Horch vs ZenMic

A side-by-side look at pricing, capabilities, pros, cons, and our editorial scores.

	Horch Audio	ZenMic Audio
Tagline	Privacy-first, on-device meeting assistant for macOS	Text-to-podcast generator with multi-speaker AI voices and RSS publishing.
Category	Audio	Audio
Pricing	Paid· One-time purchase: €49 once	Freemium· Monthly: $19 · Yearly: ≈ $8.25/mo · Early Adopter Tier: ?
Model	Whisper (local) for transcription; optional Ollama / MLX local LLMs for summarization	—
Editorial score	—	7.0 / 10
Use cases	Confidential client meeting transcriptionAutomatic action-item extractionPer-contact relationship historyPre-meeting briefings from prior callsLocal Whisper transcription without cloud uploadFeeding meeting context into Claude or Cursor via MCPPersonal second-brain in MarkdownLegal, medical, or NDA-bound conversation notes	text-to-podcastcontent-repurposingai-voiceovermulti-speaker-audiorss-publishing
Pros	Fully on-device by default — audio and transcripts never leave the Mac unless the user opts in One-time €49 purchase instead of a recurring per-seat SaaS bill Records at OS level so no bot appears in the meeting and any app (Zoom, Meet, Teams, in-person) works Notes stored as plain Markdown in ~/Meetings — portable, greppable, Obsidian-friendly Auto-generates action items, topic summaries, and per-person profiles from spoken content MCP server exposes meeting history to Claude, Cursor, and other agent clients Local Whisper transcription plus optional Ollama/MLX means you pick the summarizer	Editable scripts and per-speaker voice assignment, not a black-box generator Built-in RSS feed for Apple Podcasts and Spotify distribution Flat, transparent pricing with commercial rights included API access available on the paid plan Generous free tier with no credit card required
Cons	macOS only — no Windows, Linux, iOS, or web client Local Whisper and summarization need a reasonably modern Apple Silicon Mac to feel fast No cloud sync or team workspace, so sharing across a team requires bring-your-own storage Small independent product without the integrations catalog of Fireflies, Otter, or Fathom OS-level capture depends on macOS screen/audio permissions, which some corporate MDM setups block	100 minutes/month cap with no higher tier published Underlying TTS model isn't disclosed Single-plan pricing leaves heavy producers stranded
Website	horch.app	zenmic.com

Pick Horch if

✅ Fully on-device by default — audio and transcripts never leave the Mac unless the user opts in
✅ One-time €49 purchase instead of a recurring per-seat SaaS bill
✅ Records at OS level so no bot appears in the meeting and any app (Zoom, Meet, Teams, in-person) works
✅ Notes stored as plain Markdown in ~/Meetings — portable, greppable, Obsidian-friendly

Pick ZenMic if

✅ Editable scripts and per-speaker voice assignment, not a black-box generator
✅ Built-in RSS feed for Apple Podcasts and Spotify distribution
✅ Flat, transparent pricing with commercial rights included
✅ API access available on the paid plan

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