An offline alternative to Aqua Voice
Aqua Voice is fast, accurate and made for developers, and it is the closest competitor in spirit. It is cloud-only with a 1,000-word lifetime free tier. Holdkey is the same promise, local.
Last checked September 2026. Facts about other products come from their public pages and reviews; tell us if something changed.
| Holdkey | Aqua Voice | |
|---|---|---|
| Runs | On your PC, fully offline after a one-time model download | Cloud; needs internet; status page lists latency and session-failure incidents |
| Free plan | Raw unlimited forever, Clean 30 a day | 1,000 words total, once (about 8 minutes) |
| Price | $8/mo, $69/yr, $99 lifetime | $8/mo flat; $12/user teams |
| Latency | Tens of milliseconds after release, on CPU | Sub-second streaming when the network is good |
| Platforms | Windows (Mac later) | Mac, Windows, iOS |
| Vocabulary | Dictionary biases recognition | Coding-tuned model plus dictionary |
Where Aqua wins
Mac and iPhone today, and a model tuned specifically for code vocabulary. If you need those, Aqua is a fine choice.
Where Holdkey wins
No network in the loop, no word caps, and a terminal-first Windows build. The free tier is actually usable, not a demo.
Try Holdkey
Free to start, no account, runs on your PC. Hold a key, talk, release.
Get Holdkey for Windows