Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. Clevercast: Clevercast is a multilingual live streaming platform that adds AI-powered closed captions, real-time transcription, speech translation, and remote interpretation to live events and webinars. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Buzz when transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline matters most, and Clevercast when providing real-time ai or human-interpreted speech translation for international events matters most. Trial each on a few real meetings before you commit — the better fit usually shows fast.
Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper.
Clevercast is a multilingual live streaming platform that adds AI-powered closed captions, real-time transcription, speech translation, and remote interpretation to live events and webinars.
Buzz is a widely used open-source desktop application that transcribes and translates audio offline on the user's personal computer, powered by OpenAI's Whisper. It is MIT-licensed and actively maintained, with v1.4.4 released in March 2026, and it has grown a large community with roughly 19.7k GitHub stars. Buzz runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux, with installation options including Flatpak, Snap, and PyPI. It supports both importing existing audio and video files and real-time transcription from microphone input, and it can export results in formats such as TXT, SRT, and VTT for subtitling and documentation. The app includes an advanced transcript viewer with search and playback controls, a watch folder for automatically transcribing new files, and a command-line interface for automation. It offers GPU acceleration through CUDA for Nvidia cards, Apple Silicon support, and Vulkan for many other GPUs, which makes faster transcription practical even on laptops. Buzz also provides speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio, plus a plugin system that adds capabilities like AI-generated summaries. Because all processing happens locally, recordings and transcripts remain on the user's machine rather than being uploaded to a cloud service. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Clevercast is a SaaS platform for multilingual live streaming and accessibility, aimed at organizations broadcasting events, conferences, webinars, and meetings to global audiences. Incoming audio and video are sent from an encoder to Clevercast, which generates AI closed captions described as having high accuracy, including for streams where multiple languages are spoken. From that speech-to-text source it can produce live subtitles in multiple languages, synthetic AI voice translations that viewers select per language, and on-site scrolling transcripts displayed on screens for event attendees. A web interface lets operators correct the AI transcription in real time, improving the resulting captions and translations, and remote human interpreters can also be added for events with strict quality requirements. Streams are delivered via HLS through a global CDN and can be embedded in Clevercast's player or distributed to platforms such as YouTube. It suits enterprises, international bodies, educational institutions, and media companies that need accessible, language-inclusive live broadcasts rather than a personal meeting note-taker.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Clevercast is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | Clevercast |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | AI-generated live closed captions, including for multi-language streams |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Real-time speech translation with synthetic AI voices in multiple languages |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | Web interface for editing AI transcription in real time to improve captions |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | On-site real-time scrolling transcript for event attendees |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | Remote human interpretation for events with strict quality needs |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | HLS delivery via global CDN with embeddable player and simulcast to platforms like YouTube |
Buzz
Choose Buzz if you need transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline — strengths include fully offline so audio and transcripts stay on the user's computer.
Clevercast
Choose Clevercast if you need adding live multilingual closed captions and subtitles to conferences and webinars — strengths include combines ai captions, translation, and human interpretation in one live-streaming platform.
Buzz
Clevercast
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while Clevercast is strong for adding live multilingual closed captions and subtitles to conferences and webinars. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and Clevercast is a free tier with paid upgrades. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
Yes. Many teams run more than one meeting assistant when the workflows are complementary.
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