ELSA Speak vs Dragon Professional Individual

Duolingo

Speexx

Absorb LMS

Duolingo is a learning management system that helps schools offer bite-sized learning modules to teach speaking and reading different languages including Spanish, French, Italian, German, French, and English. The platform offers gamified lessons, which enable trainees to learn and incorporate grammar and vocabulary skills.

Speexx, a Time Magazine Top EdTech company, provides workplace development through coaching, language and intercultural training, mentoring, and skills assessment. 

Absorb LMS is an AI-based strategic learning management system designed to meet the diverse training and development needs of organizations of all sizes. The platform's features and integrations empower enterprises to deliver uninterrupted, personalized learning experiences to employees, customers, partners, and members worldwide.

Recognized GSV Edtech 150 and CB Insights AI 100 and trusted by 20M+ users and 400+ companies worldwide, ELSA offers immediate feedback for users’ both scripted and unscripted input speech to sound like a native speaker. Join an interactive and engaging learning communities with ELSA


Self-paced Learning

Learning Management

Blended Learning

ELSA Speak

iPhone

Android

iPad

Web-based

Chromebook

Basic

the free version is decent for pronanciation corrections.

Elsa gives a free trial for users to try them out.

Health Coach

The interactive platform is fun and entertaining, providing an easy way to learn the language you need.

Mr Zee

Great variety of activities for free. And personalized learning for a paid account.

Accountant

I practice English every day and it makes me love english , it helped me alot

Social Worker

I like this feature, which is quite successful in detecting and evaluating sound. When I record my voice, it scores my pronunciation and I can listen to it again until it's correct.

Data Analyst

The capability to recognise every single sound from my voice is really impressive and this helps improve my pronunciation a lot.

Director

Intelligibility is of great interest in my classes and I use ELSA to train my students for their segmental problems.

HSE Engineer

It is  so interesting App to start with to evaluating real English level then keep working on language skills on  as Word Stress , Intonation, Fluency, and pronunciation  to the perfection as native speakers besides the vocabulary and grammar.

Independent

It ia not somethink I dislike, but there's something I thing could be better: The chat groups could offers some phone calls in small groups.

Product support engineer

This is good for me as I can practice it whenever there is free time for me and the speech recognition along with replaying my speech is the best feature in this app.

Research and Data Analyst

What I paid for the lifetime package is reasonable and my skills, especially pronunciation get improved by practising everyday.

DevOps

The layout of the video pages leaves little room for the video itself, and it does not allow for rotating the screen to enlarge the image.

UX DESIGNER

the speech recognition function has been surprising the first time: it helped me a lot to understand that, even micro differences between sounds, can change the meaning and the effectiveness of my speech.

Senior Recruitment Professional

The free version has a very less number of modules.

There are some parts that are wanted to be done in a day, these can get boring after a while.

Financial Management Advisor

I have seen progress in learning English as a second languageThe App overall is easy to useThe app helped me to score a high rate in General ILETS

Manager

Well, speaking recognition is the best feature I have seen on the app in order to get corrected and get better understanding about the pronunciation and the spelling of the word itself.

The appearance is a bit confused to understand the structure of lessons.

Senior Sales Representative

It uses more methods like conversations, texts, video calls, listening tests, and others.

postdoctoral researcher

I don't find the program so easy to manage. When starting each study session I am presented with many "recommended", "by topics" or "games" options for training, when it would be more intuitive to continue directly from where I left off.

Besides, I am lacking in writing and reading texts.

PhD Student in Food sciences and Technology

The main features of this app that I love so much are: pronunciation, intonation, learning of new words.

I've been using the app for 3 weeks, but feel more confident that the pronunciation is correct. And still have to practice a lot. and i think this app It will help me to develop my speaking to an advanced level.

HR Manager

I passed a course and didn’t get the certification

Pronunce a word or a sentence several times when  it seems difficult for the app understand what I am saying. Because, I feel and  i listen that I pronunce very well the word, but Elsa,sometime has some difficulties to understand it.

I can easily listen to how to properly voice over.

Government job

Easy tools and catchy because in other app there are lots of complicated and reduddant tools which further limits the learning capacity of learners whereas ELSA hasnot.

Development engineer

I lack lifetime statistics, not just a year, to be able to see the process over a long period of time.

Translation of some words or sentences in Thai Still not as good as it should be Some sentences or some words are not correct.

In addition I didn't find any problems in the app unless when the internet signal is not good The app might be processing slow.

Market Segment Manager

Big problem is the poor main dashboard, hard to monitor the achievement and development

I like the quick assessment that creates a personalized courses and lessons for user.

I started using the trial version of the application and quickly included it in my daily English study practice.

planner

I think speaking training is the best for me.

Lecturer

When you need to exercise on certain sounds, other sounds are not rated inside a word.

Consultant

I can learn what sounds I am making. When I say it, I believe I pronounce a certain syllable or a vowel.

Sr. Software Engineer

Sometimes it is very hard to achieve 80% and more for long sentences to compare with native speakers

Senior Software Engineer

I have improved my pronunciation, as I speak and the app corrects my incorrect intonation/pronunciation.

Language Student and self-employed teacher

I used Elsa for checking different words and completing tasks.

Marketing officer

After my recent update, I lost all my data including my learning process and points

I do like the way how this App evaluate what sounds or which pronunciation needs improvement.

Tarrif Specialist

About the speech recognition, where I can practice my speaking capabilities

the member of faculty

thanks to financial problem, I couldn't  access to upgrade of your valuable software in our region.

AESH

Sometimes, I have to quit exercice because it doesn't work properly even if I "force" my word to be clearer...

actor

Sometimes it just stops, it doesn't work anymore and you have to restart the whole session.

Developer

The app is good for me as I can practice it whenever there are free moments in a day or week.

I saw the app has a community to find a teacher but I don't think they would know my progress in the Elsa speaking.

Systems engineer

It is the perfect learning companion, with a daily goal of 20 minutes of lessons, you quickly see improvement

Pronunciation Improvement

Pricing

Words and Sentences

Interactive Gamification

Progress Tracking

Speech Recognition

Lessons

Practice

Voice Recognition

Conversation Practice

Mid-size Business

Large Enterprises

Small Business

Freelancers

ELSA

Talkatoo

Talkatoo is a speech recognition and dictation software that helps veterinary organizations utilize speech-to-text technology to capture chart notes on a centralized platform. It provides a built-in medical dictionary, which lets medical professionals dictate terms, such as eosinophilia, hypothermia, intubation, and more.

Transkriptor

Transkriptor is an online transcription software that helps small to large businesses convert audio and video into text using artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

Sunoh

Sunoh.ai is a healthcare management solution with AI-powered ambient listening technology that translates patient-provider conversations into accurate clinical documentation. With Sunoh.ai taking care of documentation, providers can focus on patient care.

Dragon Professional Individual is a speech recognition software designed to help professionals leverage deep learning technology to dictate and transcribe documents. Its smart format rules automatically adapt to required abbreviations, phone numbers, dates, and other appearing details.


Customizable Macros

Audio Capture

Concatenated Speech

Some users report that Dragon Professional Individual is expensive, and they find the lack of a free trial or version limiting. Some reviewers feel frequent paid upgrades and add-ons increase costs, and they wish for simpler pricing options. Some users appreciate discounts, and they find the software's productivity benefits justify the investment for frequent use.

Value for money

Reviews for Dragon Professional Individual come from a wide variety of industries, including writing and editing (8% of reviewers), hospital & health care (8%), and medical practice (6%). The most frequent use case for Dragon Professional Individual cited by reviewers is speech recognition (84% of reviewers).

Dragon Professional Individual

Windows

Writer

I have to reload the profile. As AI for transcription becomes more and more available and skilled, Dragon will have more competition for its function of transcription from a sound file.

I dictate various meditation processes into audacity, and use it to transcribe those.

It reduces eye strain to have the bulk of the edits transcribed for me.

physician

The $500 I paid up front did not even allow me to get help from customer service.   Unless you care nothing about expense.

My overall rating is only 3 because there are limitations with the product (see cons). But since it’s the only one I know that does what it does, my recommendation is 9 out of 10.

Associate Postgrad Dean

I can now act as my own typist (well, almost!)The more I use it, the more accurate it gets, which is really rewarding, and it has really come into its own during COVID lockdown periods, when face to face working was out, and I had to communicate purely through email.

Ease of use I rated as only 3 as there is a learning curve for use, especially if you want to learn to dictate punctuation.

You can have multiple profiles set up on dragon.

support expired after 6 months and again I would need to pay $200 to receive help.  

President

I had to use it because I was temporarily disabled and it was horrible to learn and absolutely frustrating at times.

command prompts worked reasonably well if you know what they are.

Unhelpful unless you pay $hundreds for help.

SEO specialist

Used it without issue since 2019, though I cannot train it to a level where I can actually dictate errorfree.

Only to find that I couldn't activate it because I didn't uninstall the software from my old laptop - which I couldn't!I've never dealt with any company so unhelpful and predatory.

I am not sure the quality of the service - I could never get that far.

I found out that the download file stops working after two years.

I have a fairly strong Scottish accent, and it took time to "train" the software.

Audio/video producer

Also, it gives me much more freedom of expression, as I don;t have to worry about things written down not making sense; I talk them out, then come back on the transcription at the end and edit out what's needed.

Pres CEO

I often get lost in my thoughts when using a keyboard Dragon allows me to just simply talk and get my thoughts onto paper.

ESL Teacher

The voice recognition is very accurate and the software learns over time, so the more you use it, the more accurate it gets.

Dragon also offers custom vocabularies and macros which make dictating even easier.

Author

It has helped my productivity in writing and has given my wrists a much needed break when I write for long hours.

Support stuff suggested I re-purchase the product.

Owner

We use Dragon Speech Recognition for almost everything such as research papers, emails, customer correspondence, professional documents, and case notes.

It is so much faster and produces better results. When dictating, I can put more emphasis on sentences. Because when typing, my mind is occupied by pressing keyboard.

Lawyer 

Creator, Author, Owner

This software is great for people who have difficulty typing and/or for anyone who wants to transcribe a large physical document into digital form and does not have use of a scanner.

The ability to create custom commands this is superb.  

I have purchased expensive Bluetooth headphones - only to have constant problems with Dragon.

Attorney

At times it can be tempermental to the microphone and the attempts to learn your language by reviewing your emails and prior correspondence is difficult to use and difficult to get it to recognize the folders it can reveiw.

Also regularly now, words appear with extra letters in them – as per the example here with input, it is not that I cannot spell input it is just that this is how Dragon spells it… Have had various problems recently and every time the aim of customer service is to get you off the phone as quickly as possible – to be quite frank this business has lost the plot.

Freelance Translator

Dragon helped me increase my productivity and ease my wrist/hand pains.

It takes a bit of time to setup/train the software to recognize your voice patterns and specific words but the initial time invested saves hours later.  

Lawyer

The software is decent but if you have Microsoft Word, you simply click on DICTATE (there is a microphone symbol in the task bar) and it is no different to Dragon.

Teacher

my children are Home schooled and also use it from time to time. If you are using this for children be sure they speak loudly and clearly as it may make more errors when words are not spoken clearly.  

Being a literary translator, I need to write as much as I can every day.

Freelance Public Health professional

My father is a doctor trained in the 1970s and adapting to working without support staff.

Student

Sometimes the software has difficulty picking up on nuances in my dictation, such as small words like "in" versus "on."

Business Development

Customizing vocabulary from existing emails was a big selling feature, however it DOES NOT WORK WITH GMAIL!!!  

I originally bought Dragon Speech Software for my Dad as he was aging and had growing difficulty sitting at his computer and typing accurately.

When you had to re-install because of a computer crash it was not so easy as it would remember and not let you re-install especially after having bought the software.  

Technologists

I find myself having to literally reboot my computer to get the software operating again with applications and websites.

IT Technical Support Specialist

Sometimes words that are spoken to not type correctly within the application I am using like word or outlook.

Freelance Translator (French-English)

After a hand injury I needed this for my job writing and editing texts on a daily basis.

Artist

Actual real life mistake from a leading competitor's speech recognition software we have all had the displeasure of dealing with when sending messages in the car).

ELSA Speak vs Dragon Professional Individual Comparison (2026)

ELSA Speak

Dragon Professional Individual

Overview

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives