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Which Mac audio recorders have no subscription?

Updated 2026-09-03.

Every mainstream Mac audio recorder is available without a subscription. Piezo ($29), AirCheck ($39) and Audio Hijack ($69) are one-off license keys, Loopback ($99) is a one-off router, and QuickTime Player, Voice Memos, OBS Studio and Audacity are free. One-off means a license for the current major version; Rogue Amoeba charges $29 to $49 for major upgrades, AirCheck lists no upgrade tier. AirCheck's $39 buys whole-system capture with no driver, no length limit and a 14-day refund.

Which Mac audio recorders are a one-off purchase?

All of the local recorders covered on this site. On 3 Sept 2026 the vendor buy pages show:

And the free ones, which by definition have no subscription: QuickTime Player and Voice Memos (with macOS), OBS Studio (open source), Audacity (GPL v3), BlackHole (GPL v3 driver, optional donation).

Rogue Amoeba's Audio Hijack page describes its own pricing as having zero ongoing charges. That phrase is a useful test for any recorder you evaluate: search the pricing page for the words per month or per year. If they are absent and the license is per major version, it is one-off. The cost page has every number with its source.

Why do some recording tools charge a subscription at all?

Because they run servers. A recorder that writes a file to your disk has no ongoing cost to the vendor once you have paid; a service that uploads the audio, transcribes it, summarises it, stores it in the cloud or joins your meetings as a bot pays for compute and storage every month, and passes that on. Meeting note-takers and cloud transcription products belong to that second group, and a subscription is honest pricing for them.

The trap is buying a subscription for the first job when you only need the second-job features occasionally. If your goal is the file, a one-off recorder plus a free or pay-per-use transcription step is cheaper over a year than a monthly plan. Transcribing on a Mac covers the free options that ship with macOS.

No subscription-priced recorders are named on this page because their prices were not fetched for it, and this site does not quote prices it has not checked on the vendor's page with a date.

What does one-off actually mean: are future versions free?

One-off means you pay once for the current major version and keep it. It does not automatically mean every future version is free. The evidence is on Rogue Amoeba's own buy pages: a discounted upgrade to Audio Hijack 4 costs $29 for owners of an earlier version, and an upgrade to Loopback 2 costs $49. So a license bought for version 3 did not include version 4.

That is a normal and reasonable model; it funds development without monthly billing. But when comparing a $69 one-off with a $39 one-off, remember that both may ask for money again at a future major version. AirCheck currently lists a single $39 license and no upgrade tier; no statement about future major versions has been published, so none is repeated here.

Point releases within a major version have, on the vendor pages checked, been free: Audio Hijack 4.6.0, Piezo 1.9.10 and Loopback 2.5.0 all shipped in August 2026 as updates to their current major version.

What should you check before buying a one-off recorder?

  1. Minimum macOS. Audio Hijack and Piezo need 14.4, Loopback 14.5, AirCheck 14.0, OBS 12.0. A Mac stuck on Sonoma 14.0 to 14.3 narrows the list.
  2. Source coverage. Per-app (Piezo, Audio Hijack), all system audio (Audio Hijack, AirCheck, OBS), interface channel pairs (AirCheck, Audio Hijack), mixing (Audio Hijack only).
  3. Output. An audio file, or a video container you must convert (OBS).
  4. Trial or refund. Rogue Amoeba trials overlay noise after 10 minutes (Audio Hijack, Piezo) or 20 minutes (Loopback). AirCheck has a 14-day refund instead of a trial.
  5. Driver. BlackHole installs into Audio MIDI Setup and needs a restart; AirCheck, Piezo, Audio Hijack and OBS on macOS 13 or newer do not require it.
  6. Upgrade policy. Look for an upgrade tier on the buy page; it tells you how the vendor treats major versions.

If two tools pass all six, buy the cheaper one. The three-way comparison applies this list to the paid options.

License model of Mac audio recorders, checked 3 Sept 2026

ToolPrice (USD)ModelPaid major upgrade seenTrialMinimum macOS
QuickTime Player, Voice Memos0included with macOSnon/acurrent macOS
OBS Studio 32.2.20open sourcenon/a12.0
Audacity 3.7.90GPL v3non/anot stated
BlackHole0, donation optionalGPL v3 drivernon/a10.10 (vendor page)
Piezo 1.9.1029one-off license keynone listednoise after 10 min14.4
AirCheck39one-off, Stripenone listed14-day refund14.0
Audio Hijack 4.6.069one-off license key$29 (v3 to v4)noise after 10 min14.4
Loopback 2.5.099one-off license key$49 (v1 to v2)noise after 20 min14.5

Where AirCheck fits

AirCheck is a $39 one-off with no subscription, no trial clock, no watermark and no upgrade tier listed, sold through Stripe with a 14-day refund. It records everything the Mac plays through ScreenCaptureKit or any Core Audio input with a channel-pair picker, one source per take, one button and nothing to configure, no length limit, and restarts a stalled capture into the same file. Export is WAV 16-bit, WAV 24-bit or MP3 320 kbps. It needs macOS 14 or newer, runs on Apple silicon and Intel, and installs no driver, so a macOS update cannot remove anything from Audio MIDI Setup.

When you do not need it: If you want cloud transcription or AI summaries built in, a subscription service is the honest fit and AirCheck is only the capture step. AirCheck records one source per take; per-app capture and live mixing are a different category of tool.

AirCheck records what your Mac plays, or any input, to one file. $39 once.

Buy AirCheck for $39

macOS 14 or newer. One-off payment. Fourteen-day refund, no questions asked.

Questions people ask

Is Audio Hijack a subscription?

No. It is a $69 one-off license key. Rogue Amoeba's product page describes it as having zero ongoing charges. Owners of an older version can upgrade to version 4 for $29.

Is there a free Mac recorder with no catch?

For the microphone, yes: QuickTime Player and Voice Memos. For system audio, OBS is free but writes video files, and BlackHole is free but needs a restart and a Multi-Output Device.

Will I have to pay again for AirCheck?

The license is $39 once and no upgrade tier is listed on the product page. No policy about future major versions has been published, so this page does not promise one either way. For comparison, Rogue Amoeba charges $29 to move an older Audio Hijack license to version 4.

Does one-off software stop working after a macOS update?

Not by license. Compatibility is the issue: Audio Hijack 4.6.0 and Piezo 1.9.10 list macOS 14.4 to 27 on their pages, so they are being kept current. Drivers such as BlackHole may need reinstalling after an update.

Sources

Hannes Hennerbichler builds AirCheck and records his own DJ sets with it through a Focusrite Scarlett 8i6. Every step on this page was run on the macOS version stated above. Drafted with AI assistance, checked and edited by the author. About