Best of
Best private and offline transcription tools, ranked by what they state
If a recording must not leave your computer, a cloud upload tool is the wrong category, ours included. This list ranks tools that run on your own hardware, on five points their pages state. Buzz, MacWhisper and Vibe tie at 4 of 5. Checked on 2026-10-27.
Updated
The ranking
| # | Tool | On your hardware | Free / open source | App, no command line | SRT/VTT stated | Arabic named | Score | What its page says |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Buzz | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not stated | 4 of 5 | MIT; "transcribes and translates audio offline on your personal computer"; macOS needs Apple silicon; Windows installer unsigned. |
| 2 | MacWhisper | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not stated | 4 of 5 | Mac only; "Free forever" tier plus a one-time EUR 64 Pro; local processing is stated, but the page also lists cloud models. |
| 3 | Vibe | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not stated | 4 of 5 | MIT; "fully offline transcription"; macOS, Windows, Linux; exports SRT, VTT, TXT, HTML, PDF, JSON, DOCX. |
| 4 | TryScriptorium (self-hosted, on request) | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | 3 of 5 | Self-hosting is available on request through our contact page; it is not open source, there is no public download and no price is stated. Our hosted site is not private: it uploads your file to our server. |
| 5 | faster-whisper | Yes | Yes | No | Not stated | Not stated | 2 of 5 | MIT; a Python library, "up to 4 times faster than openai/whisper" by its own claim; it is the engine TryScriptorium runs. |
| 6 | Google Recorder | Yes | Not stated | Yes | Not stated | No | 2 of 5 | Pixel phones only; "sends audio to an on-device Google service or app"; no Arabic in the language lists read. |
| 7 | OpenAI Whisper (open-source repo) | Yes | Yes | No | Not stated | Not stated | 2 of 5 | MIT licence for code and weights; Python, PyTorch and ffmpeg needed; its README does not name languages or subtitle formats in what we read. |
| 8 | whisper.cpp | Yes | Yes | No | Not stated | Not stated | 2 of 5 | MIT; C/C++ library with command-line examples, built or run yourself; its CLI example reads 16-bit WAV only. |
| 9 | Word Transcribe | No | No | Yes | Not stated | Not stated | 1 of 5 | Audio is sent to Microsoft and needs an internet connection; needs a Microsoft 365 subscription. |
Checked on 2026-10-27. "Runs on your hardware" is what the page says about where processing happens; it is not a security audit. MacWhisper's page also lists cloud models, so choose the local one if privacy is the point. Open-source apps are free to download; their pages state no price. Not ranked because we could not read the page: TurboScribe (all four pages we tried returned HTTP 403 on 2026-10-27) and the ChatGPT app's audio features (OpenAI's help-centre pages returned HTTP 403). A tool missing from a list is not a verdict on it.
Where TryScriptorium fits, and where it does not
The site you are reading is a hosted service: uploads are processed on our server, and no-account files are deleted after 24 hours. That is fine for non-sensitive recordings and wrong for privileged or restricted ones. The same software can be self-hosted, but only on request: it is not an open-source download. If you need a tool you can install today without asking anyone, pick one of the apps above. Our weaknesses, plainly: guests get the small model; the no-account preview is limited to one file of 15 minutes and 25 MB, 3 tries a day; there is no link input (you upload a file); there is no DOCX export in the app (open the TXT in Word, or convert it with the free browser tool at /tools/transcript-to-docx); it does not join live calls and has no live captions; and the transcripts are automatic and make mistakes.
What running it yourself costs you
- Your computer's speed sets the pace; the larger Whisper models are slow on a laptop without a GPU.
- Setup: an installer for Buzz, Vibe and MacWhisper; Python or a build step for the libraries.
- No sharing link and no team library unless you build one.
- Whisper-based tools make the same kinds of mistakes wherever they run; see local Whisper transcription and private transcription tools.
How we ranked
Five criteria, fixed before we filled in the table. Each cell is Yes only when the vendor's own page, read on 2026-10-27, says so; No when it says the opposite; Not stated otherwise, which scores nothing. The score is the number of Yes cells and ties are listed alphabetically. This ranks what products state, not how well they transcribe: we have not tested the other tools on your audio, and a transcript from any of them needs reading against the recording.
- Runs on your own hardware, as the page states
- Free or open-source licence stated
- An installable app, so no command line is needed (stated or evident from its install options)
- SRT or VTT export stated
- Arabic named by the vendor
We make TryScriptorium, so it is in the table and scored by the same rules. We chose criteria that matter to someone who wants a free transcript fast, which is also what we built, so weigh our own placement with the most caution. Prices and limits change; the source links are below and each is worth a click before you decide.
Sources
Every row about another product was read on that product's own page on 2026-10-27. Where a page contradicted itself the cell says so.
- https://github.com/chidiwilliams/buzz
- https://github.com/thewh1teagle/vibe
- https://www.macwhisper.com
- https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/16267367?hl=en
- https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/16267698?hl=en
- https://github.com/ggml-org/whisper.cpp
- https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/transcribe-your-recordings-7fc2efec-245e-45f0-b053-2a97531ecf57
Questions
What is the best offline transcription tool?
Is TryScriptorium private?
Can I transcribe offline without an account?
Do these tools support Arabic?
Does Google Recorder transcribe on the device?
Try it with your own file
Upload a recording and read the transcript.