Transcription that stays on your hardware.
For you, or your whole office. LymeScribe runs Whisper-class speech models on a machine you own — your own Mac for a handful of people, or a dedicated box for the office. Not a cloud you rent. The audio never leaves the building.
Free as a client · paid unlock hosts off your own Mac · nothing uploaded, ever
Both run on hardware you own. Pick the one that fits the room.
The free app connects to any LymeScribe server — that's the on-ramp. When you're ready to host, there are exactly two ways, and the only question is how many people you're serving.
Your Mac doubles as the server.
You and a handful of people on your network — off the Mac you already own.
- A paid unlock in the same app — no extra hardware
- Embedded Whisper on Metal, serves ~3 peers on your LAN
- One-time purchase, runs entirely on-device
A dedicated machine for the whole office.
An always-on box that serves your whole team — built to scale past a few peers.
- GPU-accelerated — real-time transcription at office speed
- Built for many concurrent users, no peer cap
- Windows/NVIDIA or Apple Silicon, on your LAN
When the server is yours, the rules are yours.
The popular dictation tools are genuinely good — and genuinely cloud-hosted. Every word crosses the internet to a server you don't control, governed by terms you didn't write and they can change. The price is monthly rent for as long as you keep talking.
Owning the hardware flips every line of that deal. The audio never leaves the building, so privacy stops being a policy you have to trust and becomes a fact of where the machine sits. No account. No per-seat bill. Nothing to keep paying for.
Apple Silicon made this practical. It's fast enough to run Whisper-class models locally — so a Mac you already own can be the server, and a dedicated box can serve the whole office. Either way, it's your hardware.
A serious dictation tool that happens to respect you.
Push-to-talk, anywhere
Lives in the menu bar. Hit a hotkey, speak, and the text lands in whatever app you're in — keystrokes or clipboard paste, configurable per app.
Whisper on Metal
Runs OpenAI's Whisper models natively on Apple Silicon via whisper.cpp. Big-model accuracy at local speed — no API, no per-minute fees.
Your history, your disk
Every transcription saved locally, searchable, exportable. Not synced to anyone's cloud unless you put it there yourself.
Corrections dictionary
Teach it your jargon, names, and acronyms once. Corrections apply automatically — and stay on your machine like everything else.
Host on this Mac: your Mac is the server
A hosting unlock turns the Mac you already own into a private transcription server for a few trusted devices on your network. One good machine serves them all.
Server: scale to the office
LymeScribe Server runs on your own Windows/NVIDIA or Apple Silicon box — GPU-accelerated for real-time speed, serving many people at once on your LAN with no peer cap.
Start free. Host when you're ready.
Free as a client, forever. The two paid tiers are both about hosting — the only difference is scale.
Client
The on-ramp. Connect to any LymeScribe server.
- Connect to any LymeScribe server on your network
- Full dictation experience — hotkeys, history, corrections
- No account, no trial clock, no catch
Host on this Mac
Your Mac doubles as the server. You and a few people.
- Host transcription on your own Mac — fully on-device
- Serve yourself + a few devices on your network
- 7-day free trial, full features
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Server
A dedicated machine for the whole office.
- Always-on server for your whole office — on your hardware
- GPU-accelerated for real-time speed at scale, no peer cap
- Windows/NVIDIA or Apple Silicon
The hosting unlock is purchased in-app after the trial. Payments handled by Paddle.com as merchant of record · 30-day refund policy
Try it in the next two minutes.
LymeScribe for macOS
Free to use as a client. Hosting on your own Mac starts a 7-day free trial — no account needed.
Fair questions, straight answers.
Host on this Mac or Server — which do I need?
Host on this Mac if you want your own Mac to do the hosting for yourself and a few people on your network — no extra hardware, a one-time unlock in the app. Server (Technology Preview) if you're equipping a whole office and want an always-on, GPU-accelerated machine built to serve many people at once. Both run on hardware you own; the only question is how many people you're serving.
Is it really 100% offline?
Transcription is — audio, models, and transcripts never leave your machine, and dictation works with Wi-Fi off entirely. The only network calls the app ever makes are checking for updates, and (for paid hosting) a license activation with our licensing server. Neither involves your audio or transcripts.
What data do you collect?
We never see your audio or transcripts — that's the entire point of the product. There are no analytics and no telemetry. When you buy a license, we store what's needed to issue and support it: your name and email, your license key, and basic activation records (device name, app version, and a non-reversible device identifier). Payment details go to Paddle, our merchant of record, not to us. Details in the privacy policy.
What Macs does it run on?
Apple Silicon (M1 or later) running macOS 14+. Local transcription leans on the GPU via Metal — it's the reason on-device Whisper is fast enough to replace the cloud.
How does the trial work?
Using the app as a client is free forever, no trial involved. Hosting transcription on your own Mac starts a 7-day trial with full features the first time you use it. When it ends, hosting locks until you buy a license — client mode keeps working, free.
What if it's not for me?
Every purchase comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee — email webinquiry@iadev.net and we'll refund it, no interrogation. See the refund policy.
Is this a subscription in disguise?
No. The hosting unlock is a one-time purchase that keeps working — the app runs on your hardware, so there's no server bill for us to pass along. You buy the current major version and own it for good. Point updates are free. When a future major version ships, you can upgrade at a discounted price.