Compare Retext and Dragon side-by-side. See which dictation app is the best fit for your workflow.
Choose Retext if you want on-device transcription by default, push-to-talk on one key, and snippets and dictation in one app.
Choose Dragon if you need windows users in legal, medical or public safety work.
Dragon still leads on Windows for deep voice commands, macros and transcribing single-speaker recordings, and it has editions for legal and medical work. Nuance's current pages list no Mac product. Retext is a native Mac app: hold right Option to dictate, transcribed on-device by Apple's speech engine, with snippets you can insert by voice (beta).
Native Mac text expander with built-in voice dictation. Hold right Option, speak, and your words land at the cursor, polished on your Mac (beta) if you like.
Pricing:
Dictation and polish on your Mac come with every plan. See the pricing page.
Free tier: Dictation and polish on your Mac, plus 5 snippets
Runs on: Mac
Best for:
Nuance's long-running speech recognition for Windows, with cloud versions for business. There's no current Dragon app for Mac.
Pricing:
No public price; Nuance sells Dragon Professional v16 and its cloud products through sales and volume licensing
Runs on: Windows, iPhone and Android
Best for:
| Feature | Retext | Dragon |
|---|---|---|
| Voice Dictation | ||
| AI Cleanup & Rewriting | Beta | Not available |
| Audio File Transcription | Not available | |
| Privacy & Local Storage | ||
| Snippet Expansion | ||
| Team Sharing | ||
| Cross-Platform |
| Product | Pricing Model | Price | Free Tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retext | Freemium | Dictation and polish on your Mac come with every plan. See the pricing page. | Dictation and polish on your Mac, plus 5 snippets |
| Dragon | Per Seat | No public price; Nuance sells Dragon Professional v16 and its cloud products through sales and volume licensing |
Dragon's custom words and auto-texts live in its own profile format. Recreate your auto-texts and boilerplate as Retext snippets, then insert them by typing a trigger or by saying "insert snippet" and the name (a beta voice command).
Dragon still leads on Windows for deep voice commands, macros and transcribing single-speaker recordings, and it has editions for legal and medical work. Nuance's current pages list no Mac product. Retext is a native Mac app: hold right Option to dictate, transcribed on-device by Apple's speech engine, with snippets you can insert by voice (beta).
No. No public price; Nuance sells Dragon Professional v16 and its cloud products through sales and volume licensing.
Yes. Retext's free plan includes dictation and polish on your Mac, plus 5 snippets. Dictation and polish on your Mac come with every plan. See the pricing page.
Dragon runs on Windows, iPhone and Android. Retext runs on Mac.
Dragon is the better fit for windows users in legal, medical or public safety work, organizations that manage vocabulary centrally and command-and-control of a Windows PC by voice. Choose Retext if you want transcription on your Mac by default.
Dragon's custom words and auto-texts live in its own profile format. Recreate your auto-texts and boilerplate as Retext snippets, then insert them by typing a trigger or by saying "insert snippet" and the name (a beta voice command).
Download Retext, turn on Voice Dictation in Settings, and hold right Option to talk.
Sources
Dragon, checked October 28, 2026: Dragon product lineup · Dragon Professional (Windows) · Dragon Anywhere Mobile · The Register on Dragon for Mac ending (2018)
Prices and features change. Check each vendor's site before you buy.