Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. Cresta: Enterprise contact-center AI platform combining real-time agent assist, autonomous AI agents, and conversation intelligence. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Buzz when transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline matters most, and Cresta when analyzing every interaction to identify behaviors that drive outcomes 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.
Enterprise contact-center AI platform combining real-time agent assist, autonomous AI agents, and conversation intelligence.
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
Cresta is an enterprise customer-experience AI platform that unifies human and AI agents across voice and digital channels. It captures conversations through integrations with major contact-center systems such as Genesys, NICE, Salesforce, Twilio, and Amazon Connect, then analyzes those interactions at scale to surface behavioral insights and deliver real-time guidance. Its Agent Assist listens to live conversations and provides agents with in-the-moment suggestions, knowledge, and next-best actions, while a Knowledge Agent proactively surfaces context-aware answers without manual prompting. Cresta's conversation intelligence analyzes 100% of interactions to identify the behaviors that drive outcomes, and its automated quality management scores conversations across the board so supervisors gain visibility without manual sampling. The platform also offers autonomous AI agents that can resolve customer conversations end to end, plus an Agent Operations Center that gives supervisors real-time visibility and intervention tools across both human and AI-led conversations. Cresta is built for large enterprise contact centers in industries such as financial services, travel and hospitality, telecommunications, insurance, and healthcare that need real-time assistance, coaching, and analytics at scale. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Cresta is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | Cresta |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | Real-time Agent Assist with live suggestions and knowledge |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Conversation intelligence analyzing 100% of interactions |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | Automated quality management and scoring across all calls |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | Knowledge Agent that proactively surfaces context-aware answers |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | Autonomous AI agents for end-to-end conversation resolution |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | Integrations with Genesys, NICE, Salesforce, Twilio, and Amazon Connect |
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.
Cresta
Choose Cresta if you need assisting contact-center agents in real time during customer conversations — strengths include delivers real-time guidance during live conversations, not just post-call review.
Buzz
Cresta
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while Cresta is strong for assisting contact-center agents in real time during customer conversations. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and Cresta is a free tier with paid upgrades. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
Often yes: teams combine tools when one handles capture and another handles analysis.
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