VibeVoice vs Superwhisper
Superwhisper can keep your audio on your own machine, which is a real advantage and the reason to choose it. VibeVoice transcribes on a server, so an old laptop is as fast as a new one and the same account works on Windows and Linux.
Which should you pick, VibeVoice or Superwhisper?
Pick Superwhisper if the audio must never leave your machine: with a local model it works with no network, and it lets you swap models. Pick VibeVoice if you want the same speed on a five-year-old laptop as on an M4, next to no battery cost while dictating, and a client that also runs on Windows and Linux.
Both are genuinely fast at the job. The decision is where the recognition happens, and everything else — battery, thermal behaviour, hardware requirements, platform coverage — follows from that one choice.
Where they actually differ
| Feature | VibeVoice | Superwhisper |
|---|---|---|
| Where recognition runs | Our servers, in Germany — your machine only captures and types | Your machine, or their cloud — local speed scales with your hardware |
| Linux support | Supported — a native app | Unsupported |
| Price in Germany | €3 / month | ≈ €9 / month · ≈ €7 on the annual plan · ≈ €257 lifetime, in Germany$8.49/mo, $84.99/yr ($7.08/mo), or $249.99 once |
Colour marks a capability one product has and the other does not. Prices, free tiers and design trade-offs are left plain — they are choices, not defects. The euro price is our conversion of the vendor’s dollar list price: plus 19% VAT, at the ECB reference rate of 1.1593 USD/EUR on 2026-08-17.
Superwhisper figures from superwhisper.com, checked August 2026.
No gigabytes to download
The client is a small download and almost nothing for your fans to do. Transcription happens on our servers, so a five-year-old laptop is as quick as a new one.
Deleted when the transcript exists
Your audio is deleted as soon as the transcript exists or the attempt fails, and is never used to train anything.
Linux, and the browser too
A native Linux client, and file uploads in the browser, alongside Mac and Windows.
Which one should you actually pick?
We built VibeVoice, so treat this as our view — but these are the cases where we would tell you to buy Superwhisper instead.
Choose Superwhisper if…
- You want everything to run locally on your own machine, with no audio leaving it. Superwhisper’s local models do that; ours do not.
- You have plenty of memory and a fast chip, where local inference is genuinely quick.
- You want to pick and swap the underlying model yourself.
Choose VibeVoice if…
- You are on Linux, where Superwhisper has no client at all.
- Your laptop is not a fast Apple Silicon machine, and you would rather the recognition did not run on it at all.
- You want the wait after your last word to stay the same whatever else your machine is doing — compiling, rendering, on battery.
VibeVoice vs Superwhisper: common questions
Is VibeVoice a good Superwhisper alternative?+
If you are on Linux, or your machine is old enough that a local model is slow on it, yes. If the audio must never leave your machine, no — that is the one thing Superwhisper does and we do not, and it is a good reason to buy theirs.
Does Superwhisper run on Windows or Linux?+
On Windows, yes — superwhisper.com offers a Windows 10 or later build alongside the Mac app and an iOS companion. On Linux, no: there is no client. VibeVoice has native clients for all three desktops.
Is local transcription better than cloud?+
It is better for privacy, because the audio never leaves your machine, and that is a real advantage worth taking seriously. It is slower on machines without a fast GPU or Apple Silicon, and it draws on your battery. We chose the server so that a five-year-old laptop transcribes as fast as a new one.
What does VibeVoice do with my audio if it is not local?+
It is processed on our servers in Germany and deleted as soon as the transcript exists or the attempt fails. It is never used to train any model, ours or anyone else’s.
Which is faster?+
We have not benchmarked Superwhisper, so this is structure rather than a measurement. Recognition that runs on your machine runs at that machine’s speed and shares it with whatever else is open, so it is quick on a current Apple Silicon Mac and slower on an older one or while you are compiling. Our wait does not move with your hardware: about half a second after your last word, a median of 481 ms and a 95th percentile of 522 ms over 27 runs.
Last updated . Competitor figures checked August 2026: prices, platforms, and each vendor’s own description of when its text is finished, which is their account rather than our measurement. All of it changes, so check theirs before buying.