Short answer: Monologue is a dictation and voice notes app from Every for Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, at $15 a month or $144 a year on its site, and included with an Every subscription. Voice Keyboard Pro is a narrower, cheaper choice: hold-to-talk on Mac, a tap-to-speak iPhone keyboard, 19 languages, and $4.99 a month on our site.
Monologue is a dictation and voice notes app from Every that runs on Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. People looking for a Monologue app alternative are usually comparing price, platforms or how much product they want around their dictation. We make Voice Keyboard Pro, so we have a stake here. Every fact about Monologue below comes from its own site, help docs and App Store page, checked in October 2026, and we say plainly where its pages are silent.
What Monologue does well
Monologue's home page describes it as a voice dictation and notes app for Mac and iPhone: speak, and polished text appears in any app, with bot-free meeting notes and a connection to AI tools. Several things there are genuinely strong.
- More Apple platforms. Its site lists native apps for Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, and its docs describe using saved Notes on the web. Ours has no Apple Watch app and no web app.
- Two ways to start on Mac. Its docs describe a push-to-talk shortcut, the right Option key by default, plus a separate hands-free shortcut you tap once to start and again to finish. We only offer hold-to-talk on Mac.
- Many languages. Its pricing page says 100+ languages. Ours is 19.
- Notes you can hand to other tools. Saved Notes are reachable through MCP, API and CLI access, which suits people who feed their transcripts to AI agents.
- Offline transcription on Mac. Its home page says local models work "when you want speed or privacy, no connection required". Its docs add that local transcription is only on Apple silicon Macs, gives a raw transcript, and that smart formatting still needs a connection.
- An Every bundle. Monologue Pro is included with an Every subscription, alongside Every's other products.
- Active releases. Its changelog lists macOS v1.5.3 on October 28, 2026 and iOS v1.2 on October 2, 2026.
Why people look for a Monologue alternative
These reasons follow from what Monologue publishes about itself, not from reviews.
1. The monthly price
Its pricing page lists Monologue Pro at $15 a month billed monthly, or $144 a year billed annually, which it works out as $12 a month. Its App Store listing shows in-app purchases of $14.99 for Monthly Pro Access and $143.99 for Yearly Pro Access. If dictation is all you want, that's more than some alternatives charge, ours included.
2. It's built around a wider product
Monologue is dictation, voice notes, meeting notes and agent access in one app, which its FAQ calls "a voice productivity app for builders". That breadth is the point for many people. If you only want text typed at your cursor, you're paying for parts you won't open.
3. The free trial is capped by words
The free trial includes 1,000 dictation words and 10 recorded Notes, and its pricing page doesn't say whether the trial also expires. If you dictate a lot, 1,000 words goes quickly, so you'll be deciding on a paid plan early.
What to look for in an alternative
- The platforms you actually use, and whether you need Apple Watch.
- How you start and stop: hold a key, or tap once to start and again to stop.
- Offline use, on which Macs, and how polished the offline text is.
- Whether you want meeting notes, and whether it joins calls as a bot.
- The languages you speak.
- What it costs month to month and whether there's a free tier.
Voice Keyboard Pro
On Mac, Voice Keyboard Pro is a menu bar app. You hold a key you choose (Left Control by default, or Left Shift, Left Command, Right Option or Fn), speak, and let go, and the text is typed at your cursor in whatever app has focus. It listens only while you hold the key. There's no hands-free or toggle mode on Mac. Most dictations appear in well under a second after you let go.
On iPhone and iPad it's a full keyboard with a microphone built in: tap Speak, talk, tap Stop. iOS doesn't let keyboards use the microphone directly, so tapping Speak may briefly open the app to start a listening session. You add the keyboard in Settings and turn on Allow Full Access; see our Full Access guide. Smart Rewrite cleans up punctuation and filler words, and it can be switched off if you want your words as spoken.
It also records live meetings on Mac and iPhone and produces a transcript with speakers labeled Speaker A, B (not names), plus a summary, decisions and action items. It records live; it doesn't import existing audio or video files. Our meeting transcription guide goes deeper.
Offline Mode runs transcription entirely on the Mac on Apple silicon Macs. Intel Macs use the cloud, and the iPhone keyboard isn't offline. In cloud mode, audio goes to the transcription provider over an encrypted connection, is turned into text and thrown away. Recordings are never kept, and history stays on your device. For more on that setup, see offline voice to text on Mac.
It supports 19 languages with automatic detection, runs on macOS 14 or later (Apple silicon or Intel) and iOS 17 or later, and one account covers Mac and iPhone. It doesn't have an Apple Watch app, Windows, Android, or a web app.
On our website it's $4.99 a month (the monthly plan starts with a 3-day free trial), $34.99 a year, or $1.99 a week. Every plan has the same features, you can cancel anytime, and there's a 14-day refund. There's no free tier, and in-app prices on the App Store differ.
If you want the lowest cost, Apple's built-in dictation costs nothing. See our roundup of Mac dictation apps for other options, and the Spokenly comparison if you're weighing others.
Head to head
| What | Monologue | Voice Keyboard Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch; Notes on the web | Mac, iPhone, iPad |
| Starting on Mac | Hold right Option, or a hands-free shortcut | Hold a key you choose; no hands-free |
| Starting on iPhone | Its keyboard, Shortcuts, Action Button | Its keyboard: tap Speak, tap Stop |
| Offline | Apple silicon Macs, raw transcript | Apple silicon Macs only |
| Meeting notes | Bot-free on Mac, with summaries | Mac and iPhone, speakers as A, B |
| Languages | 100+ | 19 |
| Notes for AI tools | MCP, API, CLI | Markdown export of meetings |
| Price on the vendor's site | $15/month or $144/year | $4.99/month or $34.99/year |
| Free option | Trial: 1,000 words, 10 Notes | 3-day trial on monthly plan |
Monologue's cells come from monologue.to and its App Store listing in October 2026. Ours are our website's prices.
When Monologue is the better pick
Stick with Monologue if you already subscribe to Every, since Pro is included. It's also the better fit if you need Apple Watch, more than 19 languages, a hands-free shortcut for long dictations on Mac, or notes you can pull into AI agents over MCP, API or CLI. Its iOS v1.2 changelog also says copied transcripts include assigned speaker names, where ours label speakers A and B.
Choose Voice Keyboard Pro if:
- the monthly cost matters to you: $4.99 against $15 on the two websites,
- you want dictation, meeting notes and an iPhone keyboard without a notes product and agent tools around them,
- you're on an Intel Mac: we support Intel (using the cloud there), and Monologue's pages don't state its Mac requirements,
- you dictate into Terminal and want commands typed literally, with nothing sent until you press Return.
Privacy and where your audio goes
Monologue's data privacy page says it "does not save audio or transcripts from Dictation on its servers", and that its AI providers process dictation with zero data retention. Its docs say remote transcription is the recommended default, with audio sent to Monologue's processing service. Saved Notes are different: if you record a Note, Monologue stores the audio, transcript and summary in your account so they sync across devices. Its privacy page also says Deep Context screenshots, used for on-screen context, are deleted immediately after processing.
Ours works like this. In cloud mode, audio goes to the transcription provider over an encrypted connection, is turned into text and thrown away. Recordings are never kept, and your dictation history stays on your device. On Apple silicon Macs, Offline Mode keeps transcription on the Mac. Both are reasonable answers, and the right one depends on whether you want saved, synced notes (Monologue) or history that stays local (ours).
Day-to-day differences you'd notice
On Mac, both apps let you hold a key while you talk. Ours defaults to Left Control and Monologue's to right Option, and both can be changed. Holding means a pause never ends your dictation and side conversations aren't typed. The difference is that Monologue also offers a hands-free shortcut for long dictations, and we don't. In Terminal and code editors, we keep commands literal, with no capital and no closing period, and nothing is sent until you press Return yourself.
Monologue's pages describe per-app modes that adjust tone to the app you're in, a personal dictionary and custom instructions. We also have a personal vocabulary and tone matching, plus voice snippets for signatures and standard replies. For the Mac side of hold-to-talk specifically, see hold-to-speak dictation.
Frequently asked questions
Is Monologue free?
It has a free trial. Per its pricing page, that's 1,000 dictation words, 10 recorded Notes, offline transcription and 100+ languages. The page doesn't say whether the trial expires. Pro is $15 a month or $144 a year on its site.
Who makes the Monologue app?
Every. Its App Store listing names Every Media Inc as the seller, and its pricing page says Pro is included with Every.
Does Monologue work on Mac?
Yes. Its site lists a native Mac app you download from monologue.to, and its changelog shows macOS v1.5.3 on October 28, 2026. Its docs say you hold the right Option key to dictate by default. We didn't find a Mac system requirement on its pages.
Does Monologue have a hands-free mode?
On Mac, yes. Its docs describe a hands-free shortcut, set separately from push to talk, that you tap once to start and again to finish.
Is there a plan with no cost at Voice Keyboard Pro?
No. The only free part is the 3-day trial that starts the monthly plan. After that it's a subscription, and there's a 14-day refund.
The bottom line
Monologue is the broader product, with Apple Watch, 100+ languages, a hands-free shortcut, notes access for AI tools, and an Every bundle. Voice Keyboard Pro is narrower and cheaper on its site: hold a key on your Mac, tap Speak on your iPhone. Decide which of Monologue's extras you'd actually use first, and the price second.
Hold a key on Mac or tap Speak on iPhone, and the text lands where your cursor is.
3-day free trial on the monthly plan · Apple Silicon & Intel
