Aqua Voice or Dalm: two opposite answers to where your voice and your words go

Aqua Voice and Dalm both let you speak where you would type on a Mac, but they draw the line in opposite places. Aqua Voice sends your voice to the cloud to be turned into text, so it needs a connection, and with its Privacy Mode on it does not keep your transcripts in the cloud. Dalm recognises speech on your Mac and sends no audio anywhere, but the text of every dictation and meeting syncs to our servers automatically, with no switch to stop it. Choose Aqua Voice for dictation alone, on a Mac, Windows or an iPhone; Dalm if you also record calls and meetings and want a summary after each.

Aqua Voice and Dalm, side by side

	Aqua Voice	Dalm
Where speech becomes text	In the cloud, by its own speech model; dictating needs an internet connection	On your Mac; no audio is sent anywhere
What is kept afterwards	By default it may keep your transcripts in the cloud to improve its product; with Privacy Mode on it does not, though details such as timestamps and device type may still be collected. Its Local History keeps transcripts and audio on your computer	Every dictation and meeting, synced to our servers automatically and shown on every Mac you sign in to; no setting keeps it on one Mac
What it can do to the words	Rewrite text you select when you say the change, and follow writing rules you set on plans that include them	Type them in as recognised, with your dictionary applied; no language model reads a dictation
Meetings and calls	Its site, FAQ and product overview describe dictation; recording a call is not among what they describe	A call, from your microphone and the sound of the calling app, or a conversation across a table, with a summary after each
How you pay	1,000 words free, then a subscription	A Free plan, and Pro or Team by subscription
Devices	Mac with Apple Silicon or Intel, Windows 10 and 11, and a voice keyboard for iPhone	Mac with Apple Silicon · macOS 15.0 or later; iPhone app in development
Teams	Billing in one place, single sign-on, and a Privacy Mode an admin can enforce for everyone	A shared dictionary and templates; each person’s dictations are seen by no one else, the team’s owner included
Security statements	SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, GDPR and HIPAA, listed on its own pages	No certification

A dictation’s audio is not kept, and a meeting’s is deleted once the text exists. What Aqua Voice does is taken from its own site, FAQ, pricing page and privacy policy, checked on 2 October 2026.

Where Aqua Voice is better than Dalm

• Transcripts it does not have to keep in the cloud. With Privacy Mode on, Aqua Voice does not keep what you dictated in the cloud, and on a team an admin can switch that on for everyone; its Business plan also lists Zero Data Retention. Its Local History still keeps transcripts and audio on your computer. Dalm has no such setting: the text of every dictation syncs to our servers automatically, and the app does not open without an account.
• Windows and an iPhone, not only a Mac. Its apps cover Macs with Apple Silicon or Intel and Windows 10 and 11, and there is a voice keyboard for iPhone. Dalm needs a Mac with Apple Silicon · macOS 15.0 or later; its iPhone app is in development.
• Changing text by saying what to change. Select text in any app, hold its key and say the change, and Aqua Voice rewrites the selection in place; paid plans add Custom Instructions, rules in plain language for how the output reads. Dalm types a dictation in as it was recognised: the speech model adds punctuation and capitals, your dictionary fixes names and terms, and no language model reads a dictation.
• Words on screen while you talk. On its Max plan, Realtime Mode shows the words as you speak, and a spoken “Send it” sends the message. Dalm shows a preview in the menu bar while you dictate and types the result when you let go of the key.
• Spelling taken from your screen. With Deep Context on, Aqua Voice uses what is on your screen to get terms right in code, messages and documents. Dalm relies on a dictionary you build, shared with your meetings and filled in from your corrections.
• A smaller bill for dictation alone. Its Pro plan costs less a month than Dalm Pro, whether you pay monthly or for a year; the prices are in the answers below.
• Audits it can point to. Its own pages list SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, GDPR and HIPAA. Dalm holds no certification.

Where Dalm is better than Aqua Voice

• Your voice does not leave the Mac. Dalm recognises speech on your Mac, in dictation and in meetings, and no audio is sent anywhere; what reaches our servers is the text, automatically. Aqua Voice describes its dictation as processed in the cloud, and its Privacy Mode is about what it keeps afterwards.
• Meetings as well as dictation. Dalm records a call, from your microphone together with the sound of the calling app, or people talking across a table. When Zoom or FaceTime takes the microphone it asks “Record this meeting?”, and the voices are told apart on your Mac before the text syncs to our servers. Aqua Voice’s site, FAQ and product overview are about dictation; recording a call is not among what they describe.
• A summary once each meeting ends. A third-party language model writes it from the transcript and the notes you typed, and the transcript goes to that model every time, with no switch to turn it off. Every quote shows you where it was said — open it and the transcript opens at that place.
• One archive, searched once. Everything you say lands in one archive you can search: meetings, phone calls, conversations in the room, and what you dictate to a model.
• A Free plan, not a word allowance. Aqua Voice’s free tier covers 1,000 words. Dalm’s Free plan includes dictation and meetings and does not run out.

Your voice, your words, your meetings: where each one goes

	Aqua Voice	Dalm
Your voice while you dictate	Processed in the cloud by its speech model, which is why dictating needs a connection; its Local History keeps the audio on your computer	Recognised on your Mac; no audio is sent anywhere, and a dictation’s audio is not kept
The words you dictated	May be kept in the cloud to improve its product unless you turn Privacy Mode on, in which case only session details such as device type may be collected there; its Local History keeps them on your computer	Synced to our servers automatically, every time, and on every Mac you sign in to; on a team, seen by no one but you
A meeting	Not among what its site and FAQ describe	Recorded and told apart by voice on your Mac; the audio is deleted once the text exists, the text syncs to our servers, and a third-party language model reads the transcript to write the summary

If what you dictate should not be kept in the cloud, Aqua Voice with Privacy Mode on comes closer to that, and Dalm has no setting that does it. If your voice should stay on the Mac, it is the other way round: Dalm recognises it here and syncs only the text to our servers. More on what Dalm keeps and sends is on the privacy page.

Which one suits the way you work

• Stay with Aqua Voice if you only dictate, if you also dictate on Windows or an iPhone, if you want to change text by saying what to change, or if you would rather it did not keep your transcripts in the cloud, which its Privacy Mode allows.
• Try Dalm if your voice should stay on the Mac and you accept that the text syncs to our servers, and if calls and meetings take up part of your day.
• Use Aqua Voice for dictation and Dalm for meetings if you like the first for writing: set Dalm’s dictation key to one Aqua Voice does not use, and start meetings from the menu bar, with ⌃⌥M or from the “Record this meeting?” notification.

What Dalm’s paid plans add is on the pricing page. How recognising speech locally and in the cloud differ in general has a page of its own, and so do what Dalm records in a meeting and one app for dictation and meetings, or two.