Sprecho vs Apple Dictation
Apple Dictation is the free bike that came with your Mac. For a quick iMessage it does the job. But it can't delete the last sentence by voice, can't switch from English to German mid-dictation, can't format lists or paragraphs, gets technical German words wrong often enough that you have to re-read every sentence, outputs in slow chunks after pauses, has no custom vocabulary in standard mode, no team workspace, no Windows, no Linux, no Android. Sprecho is the Ferrari you don't notice until you sit in it.
Sprecho
Apple Dictation
What they do well — and where it stops
Apple Dictation is the bike. Sprecho is the Ferrari. If the bike gets you to your goal — take the bike.
Apple Dictation is free, bundled with every Mac and iPhone, and on Apple Silicon devices it can transcribe on-device for several supported languages — a genuinely strong privacy story when those conditions hold. For a short iMessage or a one-line note, it does the job.
Once you actually use voice as a daily writing tool, the gaps add up fast: no rich self-correction (no spoken "delete the last sentence"), no mid-sentence language switching (say "zum Beispiel" in an English dictation and Apple writes phonetic gibberish), no automatic list or paragraph formatting, weak accuracy on technical German (connect.de March 2025 rated Apple "in Deutschland noch hinterher"), output that appears in slow chunks after pauses, no custom vocabulary in standard Dictation, no team workspace, no AVV — and no Windows, no Linux, no Android. Sprecho is built for the case where voice is your primary writing surface.
At a glance
| Sprecho | Apple Dictation | |
|---|---|---|
| Price (monthly) | €12.99 brutto incl. VAT | Free (bundled) |
| Free tier | Yes · 2,000 words/week | Yes · completely free, no word limits |
| Platforms | Windows · macOS · Linux · iOS · Android | macOS · iOS (iPadOS, watchOS, visionOS) |
| EU hosting | Hetzner Falkenstein, Germany | Partial |
| German-language UI | Yes — native | Partial |
| AVV / DPA | Yes, public template | Not public |
Pricing for B2B buyers — netto, like-for-like
Apple Dictation is free — there is no invoice, no VAT comparison. Sprecho's €10.99 brutto/month (annual) is what self-correction by voice, mid-sentence language switching, list/paragraph formatting, custom German vocabulary, team workspace and Windows/Linux/Android coverage actually cost — built by people who use voice all day.
Sprecho Pro
VAT included & deductibleMonthly billing
€10.92 / mo netto
(€12.99 brutto incl. 19 % VAT)
Yearly billing · 15 % cheaper
€9.24 / mo netto
(€10.99 brutto · €131.88 brutto/yr · €110.82 netto/yr)
Apple Dictation
Reverse-charge invoice (B2B)Monthly billing
Free (bundled with macOS / iOS)
No paid tier · no B2B contract · macOS + iOS only
Where Apple Dictation stops working
- No rich self-correction by voice — Apple covers basic punctuation, line/paragraph breaks and a limited delete-last-fragment. Sprecho's Cat-06 command mode is trained on 400+ German edit patterns: lösche den letzten Satz, lösche die letzten drei Wörter, ersetze X durch Y, filler removal.
- No mid-sentence language switching — say zum Beispiel in an English dictation and Apple writes phonetic English. Sprecho detects the switch in real time and spells both German and English correctly.
- No automatic list or paragraph formatting — Apple produces one flat stream of text. Sprecho structures the output like a human typed it: lists, paragraphs, smart punctuation.
- Weak accuracy on technical German — connect.de March 2025 rated Apple in Deutschland noch hinterher vs Samsung. You re-read every sentence to catch the misheard ones.
- No custom vocabulary in plain Dictation (Voice Control is a different, mutually exclusive mode — DATEV, RA-MICRO, Medistar, ICD codes can't be taught).
- Output appears in chunks after pauses, not word-by-word as you speak — slow enough to break flow in long dictations.
- No team workspace, no shared dictionary, no admin layer, no AVV for business use.
- No Windows, no Linux, no Android — your team's PCs and phones are out. Apple Intelligence Writing Tools also require A17 Pro / M1+.
Where your data actually lives
Named legal entities, named regions, named subprocessors. The single most concrete answer to: where does my audio go?
Sprecho
Melo Designer GmbH (Lower Saxony, Germany)
Hetzner Falkenstein / Nuremberg (Germany)
Apple Dictation
Apple Inc. (Cupertino, California, USA)
On-device on Apple Silicon (supported languages) · Apple servers (USA) otherwise
What each side built that the other didn't
Apple Dictation is fine for short messages and one-off notes. Once voice becomes your primary writing tool, these specific things stop working.
What Apple Dictation built that Sprecho didn't
- Free and bundled with macOS / iOS — zero install, zero cost, available on every Apple device.
- On-device transcription on Apple Silicon for supported languages — strong privacy when those conditions hold.
- System-level keyboard hook — works in every Apple text field without configuration.
- Brief punctuation commands and emoji names — new line, comma, smiley face.
What Sprecho built that Apple Dictation didn't
- Rich self-correction by voice — lösche den letzten Satz, lösche die letzten drei Wörter, scratch that I meant…, filler removal. 400+ training examples for German command-mode editing. Apple covers only punctuation and a limited delete-last-fragment.
- Mid-sentence language switching — say zum Beispiel inside an English dictation and Sprecho keeps both German and English spelled correctly. Apple locks to one language per dictation.
- Automatic list, paragraph and structure formatting — output reads like written prose, not raw transcription. Apple produces one flat text stream.
- Custom vocabulary in standard dictation — DATEV, RA-MICRO, Medistar, ICD codes, lawyer/doctor/consultant jargon. Apple has none in plain Dictation.
- Reliable accuracy on technical German — you don't re-read every sentence. Apple's accuracy on Fachsprache lags (connect.de March 2025).
- Near-realtime output — Sprecho streams word-by-word as you speak. Apple finalizes in chunks after pauses, slow enough to break flow on long dictations.
- Voice-activated snippets — /Signatur, /Anschrift, /AGB-Kurz expand to full text blocks. Apple's Text Replacement is typed, not voice-driven.
- Multi-style output (formal / casual / very_casual / excited) per app context — in German. Apple Intelligence Writing Tools rewrite after dictation and need A17 Pro / M1+.
- Windows, Linux, Android native — your whole team, not just the half on Apple devices.
- Team workspace with shared dictionary, admin console, central billing and a publicly downloadable AVV. Apple ships none of this for consumer Dictation.
Honest feature comparison
Apple Dictation works for casual use — short iMessages, one-off notes. Measured against a tool built for professional voice writing, the gaps are concrete and unambiguous.
Platform support
Privacy & DSGVO
German language quality
Pricing
Dictation features
Switch in three steps
Apple Dictation has no vocabulary to export — there's nothing to migrate. Just download Sprecho.
Download Sprecho
Win / Mac / Linux installer from sprecho.ai — 30 seconds. (iOS / Android coming in your App Store soon.)
Bring your vocabulary
Add your DATEV / RA-MICRO / Medistar terms in Sprecho Settings → Dictionary. Sprecho auto-learns from your corrections.
Re-map your shortcut
Default shortcut is Fn + Option. You can keep Apple Dictation's hotkey side-by-side — they don't conflict.
A 12-person Berlin law firm migrated in under an hour, including dictionary import.
“Apple Dictation was fine for years of personal messages. The day I needed §-references, list formatting, mid-sentence English-to-German and a way to delete a botched sentence by voice, it stopped being voice dictation and started being a typing tool with extra steps. Sprecho is the other league.”
FAQ
Apple Dictation is the bike. Sprecho is the Ferrari. Try both for free.
Free Forever with 2,000 words/week. No credit card. Self-correction by voice, mid-sentence language switching, list/paragraph formatting, custom German vocabulary, all 5 platforms, team workspace.
DSGVO-compliant · Hosted in Germany · Free Forever · no credit card