SuperwhispervsHandy

Raw transcription vs AI processing

Handy does one thing well: it turns your voice into text. No reformatting, no context awareness, no AI processing. You talk, it types what you said.

Superwhisper starts with the same speech recognition but runs your text through AI modes. Super Mode looks at what's on your screen and formats accordingly. In a code editor, it writes code. In an email client, it writes like an email. You can also create custom modes with your own instructions for specific workflows.

Open-source vs commercial

Handy is MIT-licensed and available on GitHub. You can inspect the code, fork it, contribute to it. If you care about open-source software, that matters. The developer built it because he broke his finger and needed voice input that actually worked. It's a community project.

Superwhisper is a commercial product with a free tier. You get ongoing development, support, and features like team management. The tradeoff is it's closed-source.

Platform support

Handy runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. That Linux support is worth calling out. If you're on a Linux workstation, Handy is one of the few local voice typing tools that works there.

Superwhisper covers macOS, Windows, and iOS. No Linux yet. If you work across desktop and mobile, the iOS app syncs your settings and modes across devices.

Where Handy does well

Handy is genuinely good at what it does. It's free, private, works on Linux, and doesn't try to be more than it needs to be. Push-to-talk and toggle modes are straightforward. GPU acceleration means fast transcription if you have a decent graphics card, and it falls back to CPU if you don't.

For someone who just wants to dictate text without any AI processing, Handy is a great pick. No account needed, no subscription, no cloud dependency. You download it and it works.