head to head · open source
Handy vs Amical
Handy has 31,791 GitHub stars, 2,896 forks, 158 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Amical has 1,531 stars, 141 forks, 58 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Handy leads on adoption by 1,976% (31,791 vs 1,531 stars). Handy is written in Rust under MIT; Amical is written in TypeScript under MIT. Handy has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Amical 9%. Amical was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Handy | Amical | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 141 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Handy if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Amical if
- You want the Amical feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Amical fits your workflow better
About Handy
Handy is a cross platform desktop application for offline speech to text transcription. It runs entirely on the user’s machine, capturing audio via microphone input and converting speech to text using local machine learning models without any cloud dependency. Built with Tauri and Rust, it targets Windows, macOS, and Linux, and emphasizes simplicity, privacy, and extensibility over raw accuracy or feature breadth.
read the full Handy overview →
About Amical
Amical is an open source, local first AI dictation and note taking app for desktop use. It lives in the Electron, TypeScript, Whisper, and Ollama ecosystem, and it is positioned as an input and productivity tool for people who want to speak instead of typing. The project is MIT licensed and written in TypeScript.
read the full Amical overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Handy or Amical more popular?
Handy has 31,791 GitHub stars and Amical has 1,531. Handy has the larger community by that measure.
Are Handy and Amical free?
Both are open source. Handy is licensed under MIT and Amical under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Handy and Amical?
Handy is written in Rust and Amical in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Handy or Amical?
Choose Handy if you want the larger community (31,791 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Amical if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.