Why I Stopped Paying for Dragon (And What I Use Now)

I used Dragon NaturallySpeaking for three years. It worked. The accuracy was good, the vocabulary adapted to my speaking patterns, and it handled technical terms better than anything else at the time.

Then I looked at what I was actually paying.

The math that made me quit

Dragon Professional costs $699 one-time, or you can go with the subscription at $14.99/month ($180/year). I was on the subscription because $699 felt steep for software I wasn’t sure I’d keep using.

After three years, I’d paid $540 for voice-to-text. For something that, at its core, converts audio to words.

The thing that changed my decision was the arrival of Whisper, Groq, and Deepgram as practical alternatives for general dictation. I wanted the option to choose a provider or run transcription locally instead of committing to one engine.

What I wanted instead

My requirements were simple:

1. Pay once. I’m not subscribing to dictation software. It’s a utility, not a service.
2. Choose the transcription engine. I wanted Groq, Deepgram, or local Whisper instead of one fixed provider.
3. Work offline when I need it. Sometimes I’m on a plane. Sometimes I just don’t want my audio leaving my machine.
4. Stay out of my way. System tray, hotkey, done. No Finch login or behavioral analytics. Purchases and license recovery still use email.

The tools I evaluated made different tradeoffs across pricing, engine choice, offline use, and workflow. None matched the combination I wanted.

So I built it

Finch is what came out of that frustration. BYOK cloud mode works without a paid Finch license; a $49 perpetual license unlocks local Whisper and offline use. It sits in your system tray and focuses on dictation.

Here’s the comparison that matters:

Feature	Dragon Professional	Finch
Price	$699 or $15/mo	$0 BYOK cloud mode; $49 local license
Transcription engine	Proprietary (aging)	Groq, Deepgram, or licensed local Whisper
Offline mode	Yes	Yes (local Whisper, ~31MB model)
AI text cleanup	Basic formatting	Removes filler words, fixes grammar, context-aware
Subscription required	Yes (for updates)	No. Every published 1.x update is included.
App size	4GB+	Installer size varies; local models add 31 MB or 190 MB
Voice commands	Yes (extensive)	Yes
Custom vocabulary	Yes	Yes (personal dictionary)
Automatic cloud traffic	Partial	Blocked in Privacy Mode
Devices	1 license	3 devices

Dragon still wins on a few things. The medical and legal vocabulary packs are genuinely good if you’re in those fields. The command-and-control features for navigating Windows are more mature. And if your employer is paying for it, the enterprise deployment tools are solid.

For my personal workflow, Dragon’s price and fixed engine no longer made sense. Groq and Deepgram pricing and limits are controlled by those providers; local Whisper has no API usage fee after the Finch license purchase.

The BYOK difference

The part of Finch I’m most proud of is the bring-your-own-keys model. Add your own Groq key for cloud transcription and optional AI cleanup, or your own Deepgram key for real-time transcription. Their plans, rate limits, charges, and data terms apply. Local Whisper has no API usage fee after you buy the Finch license.

Your API key and provider account. Finch currently supports Groq and Deepgram; switching between those integrations means changing the selected provider and key.

Dragon can’t do this. They’re locked to their own engine because the engine is how they justify the subscription. When the transcription market moves (and it moves fast), Dragon users wait for Nuance to catch up. Finch users just swap a key.

What switching actually looks like

If you’re coming from Dragon:

1. Download Finch for Windows 11. The macOS download is temporarily unavailable pending signing and notarization.
2. Add your Groq or Deepgram API key, or buy the $49 license for local Whisper
3. Set your hotkey (I use Ctrl+`, same muscle memory as Dragon’s default)
4. Start talking

When Groq cleanup is enabled, Finch can remove filler words, improve grammar, and add punctuation. Results vary, so review important text.

My adjustment period from Dragon to Finch was about a day. Most of that was changing my punctuation habits while testing optional Groq cleanup.

The $49 question

Here’s the honest pitch: Finch doesn’t do everything Dragon does. It doesn’t have 20 years of enterprise vocabulary training. It doesn’t have the deep Windows shell integration for navigating menus by voice.

What it does: voice-to-text through Groq, Deepgram, or licensed local Whisper, with optional Groq cleanup and no Finch subscription.

$49 once for local transcription on up to three personal devices. Request a full refund within 30 days if it’s not for you.

I stopped paying for Dragon. I haven’t missed it once.