Dragon NaturallySpeaking in 2025: Is It Still Worth $700?

I spent six years using Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Dictated an entire thesis with it. Recommended it to everyone who'd listen. And last month, I finally uninstalled it.

This isn't a hit piece—Dragon was genuinely revolutionary software. But the dictation landscape has changed so dramatically that I need to be honest about where things stand, especially if you're considering dropping $700 on Dragon Professional.

The Dragon I Fell in Love With

When I first installed Dragon back in 2018, it felt like magic. You had to train it for hours, reading passages aloud like some kind of literacy test, but once it learned your voice? Nothing else came close. I was hitting 99% accuracy while my colleagues fumbled with Google's voice typing.

Dragon understood context. It knew that "their" versus "there" depended on the sentence. It could handle "period" as punctuation or as a noun. For medical and legal professionals especially, the specialized vocabularies were game-changers.

What Changed

Two things happened that Dragon couldn't adapt to.

First, cloud-based AI transcription got really good. OpenAI's Whisper, Deepgram, AssemblyAI—these services now match or exceed Dragon's accuracy without any voice training. They work instantly, on any device, with any accent. The technology that made Dragon special became commoditized.

Second, Nuance (Dragon's parent company) got acquired by Microsoft in 2022 for $19.7 billion. Since then, the consumer product has felt... abandoned. The last major update was version 15 in 2020. Meanwhile, Nuance has pivoted hard toward enterprise healthcare solutions. The writing's on the wall for the standalone desktop product.

Where Dragon Still Wins

I'm not going to pretend Dragon is obsolete. For specific use cases, it's still the right choice:

Offline dictation: If you genuinely cannot have an internet connection—secure government facilities, certain healthcare environments, remote locations—Dragon's offline capability matters. Most modern alternatives require connectivity.

The $700 Problem

Here's my issue: Dragon Professional costs $699. The subscription is $500/year. Even Dragon Home is $200.

For that price in 2025, you get:

• Software that only works on Windows (Mac version was discontinued)

• No mobile app

• No cloud sync

• No real-time collaboration features

• Declining update frequency

• A company clearly focused elsewhere

When I was recommending Dragon in 2019, the alternatives were garbage. Google voice typing made embarrassing mistakes. Siri was a joke for anything beyond "set a timer." The premium was justified.

That's not the case anymore.

What I Switched To

I built a dictation tool called Dictation Daddy partly because I was frustrated with exactly this situation. But let me be objective about the broader category of modern alternatives:

Cloud-based dictation apps (including mine, but also tools like Otter, Speechify, and others) now offer:

• 95-99% accuracy using AI models like Whisper

• Work across Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and browsers

• No voice training required

• Automatic punctuation and formatting

• Cost between $0-15/month instead of $700 upfront

The tradeoff is internet dependency and slightly less sophisticated voice commands.

Built-in OS dictation has improved dramatically. Windows 11's voice typing (Win+H) uses the same AI tech and works surprisingly well for casual use. It's free and doesn't require installing anything.

Who Should Still Buy Dragon

Buy Dragon if you check multiple boxes here:

• You need to work offline regularly

• You're already proficient with Dragon and switching costs are high

• Your employer is paying for it

If you're a student, writer, or general professional who just wants to dictate text faster than typing—Dragon is almost certainly overkill now.

My Honest Take

I have obvious bias here—I make a competing product. So take this with appropriate salt.

But here's what I believe: Dragon was 10 years ahead of its time, and the market finally caught up. The technology that Nuance pioneered is now available from dozens of sources at a fraction of the cost. Their response has been to focus on enterprise healthcare contracts where margins are higher, leaving individual users with an aging product at premium prices.

If you're weighing Dragon against modern alternatives, try the free tiers first. Use Windows voice typing. Test Otter's free plan. Try Dictation Daddy's free tier. See if "good enough" is actually good enough for your needs.

You might be surprised. I was.

Last updated: January 2025. Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 15 Professional pricing verified at nuance.com.