Nuance Dragon – Home Vs. Professional (Top Differences)

man dictating on pc

Whether you spent years dictating your work documents or you simply want to find an easier way to browse the internet, chances are you heard of Nuance Dragon speech-to-text software.

Previously known as Dragon Naturally Speaking, this software is the industry leader in speech recognition.

Typing all the time is not good for you. It’s time to spare yourself (or your employees) the painful effects of repetitive strain injury and carpal tunnel syndrome. Go for the best – and get yourself a Dragon license.

Dragon comes in many versions adjusted to particular kinds of users. You may quickly realize that picking the right version of the software isn’t as simple as it seems.

So what exactly do you get with Dragon Home, and what makes Dragon Professional different? Read on for an in-depth comparison between the Home and Professional versions.

 

Nuance Dragon – Home Vs. Professional – To Each Their Own

dragon pro
dragon home

All versions of Dragon come with the same basic set of speech-to-text functionalities. But as their name suggests, the Home and Professional versions are geared towards completely different types of users.

 

Nuance Dragon Home

The Home version is designed for personal use. It’s aimed towards families and students who are looking for an easier way to:

While Nuance doesn’t explicitly forbid using the software for work, you may find the Home version’s features too limited for professional use.

 

Nuance Dragon Professional

On the other hand, Dragon Professional comes with a wide variety of functions that make office life easier and complete tasks faster.

Geared towards individual professionals or entire businesses, Dragon Professional brings a set of unique tools to the table.

It lets you:

Dragon Professional comes with everything that the Home version has and so much more.

 

Common Features

Both Home and Professional versions come with a common set of basic features.

In fact, it could be said that Dragon Home is the baseline Dragon product – it contains the most essential features and not much more. Professional and other advanced versions of Dragon come with everything Home covers, plus additional functions and industry-specific features.

 

The basic features that are included in both Home and Professional versions of Nuance Dragon software are:

 

Additional Features in Nuance Dragon Professional

Dragon Professional comes in a few versions – you can choose between the Individual and the Group version, opt for Dragon Anywhere (the cloud-based service you can access from any device), or pick an industry-specific version.

Currently, they cover banking and financial services, social services (with HIPAA compliant features), law enforcement, and legal professions. Dragon also has a Medical version, which is specifically designed for physicians and medical transcriptionists.

Each covers industry-specific vocabulary and is thoroughly adapted to each profession’s needs.

No matter which type of Dragon Professional you choose, it comes with a plethora of additional features that are designed to make work life easier.

 

So, along with all the features in the Home version, Dragon Professional also comes with:

 

With Dragon, You Get What You Pay For

By now, it’s obvious that Dragon Professional is far superior to the basic Dragon Home in terms of functionality. But that’s clearly reflected in the price as well.

The current price for the Home version is $200, while you’ll need to set $500 aside for a Dragon Professional license.

While it may seem expensive upfront, you only need to pay for the program once and use it forever – no hidden costs or additional charges.

dictating on phone

System Requirements

There’s no difference in system requirements between Dragon Home and Professional versions.

Both come to you in the form of a digital download, and your computer needs to have an equivalent of or better specifications than these:

You can use any built-in microphone – but I recommend going for a transcription headset for the best dictation accuracy.

As a writer and content creator, I personally love working with Dragon Professional Individual.

What’s your experience with Dragon? Which version works best for you?

Rafal Reyzer

Hey there, welcome to my blog! I'm a full-time blogger, educator, digital marketer, freelance writer, editor and content manager with 10+ years of experience. I started RafalReyzer.com to provide you with great tools and strategies you can use to achieve freedom from 9 to 5 through online creativity. My site is a one-stop-shop for freelance writers, bloggers, publishers, content enthusiasts who want to be independent, earn more money and create beautiful things. Feel free to learn more about me here.