Handy and PipeVoice are both free, MIT-licensed push-to-talk dictation tools that work on Windows. Handy is a cross-platform, offline-first app. PipeVoice is Windows-only and adds optional cloud engines, per-app profiles and voice commands. Neither is better for everyone, so here is where each one wins.
Quick take: Want a simple, fully local dictation app that also runs on Mac and Linux? Handy is a strong pick. Want to mix cloud and offline engines and set different behaviour per app on Windows? Try PipeVoice.
What Handy is
From Handy's GitHub README: it is licensed MIT, built with Rust and Tauri, and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux (winget on Windows, Homebrew on macOS). Audio stays on your computer: "Your voice stays on your computer. Get transcriptions without sending audio to the cloud." You start dictation with a configurable shortcut in hold-to-record or toggle mode, and the transcript is "pasted directly into whatever app you're using". It offers Whisper model variants or Parakeet V3, uses GPU acceleration when available, filters silence with local voice activity detection, and keeps a transcript history and a custom dictionary. At the time we checked (2026-09-29) the repository showed about 32.4k stars.
What PipeVoice is
PipeVoice is a tray app for Windows 10 and 11, also MIT-licensed. You hold a hotkey, speak, and release. It has three transcription engines you can switch between at runtime: Deepgram (streaming, words appear as you speak), OpenAI Whisper, and Local Whisper (offline, about 150 MB, CPU). An optional Flow mode cleans up filler words, punctuation and casing using OpenAI, Google Gemini, OpenRouter or local Ollama. Output can be typed as real keystrokes or pasted from the clipboard.
Handy vs PipeVoice: comparison
| Feature | PipeVoice | Handy |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Platforms | Windows 10/11 only | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| Offline | Yes (Local Whisper, plus Ollama for cleanup) | Yes, audio stays on your computer |
| Cloud engines with your own key | Yes (Deepgram, OpenAI Whisper) | Not stated in the README summary we checked |
| Live streaming transcript | Yes with Deepgram | Not stated in the README summary we checked |
| Local models | faster-whisper (default base.en) | Whisper variants or Parakeet V3 |
| Text insertion | Real keystrokes, or clipboard paste | Pasted into the focused app |
| AI text cleanup | Yes, Flow mode (OpenAI, Google Gemini, OpenRouter or local Ollama) | Yes, post-processing with a cloud or on-device model (alpha) |
| Per-app profiles | Yes (engine, cleanup, output, Enter) | Not stated in the README summary we checked |
| Hold or toggle | Both | Both |
| History and dictionary | Local history (last 50), vocabulary list, word fixes | Transcript history, custom dictionary |
Where Handy wins
- Cross-platform. If you use a Mac or Linux machine as well, Handy runs on all three; PipeVoice does not.
- Bigger community. About 32.4k stars when we checked means more eyes on the code and more people to ask.
- Parakeet models and GPU acceleration are listed in Handy's README.
- Simplicity. If you only ever want local transcription, one focused local app is less to configure.
Where PipeVoice wins
- Choose per moment. Cloud with your own key for speed, Local Whisper for privacy, and PipeVoice retries an utterance on Local Whisper if a cloud engine fails.
- Cleanup tied to each app. Both tools can run AI cleanup (Handy calls it post-processing and marks it alpha in its docs). In PipeVoice, Flow mode is part of each per-app profile, so a chat app can get polished text while an editor gets raw text.
- Per-app profiles. Terminal: raw text plus Enter. Chat app: polished and auto-sent. Editor: no cleanup.
- Voice commands. Say "new line", "scratch that", or end with "send it".
PipeVoice is also Windows-first, which is why it is built for dictating into the terminal and AI coding agents. Other Windows options are in the best free dictation software roundup.
Try it: Download PipeVoice for Windows, see the PipeVoice vs Wispr Flow comparison, or read the Wispr Flow alternative for Windows guide.