lower price, or a developer API. What separates them is the speech model: Aqua owns and benchmarks its own, and Willow has not disclosed what powers its product. Willow is the better pick if you need a language outside Aqua's 49, a HIPAA BAA, or a free tier without a word cap.
What's the difference between Aqua Voice and Willow Voice?
Both are real-time dictation apps that clean up speech and type into any app on Mac, Windows, and iPhone. The core difference is the speech engine. Aqua Voice runs Avalon, a model it trained itself and benchmarks publicly, and is tuned for code, AI prompts, and technical vocabulary. Willow names its model tiers Frontier Mini and Frontier Pro but does not disclose what powers them, and publishes no accuracy benchmark. Aqua Pro is $8/month billed annually; Willow Pro is $12.
Is Aqua Voice more accurate than Willow Voice?
Aqua Voice publishes its accuracy and Willow does not, so this is a comparison against a blank. Avalon scores 97.3% on AISpeak, Aqua's public benchmark of AI and technical speech, and ranked #1 among proprietary systems on the independent OpenASR leaderboard at its October 2025 debut. 9to5Mac tested Aqua against Apple Dictation and measured 1 error to Apple's 17 on the same passage. Willow's only accuracy claim is that it is 3x more accurate than built-in dictation, with no word error rate, dataset, or method published, so there is no number to compare against.
What speech model does Aqua Voice use, and does Willow Voice disclose one?
Aqua Voice runs Avalon, a model it built and benchmarks in public: 97.3% on AISpeak, Aqua's benchmark of AI and technical terms, and #1 among proprietary systems on the OpenASR leaderboard at its October 2025 debut. Willow has not publicly disclosed what powers its dictation. It brands its model tiers Frontier Mini (free) and Frontier Pro (paid), but nothing is published about what runs behind those names, and its security page refers only to unnamed AI subprocessors. If knowing what transcribes your voice matters to you, that is the clearest difference between the two.
Is Aqua Voice cheaper than Willow Voice?
Yes, on both billing periods. Aqua Voice Pro is $8/month billed annually ($96/year), or $10 month to month. Willow Pro is $12/month billed annually, or $15 month to month. Willow does have the more forgiving free tier: it offers unlimited dictation on its weaker Frontier Mini model, against Aqua Voice's 1,000 lifetime words on the free Starter plan. So the cheaper paid plan and the more generous free plan are on opposite sides.
Does Aqua Voice work on Windows?
Yes. Aqua Voice runs on Mac, Windows, and iPhone, and so does Willow, so the two match on every platform either one ships. Neither offers an Android app today: Aqua Voice does not support it and Willow lists Android as coming soon, so if you dictate on an Android phone, neither of these is the tool for you yet.
Does Aqua Voice have an iPhone app?
Yes. Aqua Voice launched on iOS in April 2026 as an AI voice keyboard, so you can dictate into any app on your phone and correct what you said by voice. Willow also runs on iPhone, so this one is a match. A cross-platform Pro subscription covers Mac, Windows and iPhone together rather than being billed per device.
Is Aqua Voice SOC 2 compliant?
Yes. Aqua Voice is SOC 2 Type II certified, independently audited, with a public trust center linked from the site footer. Every plan includes a Privacy Mode, and Team can enforce it across the whole organization. Willow also says it is SOC 2 Type II certified, so security certification is not the thing that separates these two.
Does Aqua Voice have a team or enterprise plan?
Yes. Team is $12 per seat per month billed annually, with centralized billing, team-wide settings and org-wide Privacy Mode. Enterprise adds SSO/SAML, SCIM provisioning, Zero Data Retention, advanced reporting and team-wide dictionaries, and is priced on request.
Does Aqua Voice have a developer API?
Yes. The Avalon API is an OpenAI-compatible speech-to-text endpoint at $0.39 per hour of audio, running the same model as the app, so you can put dictation inside your own product rather than only use it in an app. Willow lists no public transcription API, only an enterprise usage-reporting API.
Is Aqua Voice good for coding and AI prompting?
Yes, it's what Aqua Voice is built for. Avalon was trained on the speech developers and AI users actually produce, reaching 97.3% accuracy on technical terms like programming keywords, framework names, and CLI commands such as kubectl. The desktop app also reads the active application to adjust tone, so it writes differently in Slack than it does in Cursor or Claude Code, and Pro carries a custom dictionary of up to 800 terms for the names it cannot know.