Commercial licensing for teams.
Volksmond is free for personal use. When a business or practice uses it for work, that runs on a paid licence, per person, renewed yearly.
- Personal use stays genuinely free, forever.
- One licence per person who uses it for work, billed once a year.
- Buy by invoice. Your licence key arrives by email, and activation is fully offline.
- The app still runs entirely on your own computers. Nothing changes about how private it is.
Who needs a licence
The line is simple: personal use is free, business use is licensed. If you are not sure which side you are on, talk to us and we will help you work it out.
Free, no licence
- Individuals transcribing their own meetings.
- Personal, study, research, or hobby use.
- One or two people trying it out at a company.
Needs a licence
- A firm deploying Volksmond to a team.
- Using it in paid client work.
- Any organisation standardising on it.
If in doubt, talk to us. Email [email protected] and we will point you the right way.
Pricing
One licence per person who uses Volksmond for work, billed once a year. The monthly figure is simply the annual licence divided by twelve; there is no monthly billing and no once-off perpetual licence.
| Plan | Price (incl VAT) | Billing | Who it is for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal | Free forever | n/a | Non-commercial, personal use. |
| Business | R83/month (annual commitment, R996 billed yearly, incl VAT) | Annual | Teams and practices using it for work. |
| Volume | Talk to us | Annual | 10 or more seats. |
Launch price: R996/year.
These prices cover the commercial licence and the Pro features. Our exclusive online models are licensed separately. Talk to us if you would like access.
The Volksmond source code is published under the PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0 licence: personal use is free, and commercial use runs on the paid licence key above.
How it compares
Cloud transcription tools are good at what they do. The question is what leaves the room while they do it, and what that costs every month.
| What matters | Volksmond | Typical cloud transcription tools |
|---|---|---|
| Where your audio goes | Never leaves your machine | Uploaded to overseas servers |
| POPIA | Nothing to disclose, no offshore processor, client audio stays in the room | You carry the compliance duty: cross-border operator agreements and client disclosure |
| Full transcript | Always | Some give AI notes only, no transcript |
| Afrikaans and English mid-sentence | Built for it | Hit and miss |
| Offline and in-person boardroom meetings | Yes | Needs internet, most need a call to join |
| Who-said-what by name | Partial, separates your mic from the other side, not individual speakers | Yes, they do this well |
| Joins your calls automatically | No, you press start | Yes |
| Mobile app | Windows desktop for now | Yes |
| Monthly minute caps | None, it is your machine | Capped on entry tiers |
| Price | R83/month (annual commitment, R996/year incl VAT) | Typically R150 to R550+ per user per month |
What the Business licence includes
- The legal right to use Volksmond commercially.
- A signed licence certificate for your POPIA and audit file.
- Priority email support.
- The Pro features, starting with calendar attendee seeding.
A note on POPIA
Audio and transcripts never leave the user's computer, so there is no third-party processor in the loop. The business is the responsible party for the information it records, the same as it would be for a paper notebook.
Ask us for a one-page deployment note for your compliance file. Email [email protected].
How to buy
- Email us with how many seats you need.
- We send an EFT invoice.
- Your licence key arrives by email within one business day.
- Activation is fully offline. No account, no phone-home.
Terms of sale
- 14-day money-back guarantee: a full refund within 14 days of purchase, no questions asked.
- After 14 days the licence runs for the year. There are no pro-rata refunds.
- All prices include 15% VAT.
- Seller: DigiPhyte (Pty) Ltd, registration 2023/699425/07, VAT 4910320821, Pretoria, South Africa.
- Support: [email protected].
Want your customer conversations scored, not just your meetings?
Service Bear turns the same South African speech engine into staff service-compliance coaching. If your teams talk to customers all day, it scores those conversations so you can coach on what was actually said.