Two Windows prompters that follow your voice, with speech recognition on your own computer. The difference is where the words sit.
Onwords fills a second screen. Terera floats over the one you present from.
Onwords, from Chaos Created in Bristol, is a Windows teleprompter that scrolls with your speech, with speech recognition on your own computer. It is made to run full screen on a second monitor or a prompter rig, handles two presenters sharing one microphone, and costs $23.99 once in the Microsoft Store, which lets you try it for seven days before you pay. Terera is a desktop app for Windows and Mac that floats over your call or slides. It follows your voice word by word, waits when you pause, holds your place when you go off script, and resumes when you return to the script. You pay for it once.
Speech recognition belongs on your own computer. Asked where its speech recognition runs, Onwords’ FAQ answers “Entirely on your computer”, and its privacy policy says sound from your microphone is processed as it arrives and then discarded. Terera’s speech recognition runs on your computer too. Both are paid for once, neither has an account of its own, and both follow English speech.
Onwords
Price, the second screen and the co-host. Onwords is $23.99 once (£19.99 in the UK Microsoft Store), and the Store lets you try it for seven days, with everything unlocked, before you pay; Terera has a thirty-day refund instead. Onwords says it needs no connection at any point; Terera needs the network for model downloads and licensing, including periodic licence checks.
It is built for recording rigs: full screen on a second monitor or an Elgato Prompter, with a mirror setting for the glass, and stage directions in square brackets that tracking skips. Two presenters can share one script, with each presenter’s lines tinted, as long as both speak into the same microphone; Terera’s two-people mode means two listeners, not two presenters. If you skip a section, Onwords says it searches your whole script and jumps to where you are; Terera makes no such claim. On a Copilot+ PC, Onwords can also rewrite a script for you.
If you record a podcast or a co-hosted video, or read from a rig, Onwords is built for that and costs about a quarter of Terera’s price.
Terera
The call and the deck. Onwords calls its prompter “simply another window, on another screen”, and says it sits beside OBS, Zoom or Teams rather than inside them. Terera floats over the app you present from: clicks pass through to the slide or call beneath, and on Windows it stays above a full-screen slideshow and can be left out of a screen share. Screen-share hiding depends on the capture method your app uses, so check your sharing preview before a live call.
Where your eyes go. For one person, you put the reader near your camera. For two listeners, the script holds at two fixed panels, one by each face. A room has reading positions of its own.
A Mac. Terera runs on macOS 15.5 or later on the same licence. Onwords’ FAQ says a Mac version is “on the way”.
Your formatting. Terera imports Word documents and keeps bold, italics and colour, and adds four highlight colours of its own. Onwords’ FAQ says scripts are pasted in, and opening one from a file is not yet possible.
The refund and the licence. Terera’s refund runs thirty days, no reason needed, and one licence covers three of your own machines on Windows or Mac. Chaos Created does not publish a refund policy for Onwords, which is sold through the Microsoft Store.
| Feature | Onwords | Terera |
|---|---|---|
| What it’s for | Recording to camera, podcasts, live streams and webinars, from a full-screen prompter | Live meetings, pitches and one-take recordings at a desk |
| Follows your voice | Yes: Keeps your line centred as you speak; waits when you pause; holds position when it isn’t confident; searches your whole script if you skip | Yes: Word by word; waits when you pause, holds your place when you go off script, resumes when you return to the script |
| Where speech recognition runs | On your computer; no connection needed at any point | On your computer, after the speech model downloads at setup (about 190 MB); licence checks need the internet |
| Works over other apps | A separate window, usually full screen on another display | Yes: A click-through overlay that stays on top; on Windows, above a full-screen slideshow |
| Screen-share hiding | Not documented | On Windows it can be left out of a screen share; on a Mac many sharing tools capture it anyway. Screen-share hiding depends on the capture method your app uses, so check your sharing preview before a live call. |
| Two people | Two presenters on one script and one microphone | Two listeners, one panel by each face (not two presenters); reading positions for a room too |
| Prompter rigs | Second monitor, Elgato Prompter, mirror setting; a Stream Deck plugin awaiting approval | Any screen, a next-display shortcut, mirror mode |
| Script input | Paste only; opening a file is not yet possible | Word (.docx) keeps bold, italics and colour; .txt and .md; paste from Word or Google Docs |
| Platforms | Windows 11, or Windows 10 version 1809 or later, 64-bit (Intel, AMD or ARM); a Mac version on the way | Windows 10 and 11; macOS 15.5 or later |
| Voice language | English | English; manual and timed modes work in any language |
| Account required | No: None in the app; the Store purchase uses a Microsoft account | No: A licence key |
| Price | $23.99 once (£19.99) in the Microsoft Store; seven days to try before you pay | USD 89 once, tax included |
| Licence | Microsoft Store: up to ten Windows devices | Three of your own machines, Windows and Mac |
| Refund | Not published by Chaos Created | 30 days, no reason needed; a refund ends the licence |
Feature rows describe presence as documented by each product’s own site and store listing on the date above; Terera’s column describes its current release. They are not quality judgments.
Buy Onwords if you read from a second screen.
Or from a rig, or with a co-host on one microphone, or on a computer that never goes online. It’s built for that, and it costs less.
Buy Terera if you present over a call or a deck.
One screen, the script by your camera and over your slides, with clicks passing through. Or if you use a Mac, or bring formatted Word scripts.
Yes. As of 1 October 2026, Onwords says it keeps the line you’re reading centred as you speak, waits when you pause, holds its position when it isn’t confident, and searches your whole script if you skip a section. Its speech recognition runs on your own computer.
Onwords runs beside them as a separate window, which its site calls “simply another window, on another screen”. It does not document an overlay, click-through or screen-share hiding. Terera floats over Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet or your slides as a click-through overlay, and on Windows it can be left out of a screen share. Screen-share hiding depends on the capture method your app uses, so check your sharing preview before a live call.
In Onwords, yes: both presenters share one script, with each one’s lines tinted, and both need to be on the same microphone. In Terera, no: its two-people mode means two listeners, with one panel by each face, not two presenters.
Not yet. As of 1 October 2026, Onwords runs on Windows, and its FAQ says a Mac version is on the way. Terera runs on Windows 10 and 11 and on macOS 15.5 or later under one licence.
As of 1 October 2026, Onwords costs $23.99 (£19.99) once in the Microsoft Store, which lets you try it for seven days before you pay. Terera costs USD 89 once, tax included, for three of your own machines and twelve months of updates, with a thirty-day refund.
Also compared: Terera vs BigVU, Terera vs Teleprompter.com, Terera vs Speakflow, Terera vs Moody and Terera vs Virtual Teleprompter. How these pages are written. Guides: a teleprompter for Windows.