Dragon needs a download, training and a Windows box. Fasrad is a free browser extension: hold a key, speak, and the text lands ready to act on.
Dragon makes you install heavy software, train a voice profile, buy a per-seat license and stay on Windows. Fasrad makes you press a key. It's a free browser extension with modern Whisper recognition out of the box, and it shapes text into an email or note with your contacts' names spelled right. The same handle opens your assistant, so the words can become an action. Same idea, three decades lighter.
Dragon was the gold standard for a decade, and it shows its age. You get a heavy Windows install, a voice profile you have to train, a license that runs $200 to $500 (or per-seat enterprise) and an interface from another era. The recognition is good. Everything around it is a project.
Fasrad's Voice is a free browser extension. You skip the training session and the profile upkeep. Hold a key in any tab, speak and release. Whisper transcribes, a cleanup pass punctuates and shapes the text, and it lands in whatever field had focus.
What changes when you switch:
A spoken sentence can land as punctuated, shaped text in Gmail, Docs, your CRM, web forms or chat. Or it can become the email sent, the note filed or the task created. Dragon leans on system-wide dictation into native Windows software with trained medical and legal vocabularies. A dedicated clinical or legal lexicon is on Fasrad's roadmap, and for browser-based knowledge work, which is most of it, Voice already covers the job and then acts on what you said.
Same idea, three decades lighter, and you start by pressing a key.
Buyers usually compare these adjacent jobs before choosing an AI agent.
No. Add the free Scanner browser extension and allow the mic once. Modern Whisper recognition works immediately, with no read-aloud setup and no profile to maintain or back up.
Hold the dictation chord (left Ctrl + Shift) in any browser tab, speak and release. Whisper transcribes, a cleanup pass punctuates and shapes the text, and it lands in whatever input, textarea or editor had focus.
Yes. Voice is part of Fasrad, with no separate license or per-seat fee. Dragon Professional runs $200 to $500 per seat. Here it's one feature of the assistant you're already using.
No. It runs in Chrome or Firefox on Mac, Windows, Linux or a Chromebook. Dragon's modern dictation is effectively Windows-bound, and Fasrad goes wherever you have a browser.
Very. Whisper is strong out of the box, and a cleanup pass fixes punctuation and capitalization and removes "um / uh" and false starts. Your CRM contact names are seeded to the transcriber, so the people you talk to come back spelled right without you training anything.
Yes, for the work that lives in a browser. Your CRM contact names seed the transcriber, so the people you deal with come back spelled right. It dictates cleanly into email, docs, your CRM and web forms, and it can turn what you said into an action, like sending that email or filing a note. Today the vocabulary hint comes from your contacts, and a dedicated medical or legal lexicon is on the roadmap.
It acts. The same hold-to-speak handle opens your assistant, so a spoken sentence can become an email drafted and sent, a note filed or a task created.