Both live in the MacBook notch and stay invisible on a shared screen. The real split is how they follow you: Tellie tracks the words you actually say, while CueNotch scrolls to the sound of your voice and packs in AI extras. Tellie is $29 once and CueNotch is $29.99 once, so price is close; the real difference is how they follow you. Here is the honest breakdown, including where CueNotch is the better pick.
Free to try as a teleprompter. 10 days of Pro on the house, no card.
CueNotch is a broad, feature-packed notch app: a teleprompter with a stack of AI extras bolted on, from a text polish pass to live captions. As a prompter, though, it does sound-paced scrolling: it moves while it hears you talking and pauses when you go quiet. That keeps a rhythm, but it does not know which words you said. Skip a line, double back, or make your point in different words, and it keeps rolling to its own clock.
Tellie does word-level tracking. On-device speech recognition matches your spoken words to the script, so the read line sits on the exact words leaving your mouth. Backtrack and it follows you back; ad-lib and it waits, then picks up where you return. That one difference is what makes the must-cover coaching below possible. Your voice never leaves your Mac. Voice sync vs. word tracking, explained →
This is where the difference bites, because CueNotch has coaching of its own. The catch is what it is built on. CueNotch coaches around a prompter that follows the sound of your voice; Stagehand works on the words. Mark your must-cover sections and points, and each one checks itself off the instant you actually say it, in any phrasing, with a by-name nudge before one runs out of time. Take Coach then grades the take and names the single change to make. CueNotch can polish your script before you speak; Tellie tells you, mid-take, that the point you came to make is about to go unsaid. All on-device.
Both are native Mac notch teleprompters that hide on a shared screen. Here is where they diverge. Details as published by each maker; check the latest before you buy.
| Feature | Tellie | CueNotch |
|---|---|---|
| Follows your voice | Word-level: your actual words | Sound-paced: scrolls while you talk |
| Lives in the MacBook notch | Yes | Yes |
| Invisible on screen share | Yes | Ghost Mode |
| Must-cover coaching | Yes: word-level, did you say the point | Rehearsal coaching + AI text polish |
| Live meeting captions | No | Yes |
| Runs on-device (nothing leaves your Mac) | Yes | Yes |
| Price | Free tier · Pro $29 once | $29.99 once · limited free tier |
The honest summary: Tellie leads on word-level following and a one-time price; CueNotch packs more into one app, from a text polish pass to live captions. See the full field guide →
CueNotch is a genuinely capable app, and its breadth is a real draw. If you want the AI extras, a polish pass that tightens the wording of your script, rehearsal coaching, and live meeting captions running while you talk, CueNotch packs the most features in the category into a single notch app. If you are happy with sound-paced scrolling and would rather have that stack of tools in one place than the tightest voice following, it is the one to look at.
Pick Tellie if what matters most is a prompter that follows the words you actually say, makes sure you cover your key points and tells you when you are about to skip one, and costs $29 once.
Neither is better for everyone. Tellie is the pick if you want a prompter that follows the exact words you say and coaches you to cover your key points, at a one-time $29. CueNotch is the pick if you want its AI extras, a polish pass on your text, rehearsal coaching, and live meeting captions, and you are happy with sound-paced scrolling. Both are native Mac notch prompters that hide on a shared screen.
How they follow your voice, and how much else they do. CueNotch is a broad, feature-packed notch app that scrolls to the sound of you talking and adds AI extras like a text polish pass and live captions. Tellie matches the words you say against your script, so it follows you through skips, backtracks, and ad-libs, and can check off the points you actually made.
No. CueNotch uses sound-paced scrolling, so it moves while it hears you talking but does not match which words you said. Tellie does word-level following, matching your spoken words to the script, which is what lets it check off whether you actually covered each key point. Both run speech on-device.
“It truly is a magnificent app.”
Sprague Theobald · Emmy-winning writer and producer
Download Tellie free and test it on your own script: it tracks the words you actually say, not just their sound. Ten days of Pro on the house, no card.
Download TellieMore: Best teleprompter for Mac · The full field guide · Tellie Pro