BeMooore › VoxFlow › Mac › Dragon for Mac alternative
Nuance stopped selling Dragon for Mac in October 2018 and has not updated it since. If you used it to type by voice, you have three realistic options on a current Mac. One of them is VoxFlow Pro for Mac, a free app that types what you say while you hold a key, and keeps your voice on your Mac.
Get VoxFlow Pro for Mac, free →macOS 14 Sonoma or later, Apple Silicon and Intel. Notarized by Apple. No account, no subscription.
Nuance's end of life notice says Dragon Professional Individual for Mac was discontinued effective 22 October 2018 and is no longer available for purchase. Nuance provides no updates after that date. Owners of version 6 have a perpetual license and may keep using the copy they have. So there is no Dragon for Mac left to buy or upgrade to.
Dragon facts are from Nuance's end of life notice. Voice Control facts are from Apple's guide Use Voice Control commands to interact with your Mac. Both read on 5 October 2026.
| VoxFlow Pro for Mac | Voice Control (macOS) | Dragon for Mac | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Can you get it today | Yes, free download | Yes, built in | No, not sold since 22 October 2018 |
| Updates | New builds posted on the download page, no auto-update | With macOS | None since 22 October 2018 |
| Main use | Type by voice into any app | Control the Mac and dictate by voice | Dictation |
| How you start and stop | Hold a key while you speak, release to type | Always listening for commands; say "Stop listening" to pause | - |
| Control apps by voice | No | Yes, for example "Open Mail", "Click Done" | - |
| Where speech is transcribed | Always on your Mac (WhisperKit) | - | - |
| Price | Free, no account | Free | No longer sold |
A dash means we have not checked it against a source, not that it is missing or bad. Apple notes that while Voice Control is on, standard macOS Dictation is not available and you dictate through Voice Control instead.
A lot of Dragon use on the Mac was simply this: say a paragraph, have it appear in Mail or Word. A microphone left on while you work also hears the phone call, the colleague and the cough. With hold-to-talk your finger on the key is the recording light. Release and the sentence is typed into Mail, Word, Slack, Notes, a browser field or your code editor, wherever the cursor already is. Nothing is sent anywhere, so it also works with Wi-Fi off.
The app is signed with a Developer ID issued to BIT Technology s.r.o. and notarized by Apple, so it opens with a normal double click. The download page lists the SHA-256 checksum and the Terminal command that lets macOS confirm the notarization for you.
If you are deciding between VoxFlow and the Dictation that comes with macOS, see VoxFlow compared with macOS Dictation.
No. Nuance's end of life notice says Dragon Professional Individual for Mac was discontinued effective 22 October 2018, is no longer available for purchase and gets no updates after that date. People who bought version 6 have a perpetual license and may keep using it, but it has not been updated for any macOS release since.
It depends on what you used Dragon for. To control the whole Mac by voice (open apps, click buttons, edit by voice), use Voice Control, which is built into macOS. To type by voice into any app with a key you hold while speaking, VoxFlow Pro for Mac does that for free and on the device. For long documents with spoken punctuation, try the built-in macOS Dictation first.
No. VoxFlow writes down what you say into the app that has focus. It has no correction commands, no custom vocabulary training and does not control the Mac by voice. If you need those, Voice Control in macOS is the closer match.
Nothing. No account, no trial timer and no subscription. A voluntary support button exists on the download page and changes nothing about the app.
VoxFlow is made by BIT Technology s.r.o. and is not affiliated with Nuance, Microsoft or Apple. Dragon is a trademark of Nuance Communications, Inc. Mac and macOS are trademarks of Apple Inc.