AudioPen vs Cleft
AudioPen
audiopen.ai
Cleft
cleftnotes.comSide by side
| Figure | AudioPen | Cleft |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $8.25/mo | $3.33/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 8 | 3 |
| Spec score · AI Voice Note Apps | 9.4 (#1) | 8.3 (#9) |
| Spec score · AI Voice Dictation Software | 9.5 (#1) | 8.3 (#10) |
| Spec score · Voice Note Apps | 9.4 (#2) | 8.3 (#10) |
| Headquarters | Nicheless, Inc. lists 651 N Broad St, Suite 206, Middletown, Delaware 19709, USA. | Dublin, Ireland |
| Integrations | AudioPen supports Zapier and webhooks; webhook payloads expose note data as JSON for custom workflows. | Plus sends notes to Notion and Zapier, while export and Local Sync support workflows including Apple Notes, Obsidian, Bear, NotePlan, Drafts, Ulysses, and Logseq. |
| Intended users | The site names writers, creators, salespeople, lawyers, therapists, and people who find typing slow or painful among its intended users. | The founders describe Cleft as built by neurodivergent founders for people whose thoughts move faster than they can type, with a focus on capture before organization. |
| Security | The site says voice-note audio is deleted from servers within 48 hours, voice-typing audio is not saved, data is encrypted at rest, and notes are not used to train AI. | Cleft says notes are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM and in transit with TLS 1.2 or higher, and cloud data is hosted in Ireland under a zero-access architecture. |
| What it does | AudioPen records or accepts speech, transcribes it, and can rewrite the result into structured text in a selected style and language. | Cleft captures spoken thoughts and turns them into structured notes with main points, actions, summaries, and transcripts. |
Plans
AudioPen
- FreeFree
- FreeFree
- Prime (3 months)$33, paid once
- Prime 3 months$33 a month
- Prime (1 year)$99, paid once
- Prime 1 year$99 a year
- Prime (2 years)$159, paid once
- Prime 2 years$159 a year
In their own words
AudioPen
AudioPen turns spoken thoughts into written text by transcribing speech and rewriting it in a style the user chooses. Users can set a low, medium, or high rewrite level, change output length, describe a style, or provide a sample to match. It can produce writing in a different language from the spoken input, and its site lists many supported languages. Voice typing works in text fields in apps such as Gmail, Slack, Notion, and Google Docs. Zapier and webhooks can send saved notes to other apps; Prime MCP provides ChatGPT or Claude read-only access to notes. Its iPhone, Android, Mac, and Windows apps offer on-device offline transcription, but AI rewriting needs an internet connection. The free plan permits recordings up to 3 minutes. Prime plans support recordings up to 15 minutes, with unlimited rewrites and note storage. The service is intended for individual thought: it does not join Zoom calls or label speakers. Voice-note audio is deleted from servers within 48 hours, and voice-typing audio is not saved.
Cleft
Cleft is an iOS and macOS app that turns spoken thoughts into notes with main points, actions, summaries, and transcripts. Its built-in output styles are Structured, Structured Prose, and Clean Transcript; Plus users can also save custom styles. Cleft says it works offline and supports 99 languages, including switching languages mid-sentence. Transcription runs locally using Whisper, and temporary audio is deleted afterward unless Keep Audio is enabled. Optional cloud formatting sends transcript text, not audio, to OpenAI, with Groq as a backup. Cleft lists support for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and CarPlay. Its Basic plan includes recordings up to five minutes, on-device transcription, tags, search, and export. Plus raises the recording limit to 30 minutes and adds attachments, Notion and Zapier integrations, and Family Sharing for up to five. Plus costs $6.99 per month or $39.99 per year through the App Store, with automatic renewal unless canceled. Cleft says notes are encrypted at rest and in transit.