Dragon was a pioneer — but Nuance discontinued Dragon for Mac in 2018, and it no longer runs on modern macOS or Apple Silicon. Dictately is a current, Mac-native replacement.
An honest look at where Dragon stands on the Mac, and what to use now.
Nuance stopped selling a Mac version of Dragon in 2018. The final release doesn't run reliably on macOS Ventura or later and doesn't support Apple Silicon, and after Microsoft acquired Nuance in 2022 the focus moved to enterprise healthcare and Windows. In short: if you're on a current Mac, Dragon isn't really an option anymore — so this is less a head-to-head and more “your old tool is gone, here's a modern one.”
| Dictately | Dragon for Mac | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Mac app (2026) | Discontinued 2018 | |
| Runs on Apple Silicon (M-series) | ||
| Runs on macOS 13+ (Ventura/Sonoma) | ||
| Updates & support | Active | None |
| Price | £6.99/mo or £199 lifetime | Legacy one-off (unsupported) |
| Languages (auto-detect) | 99+ | Legacy, limited |
| Custom vocabulary | Personal dictionary | Yes (legacy) |
| On-device English | — |
Dragon genuinely changed what dictation could do — deep custom commands, trainable accuracy, a loyal following among writers, lawyers and doctors. None of that is in question. The problem is simply that the Mac product was retired and never modernised, so on today's hardware it's no longer a working choice.
Today's AI speech models do a lot of what used to need training and tuning, out of the box. With Dictately you hold a key, talk, and clean, punctuated text appears in whatever app you're in — no profile to train, no setup ritual.
You also get things the old Dragon never had on Mac: automatic detection across 99+ languages, an on-device English mode that keeps your audio on your machine, and active updates that keep pace with macOS.
The main thing former Dragon users miss is their custom vocabulary. Dictately's personal dictionary covers it: add the names, jargon and terms Dragon used to know, and they'll come out right every time. For most people, that plus zero-setup accuracy is a comfortable landing.
Free for 2,000 words a month — no card. Works on Apple Silicon and Intel, no training required.
No. Nuance discontinued Dragon for Mac in 2018. The last version (Dragon Professional Individual for Mac 6) is unsupported and no longer runs reliably on macOS Ventura (13) or later, or on Apple Silicon. There is no current Dragon desktop app for macOS.
No. The legacy Mac version pre-dates Apple Silicon and doesn't run reliably on M-series Macs. If you've upgraded your Mac, Dragon for Mac effectively stopped working — which is why most former Dragon users move to a modern app.
Modern AI dictation apps have largely replaced Dragon on the Mac. Dictately is a current, Mac-native option — it runs on Apple Silicon and Intel, works in any app, supports 99+ languages, keeps English on-device, and costs £6.99/month or £199 once.
Not automatically, but you can add your names, jargon and terms to Dictately's personal dictionary so they're transcribed the way you want — which covers the main reason people built a Dragon vocabulary.
Nuance (acquired by Microsoft in 2022) shifted Dragon toward enterprise healthcare and Windows/cloud products. A consumer Mac desktop app no longer fit that strategy, so Mac users were left without a current version.