spellsafe
spellsafe vs Willow
Checked October 15, 2026
Willow is a popular dictation app that learns your writing style and uses cloud AI models by default. spellsafe does all of its recognition and cleanup on your Mac.
At a glance
| spellsafe | Willow | |
|---|---|---|
| Where speech is recognised | On your Mac (NVIDIA Parakeet on the Neural Engine) | In the cloud by default (Willow's help center: it uses “cloud-based AI models”) |
| Works offline | Yes, after a one-time model download | With its optional offline mode |
| AI cleanup and rewrite | On your Mac (Qwen3, runs locally) | Smart formatting and style matching |
| Platforms | Mac with Apple silicon, macOS 14 or later | Mac, Windows, iPhone (Android coming soon) |
| Languages | English | 100+ languages |
| Price | $9/year | Pro $144/year* |
Where Willow is stronger
- Runs on Mac, Windows and iPhone.
- Supports 100+ languages, where spellsafe is English only today.
- Learns your writing style over time and offers team plans with SOC 2 and HIPAA features.
Where spellsafe is stronger
- On-device is how spellsafe always works, not an optional mode: your voice and your words never leave your Mac.
- AI cleanup and “rewrite that” also run on a local model.
- No account to create.
- $9 a year, compared with $144 a year for Willow Pro.
Which should you pick?
Pick Willow if you want dictation on Windows or your phone, in many languages, with cloud-quality style matching. Pick spellsafe if you want everything to stay on your Mac every time.
Try spellsafe
spellsafe is a menu bar app for Macs with Apple silicon. Download it, grant microphone and Accessibility access, and press ⌃⌥D to start talking.
About this comparison. We make spellsafe, so we're not neutral. We checked Willow's details on its own site on October 15, 2026, and prices and features change. *Willow's pricing page shows $15 and $12 a month for Pro without saying which is the yearly rate; we've assumed $12, which is 20% off as the page describes. Willow says it uses cloud models and doesn't store audio on its servers in Private Mode, but doesn't say outright that audio is sent for transcription; we've inferred that. We couldn't confirm which features work in its offline mode. Spotted a mistake? Email hello@spellsafe.ai and we'll fix it.
Sources: Willow pricing, How Willow protects your data, Willow. Willow is a trademark of its owner; spellsafe isn't affiliated with it.