Vlow
Vlow vs Dragon Professional (2026)
Vlow is a voice-first desktop assistant for Mac and Windows. Press your talk key (F2 on Mac, Right Ctrl on Windows by default), speak, and clean text appears at your cursor in any app. It also takes voice notes, does voice calculations, and rewrites or translates selected text with F3. The free version gives unlimited local voice input forever; Pro is an optional yearly plan at US$69/year with no auto-renewal.
Short answer: Dragon Professional v16 is deep, mature dictation for Windows with custom commands and macros; Nuance no longer prints a price, and US resellers list a single license at about $649–$699 one-time [1][2]. Dragon for Mac was discontinued on October 22, 2018 [3]. Vlow runs on both Mac and Windows, has unlimited free local input, and an optional Pro at US$69/year with no auto-renewal.
| Vlow | Dragon Professional v16 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free; Pro US$69/year, no auto-renewal | About $649–$699 one-time at US resellers [1][2] |
| Mac | ✅ macOS 14+, Apple silicon | No — Mac edition discontinued 2018 [3] |
| Windows | ✅ Windows 10/11 | ✅ Windows 10/11 [2][3] |
| AI cleanup | Cloud polish: fillers, punctuation, eight modes, F3 rewrite | Classic dictation with voice commands and macros [3] |
| Also does | Voice notes, voice calculator | Custom commands, auto-texts, shared vocabularies [3] |
Where Dragon is stronger
Decades of command-and-control, macros, legal and medical editions, enterprise deployment [3].
Where Vlow is different
Works on Mac, costs nothing to start, and turns rough speech into finished text with AI polish instead of training and commands. Roadmap for 2.0 includes “Help me…” for doing tasks by voice — not released yet.
Sources: [1] SoftwareDirect listing [2] Dragon pricing 2026 (CDW $677.99) [3] Dragon editions and Mac end-of-life (Oct 22, 2018) — checked 2026-11-03.