AudioPen vs Aside: Which Voice Notes App Respects Your Privacy?

AudioPen has become one of the most popular voice-to-text apps, praised for turning rambling voice notes into structured text. But as users become more privacy-conscious, many are asking: where do my recordings actually go?

This comparison examines AudioPen and Aside across privacy, features, and pricing to help you decide which app deserves access to your thoughts.

The Core Difference

Let's start with the fundamental distinction:

AudioPen uploads your recordings to external servers for processing. Aside processes everything on your device.

This isn't a minor technical detail — it fundamentally changes who can access your thoughts.

Privacy Deep Dive

How AudioPen Works

When you record with AudioPen:

1. Audio is captured on your phone
2. Recording uploads to AudioPen's cloud servers
3. External AI services transcribe and process the audio
4. Structured text returns to your app
5. Your recording exists on their infrastructure

This means:

• Your voice recordings pass through external servers
• AI processing happens on third-party infrastructure
• Data persists outside your control
• Internet connection is required

AudioPen's privacy policy states they process data to provide services, which is standard — but it means your private thoughts exist on servers you don't control.

How Aside Works

When you record with Aside:

1. Audio is captured on your iPhone
2. Apple's Speech framework transcribes on-device
3. Apple's Foundation Models process on-device (iOS 26+)
4. Everything stays on your iPhone and your iCloud
5. Aside's developers never see your data

This architecture means:

• Your recordings never leave your device
• No external servers involved
• Works completely offline
• Developer literally cannot access your content

The difference matters if you're capturing:

• Business strategies or ideas
• Personal journal entries
• Sensitive conversations
• Private reflections
• Professional notes with confidential information

Feature Comparison

Voice Capture

Aside is designed for quick thought capture — the kind of fleeting ideas you need to record instantly before they disappear. AudioPen supports longer recordings better but requires internet.

Transcription

Both apps produce quality transcriptions. The difference is where that processing happens.

AI Features

AudioPen excels at turning rambling thoughts into structured text. Aside focuses on organization, search, and querying your thoughts over time.

Organization & Search

Aside's "Ask Your Thoughts" feature lets you query your captured ideas conversationally — "What did I think about the marketing plan?" — something AudioPen doesn't offer.

Platform Support

AudioPen started as a web app, which shows in its platform support. Aside is built native for Apple's ecosystem, with deep integration into iOS features like widgets, Shortcuts, and Watch complications.

Pricing Comparison

AudioPen

• Free: Limited recordings, basic features
• Premium: $100+/year

AudioPen's premium tier is expensive, reflecting the costs of cloud AI processing.

Aside

• Free: 10 thoughts/day, basic features
• Premium: $7.99/month or $59.99/year (7-day free trial)

Aside costs 40% less than AudioPen because on-device AI has no per-use API costs.

Why the Price Difference?

Cloud AI costs money per request. Every time AudioPen transcribes and processes your recording, they pay for compute time on external servers.

Aside uses Apple's built-in frameworks — Speech for transcription, Foundation Models for AI. These run on your iPhone's hardware at no marginal cost to the developer.

The result: Aside can offer premium features at a lower price while also being more private.

Who Should Use Which?

Choose AudioPen if:

• You record long-form content (10+ minutes)
• Structured output format is essential
• You prefer web access
• Privacy is not a primary concern
• You need Android support
• You're okay with $100+/year

Choose Aside if:

• Privacy is your top priority
• You capture quick thoughts frequently
• You want to query past thoughts
• You use Apple Watch
• Offline functionality matters
• You prefer lower cost ($59.99/year)
• You want native iOS experience

Common Concerns Addressed

"AudioPen's structured output is better"

AudioPen does excel at turning rambling voice notes into organized text with headers and bullet points. If that specific output format is essential for your workflow, AudioPen may still be worth the privacy trade-off.

Aside focuses on different value: organization over time, searchability, and the ability to ask questions about your captured thoughts.

"I need web access"

Aside is iOS-only currently. If you need to access recordings from Windows or Android devices, AudioPen's web interface is an advantage — though it comes with the privacy cost of cloud storage.

"Is on-device AI as good as cloud AI?"

Apple's Foundation Models are surprisingly capable. For summarization, tagging, and question-answering about your notes, the quality difference is minimal. You're not getting ChatGPT-4 level reasoning, but for organizing voice notes, on-device AI is more than sufficient.

"What about longer recordings?"

Aside is optimized for thought capture — typically 10 seconds to 2 minutes. For longer recordings like meeting transcription or hour-long voice journals, other tools may be more appropriate.

The Migration Question

If you're currently using AudioPen and considering a switch:

What you'll gain:

• Complete privacy (recordings never leave your device)
• Lower cost (40% savings)
• Offline functionality
• Apple Watch quick capture
• Native iOS experience
• Natural language queries over your thoughts

What you might miss:

• Structured output formatting
• Web access
• Very long recording support
• Android compatibility

Migration path: Aside doesn't currently import from AudioPen, but starting fresh may not be problematic — most users don't frequently reference old voice notes anyway.

The Bottom Line

AudioPen and Aside solve similar problems differently:

AudioPen optimizes for output quality and structure, accepting cloud processing as necessary for AI features.

Aside optimizes for privacy and capture speed, leveraging on-device AI to provide smart features without data exposure.

If your voice notes contain anything you wouldn't want on someone else's server — business ideas, personal reflections, sensitive information — the privacy architecture matters more than feature checklists.

At $59.99/year vs $100+/year, Aside also represents significant savings while offering features AudioPen lacks (Apple Watch, widgets, natural language queries).

Your thoughts deserve an app that treats them as private by default, not as data to be processed on remote servers.

---

Ready to Switch?

Aside gives you AI-powered voice capture without the privacy compromise. Your recordings stay on your device. Your thoughts stay private.

Why users switch from AudioPen:

• 100% on-device processing (nothing uploaded)
• 40% lower price ($59.99/year)
• Works completely offline
• Apple Watch quick capture
• "Ask Your Thoughts" natural language queries
• Native iOS experience with widgets and Shortcuts

Download Aside — Think out loud. In private.