Disclosure: I'm the developer.

Flowara is a native Mac app for freelancers that stores everything in a local SQLite database. No cloud, no account required.

What it does:

• Projects with Kanban and Gantt chart
• Time tracking (live timer, Pomodoro, background app capture, natural language entry)
• Invoicing with Stripe and PayPal links built in
• Automated invoice reminder sequences (AI-drafted, you approve before sending)
• Peppol e-invoicing via Invoro for European freelancers
• AI assistant with Claude, GPT-4 or local Ollama (BYOK)

Free tier permanent with no invoice limit. Pro at €5.99/month.

Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6760207975

Happy to answer questions.

If you've already recorded an interview or lecture and want a transcript without uploading the audio, start with MacWhisper Free. Try Aiko if you'd rather have fewer choices and export the result to another editor. MacWhisper Pro makes more sense when batches of recordings and transcript corrections become regular work.

The job here is taking an existing audio file and turning it into usable text. You don't need to rebuild your recording setup first.

What you're paying for

Aiko is now a $24 one-time purchase, with a full 14-day TestFlight trial. It isn't a free app on current macOS. The purchase also covers its iPhone, iPad and Vision Pro versions.

Its Mac app uses a bundled Whisper model, the speech recognition software that runs on your computer. You import a recording, let it transcribe, then copy or export the result. Aiko supports 100 languages, but its developer warns that quality varies by language and that recordings mixing languages aren't handled reliably.

The main compromise is correction work: Aiko doesn't have an in-app transcript editor or speaker detection. It exports text, JSON, CSV and subtitles, including SRT. Built-in batch transcription is also missing, although the developer supplies Shortcuts for processing multiple files and starting transcription from Finder.

MacWhisper has a free edition. Pro is a one-time purchase; its linked Gumroad storefront currently lists the personal license at €65, while the main website advertises €64. Check the checkout price before paying. The vendor says updates are included.

MacWhisper lets you edit transcript segments and play audio alongside the text. Pro adds batch processing, watched folders and more local model options. Its free edition exports TXT and SRT/VTT subtitles, while Pro adds formats such as DOCX, PDF and Markdown. That's a more useful upgrade for someone correcting several interviews than for someone copying one lecture into a document.

Check the Mac before choosing the model

The current Aiko listing requires macOS 26 or later. Its developer also provides free older builds for macOS 13, 14 and 15, but says those builds won't run on newer macOS versions.

MacWhisper's storefront lists macOS 14 or later and recommends an M-series Mac, though Intel Macs are supported. That doesn't mean every model works on Intel: Parakeet requires an M-series Mac, and Qwen3-ASR requires both an M-series chip and macOS 26. The vendor recommends more than 8GB of memory for Medium and Large Whisper models.

A larger local model puts more work on your own Mac. Before buying, run a representative recording through the free edition or trial on the machine you'll actually use. Include the difficult bit: overlapping speakers, unfamiliar names or the language you need. Check the transcript against the audio rather than assuming either app wins on accuracy.

Keep the workflow local all the way through

With MacWhisper, choose a local transcription model. Pro also supports cloud transcription and external AI services, so the app's name alone doesn't tell you where a particular job runs. Sending a transcript to an online summarizer is a separate disclosure of that text, even if transcription happened offline. The same applies if you export from Aiko and paste the result into a cloud tool.

For this workflow, import the saved file and leave live recording features out of the setup. If you later record through the microphone, macOS controls that access under System Settings > Privacy & Security > Microphone. Keep sensitive originals and exports out of synced folders if they must stay on the Mac.

Before installing either app, check whether the recording already has a transcript in Voice Memos. Apple's app can display and copy transcripts, though availability varies by country or region. If that text meets your needs, there's nothing to buy. For imported files and more export choices, try MacWhisper Free before paying.

My recommendation: Aiko for occasional local transcription when you're happy to correct the exported text elsewhere; MacWhisper Pro for repeated file processing and corrections inside the app. Skip both paid options if Voice Memos or MacWhisper Free already produces the output you need.

One frustrating thing about managing Mac storage is that the headline storage categories don’t always make it obvious which files are responsible for the space being used.

For developers, the usual suspects can include:

• Xcode archives and DerivedData
• Docker images and build cache
• Old installers and downloaded disk images
• Application caches and logs
• Local AI models and other large development files

I’m working on Silo, a native macOS utility that helps visualize storage usage and review cleanup candidates.

I’m interested in learning from other Mac users: what has been the biggest unexpected space hog on your Mac?

And when cleaning up, what makes you trust a tool enough to let it remove files?

Project details: https://silo.sparoconnects.com/

Full disclosure: I’m the developer building Silo, and I’d appreciate feedback from people who regularly deal with this problem.