handy vs xiaozhi-esp32
Two of the top projects in Voice, side by side: who leads on each score part and who each one suits, then setup, license, activity and what each review found.
handy
Offline push-to-talk dictation app that pastes transcripts into any text field
xiaozhi-esp32
ESP32 firmware for a voice chatbot with MCP device and cloud tool control
Verdict
handy ranks higher, 89 to 82. Of the 4 score parts we measure for both, handy leads on 3, xiaozhi-esp32 on none and 1 is even.
- Adoptionhandy leads by 3 points, 82 to 79: close to even.
- FreshnessEven at 100.
- Maintenancehandy leads by 7 points, 90 to 83.
- Agent-readyhandy leads by 40 points, 70 to 30: a wide gap.
Pick handy if you are
Desktop users who want private, local dictation into any app
- Runs fully offline on Windows, macOS and Linux with Whisper or Parakeet models
- Hold-to-talk or toggle shortcuts, plus CLI flags and signals for remote control
Pick xiaozhi-esp32 if you are
Hardware hobbyists and embedded engineers building ESP32 voice assistants
- Supports 138 board directories and 171 release variants across ESP32, C3, C5, C6, S3 and P4
- Documented WebSocket and MQTT+UDP protocols let third-party servers and clients interoperate
| What we compare | handy | xiaozhi-esp32 |
|---|---|---|
| Score parts, out of 100 | ||
| Adoption | 82, widely used | 79, popular |
| Freshness | 100, active | 100, active |
| Maintenance | 90, healthy | 83, healthy |
| Agent-ready | 70, partly | 30, minimal |
| Facts from GitHub and the README | ||
| Stars | 36.1k | 32.4k |
| License | MIT (permissive) | MIT (permissive) |
| Last commit | Oct 2026 | Nov 2026 |
| Last release | Oct 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| Language | Rust | C++ |
| Docker | No | Yes |
| GPU | Optional | Not needed |
| arm64 or Apple Silicon | Mentioned | Not stated |
handy
Handy is a cross-platform desktop app (Rust, Tauri) for local speech-to-text. Hold or toggle a global shortcut, speak, and the transcript is pasted into the focused app. Silero VAD filters silence, and transcription runs locally on Whisper models (Small, Medium, Turbo, Large) or Parakeet, with no audio sent to the cloud.
Who it is for: Desktop users who want private, local dictation into any app
Strengths
- Runs fully offline on Windows, macOS and Linux with Whisper or Parakeet models
- Hold-to-talk or toggle shortcuts, plus CLI flags and signals for remote control
- Accepts custom Whisper GGML models and manually downloaded GGUF files
- Release artifacts are signed, with documented minisign verification steps
Weaknesses
- Linux Wayland support is limited and needs wtype, dotool or ydotool for text input
- Clipboard paste can insert stale clipboard content; Reliable Paste is still experimental
- fn/Globe key shortcuts work only on Apple keyboards on macOS
- Model downloads are large, from 487 MB to 1.6 GB for Whisper variants
- GPU optional
- Needs xdotool (X11), wtype or dotool (Wayland), libgtk-layer-shell (Linux)
- Models: Whisper GGML (.bin), Parakeet (GGUF), Silero VAD
xiaozhi-esp32
C++ firmware that turns ESP32 boards into a voice chatbot. It does offline wake-word detection with ESP-SR and streams Opus audio over WebSocket or MQTT+UDP to a server that handles ASR, LLM and TTS. MCP is used on the device (speaker, LED, servo, GPIO) and in the cloud (smart home, email, search). It connects to the hosted xiaozhi.me server by default, and self-hosted server projects are listed.
Who it is for: Hardware hobbyists and embedded engineers building ESP32 voice assistants
Strengths
- Supports 138 board directories and 171 release variants across ESP32, C3, C5, C6, S3 and P4
- Documented WebSocket and MQTT+UDP protocols let third-party servers and clients interoperate
- Offline wake-word detection with customizable wake words; Wi-Fi, Ethernet and Cat.1 4G networking
- Prebuilt firmware can be flashed without setting up a development environment
Weaknesses
- Models do not run on the device; a server is needed for ASR, LLM and TTS
- Default setup depends on the hosted xiaozhi.me service and an account
- Requires ESP-IDF 6.0.1 or later; 5.x is unsupported and the v6.1 tag has a reported C3 Wi-Fi bug
- Beginner tutorials are on Feishu and bilibili, mostly in Chinese
- no GPU
- Docker
- Needs ESP-IDF 6.0.1+, ESP32 board, xiaozhi.me or compatible server
- Models: Qwen, DeepSeek, Realtime end-to-end voice models
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