Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. Dovetail: Customer insights platform that centralizes interviews and feedback, with AI transcription, analysis, search, and a research repository. The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Buzz when transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline matters most, and Dovetail when building a searchable repository of customer insights matters most. Test each on your own meetings; the right choice tends to become obvious quickly.
Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper.
Customer insights platform that centralizes interviews and feedback, with AI transcription, analysis, search, and a research repository.
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
Dovetail is a customer insights and research platform that centralizes qualitative data from user interviews, sales calls, support tickets, and research studies into a single repository powered by AI. Teams can upload or import interview recordings and let Dovetail handle AI transcription, then analyze the material to turn raw feedback into structured intelligence. Its AI capabilities include automatic analysis, AI chat and search across customer data, AI dashboards that visualize trends alongside business metrics, and AI docs for creating shareable outputs. The research repository organizes studies, transcripts, tags, and highlights so insights remain searchable and reusable across projects, and highlight reels let teams clip and share video evidence of key moments. Dovetail supports transcription in multiple languages and includes redaction of sensitive information for privacy. It connects to other tools through integrations and an API so customer signals can flow across a team's stack. Used by product, design, research, and customer experience teams, Dovetail aims to replace assumption-based decisions with evidence drawn directly from customer conversations and feedback. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Dovetail is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | Dovetail |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | AI transcription of interview and meeting recordings |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Automatic analysis that turns raw feedback into structured insights |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | AI chat and search across all customer data |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | Research repository for transcripts, tags, and highlights |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | Highlight reels and video clips of key moments |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | AI dashboards, AI docs, and sensitive-information redaction |
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.
Dovetail
Choose Dovetail if you need transcribing and analyzing user research interviews — strengths include centralizes interviews and feedback from many sources in one repository.
Buzz
Dovetail
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while Dovetail is strong for transcribing and analyzing user research interviews. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and Dovetail is a free tier with paid upgrades. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
You can — some teams pair them when each covers a different part of the meeting workflow.
More head-to-head comparisons involving Buzz and Dovetail.
Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. CLOVA Note: South Korean AI meeting-minutes service by Naver that records meetings, transcribes speech, separates speakers, and generates summaries and action items. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
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