Aqua Voice gives 1,000 free words, then charges $8/month billed annually for its Pro tier. Hovor gives 2,000 free words every week and, for people who dictate a lot, sells a one-time $49.99 unlock that removes the word cap for on-device transcription permanently — no subscription required. This page compares what's actually published by each vendor, not marketing copy.
The core difference is the payment model, not a quality claim: Aqua Voice is subscription-only past its free word allotment, while Hovor combines a larger recurring free tier with an optional one-time purchase that removes the cap entirely for on-device use.
| Feature | Aqua Voice | Hovor |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | macOS, iOS | macOS, iOS (Windows in development) |
| Free tier | 1,000 words (Starter) | 2,000 words/week |
| Paid plan | Pro $8/mo billed annually ($96/yr) | Pro $11.99/mo or $89.99/yr |
| Team plan | $12/mo billed annually | Not offered (individual-focused pricing) |
| One-time / lifetime option | Not offered | Local Unlock $49.99 · BYOK Unlock $24.99 · Bundle $69.99 |
| On-device / offline mode | Not stated by vendor | Yes: Parakeet + Whisper, on-device |
| BYOK (bring your own key) | Not stated by vendor | Yes: OpenAI, Anthropic, custom endpoints |
| Underlying speech model disclosed | Not stated by vendor ("Aqua Engine" / "Avalon" are proprietary names) | Yes: Parakeet (NVIDIA), Whisper (OpenAI) |
| Language count published | Not stated by vendor | 25 European languages via Parakeet |
Aqua (withaqua.com redirects to aquavoice.com) keeps its public pricing page short: a free Starter tier with 1,000 words, a $8/month Pro tier billed annually, a $12/month Team tier billed annually, and custom Enterprise pricing. That's a real, usable structure for someone who wants a simple monthly cost and doesn't need the specifics spelled out.
What it does not publish is just as relevant to a comparison: no on-device or offline claim, no disclosed base speech model, no stated language count, and no listed platform beyond macOS and iOS. This isn't a criticism of the product — a shorter pricing page can just mean the vendor prices on outcome, not on transparency of internals — but it does mean this page describes them without a rating on the parts we can't check.
If you dictate more than a few thousand words a month, the math is simple: Aqua's $96/year Pro plan repeats every year with no end. Hovor's $49.99 Local Unlock is a single purchase that, combined with the free 2,000 words/week cloud tier, removes the cap on on-device dictation for good. Break-even against Aqua's annual plan lands under seven months, and every year after that costs nothing further.
Hovor's Local Unlock ($49.99, or 1999 UAH) is a single non-consumable purchase, family-shareable through Apple IAP, that removes the word limit for on-device dictation using Parakeet or Whisper. There is no recurring charge tied to it. This sits alongside the regular Pro subscription ($11.99/month or $89.99/year) for people who prefer cloud transcription with multi-device sync; the two are independent purchases, not tiers of the same ladder.
Hovor's BYOK Unlock ($24.99 one-time) lets you use your own OpenAI, Anthropic, or custom OpenAI-compatible endpoint API key for the text-cleanup step after transcription. The key is written to the device Keychain under the service identifier app.hovor.byok (confirmed in HovorKit/Sources/HovorKit/Workflows/KeychainStore.swift) and is never proxied through Hovor's own server — you pay your model provider directly. Aqua Voice's pricing page lists no equivalent option.
Hovor names its speech models directly: Parakeet (NVIDIA, on-device, gated to iPhones with 4 GB+ RAM) and Whisper (OpenAI, on-device on 6 GB+ RAM devices, and available in the cloud path for everyone else). Parakeet supports 25 European languages. We can't compare this to Aqua's underlying model because Aqua does not publish one — "Aqua Engine" and the "Avalon model" are its own product names, not a disclosed base model.
Honest section, because a comparison page that only flatters one side isn't trustworthy:
| Aqua Voice | Hovor | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | 1,000 words (Starter) | 2,000 words/week |
| Individual monthly | $8/mo (billed annually only) | $11.99/mo |
| Individual yearly | $96/yr | $89.99/yr |
| Team | $12/mo billed annually | Not offered |
| Enterprise | Custom | Not offered |
| One-time / lifetime | Not offered | Local Unlock $49.99 · BYOK Unlock $24.99 · Bundle $69.99 |
| Regional pricing | Not stated by vendor | UAH pricing for Ukraine (~50% of USD) |
Yes. Aqua's Starter tier is free and includes 1,000 words. Beyond that, Aqua's Pro plan is $8/month billed annually ($96/year); Team is $12/month billed annually; Enterprise pricing is custom. Hovor's free tier is 2,000 words per week (roughly 8,000/month), and Hovor also sells a one-time $49.99 Local Unlock that removes the word limit entirely for on-device dictation, with no recurring payment.
Aqua's own pricing page makes no offline or on-device claim, and its tier names (Aqua Engine on the free plan, the Avalon model on paid plans) point to server-side processing. We can't verify that Aqua Voice cannot work offline — that isn't published anywhere we could check — only that no on-device mode is advertised. Hovor, by contrast, ships two on-device speech models (Parakeet and Whisper) gated by device RAM, with a one-time unlock that removes the free-tier word cap for local transcription.
No. Aqua Voice's vendor page lists macOS and iOS only, with no Windows or web client mentioned. Hovor ships iOS and macOS today, with a native Windows client (built on Rust and React via Tauri) in progress and not yet released.
Yes. Hovor's BYOK Unlock is a one-time $24.99 purchase that lets you use your own OpenAI, Anthropic, or custom OpenAI-compatible endpoint API key for the text-formatting step. The key is stored in your device's Keychain and is never proxied through Hovor's server. Aqua Voice's pricing page does not mention a BYOK option.
Aqua Voice does not disclose this on its pricing page. It names its own engines ("Aqua Engine" for the free tier, the "Avalon model" for paid tiers) without stating what base model, if any, underlies them. We are not going to guess. Hovor discloses its models directly: Parakeet (NVIDIA, on-device) and Whisper (OpenAI, on-device and cloud) for speech recognition, and OpenAI's gpt-4o-mini for cloud text formatting.
iPhone and Mac today, Windows coming soon. 2,000 free words/week, no credit card required. A one-time unlock, not a forever-subscription, for on-device dictation.
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