Vauta vs MacWhisper

Looking for an alternative to MacWhisper that keeps your meetings on your Mac? Vauta captures any call, transcribes it on your Mac and writes the minutes: decisions, tasks and open questions. No bot, no cloud, no account, and it is free and open source.

Side by side

Also transcribes on your Mac, but it is a transcription app: live meeting transcripts, speaker recognition and AI prompts need Pro (€65), and it is not open source.

Vauta is ahead on 2 of 9 · level on 6 · behind on 1

Meeting notes cost (Vauta ahead)

Vauta: Free

MacWhisper: Free app; speaker recognition and AI prompts need Pro, €65 once

Open source (Vauta ahead)

Vauta: Yes, Apache-2.0

MacWhisper: No

Where your call is transcribed (Level)

Vauta: On your Mac

MacWhisper: On your Mac (cloud transcription optional)

Account (Level)

Vauta: None

MacWhisper: None (a license key for Pro)

Run the AI on your own hardware (Level)

Vauta: Yes: your Mac or your own server

MacWhisper: With Pro: Ollama or a custom OpenAI-compatible endpoint

Your meetings train their AI (Level)

Vauta: Never: nothing leaves your Mac or network

MacWhisper: Transcription stays on your Mac; cloud AI services you add follow their own terms

A bot in your call (Level)

Vauta: Never

MacWhisper: No bot

Works with (Level)

Vauta: Any call app on your Mac

MacWhisper: Zoom, Teams, Webex, Discord, browsers and more; not FaceTime

Runs on (Rival ahead)

Vauta: Mac with Apple silicon

MacWhisper: Mac, iPhone and iPad

Sources · MacWhisper: Features and pricing · Recording meetings

Where MacWhisper is better

Runs on: Mac, iPhone and iPad (Vauta: Mac with Apple silicon)

Get Vauta for free How Vauta works

Other comparisons

Vendors’ public docs on 27–28 October 2026, for the feature named and its default settings. Plans change — check their sites. Names are trademarks of their owners; Vauta is not affiliated. Spotted an error?