Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. Exemplary AI: AI transcription and content-repurposing tool that turns podcasts, webinars, interviews, and videos into transcripts, subtitles, clips, and written summaries. 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 Exemplary AI when producing subtitles and translations for multilingual video distribution matters most. Try them side by side on real calls before deciding — needs vary by team.
Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper.
AI transcription and content-repurposing tool that turns podcasts, webinars, interviews, and videos into transcripts, subtitles, clips, and written summaries.
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
Exemplary AI is a transcription and content-repurposing platform for long-form audio and video. Users upload a recording or import one, and Exemplary AI produces a transcript, then offers tools to convert that recording into subtitles, short clips, summaries, show notes, chapters, and blog posts. The transcription handles audio and video across a large number of languages and can generate subtitles and translations, making it usable for accessibility and multilingual distribution. Beyond raw transcription, the platform includes an AI writer and chat that work against the transcript so users can ask questions or generate written content from the conversation, plus lightweight video editing such as trimming, removing filler words, adding B-roll, and styling captions. Exemplary AI markets dedicated workflows for podcasts, webinars, and academic recordings, and the transcription and captioning features apply equally to recorded interviews and meetings. It is aimed at content creators, marketers, educators, and businesses that want to extract transcripts, captions, and repurposed assets from their recorded spoken content. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Exemplary AI is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | Exemplary AI |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | Transcription of audio and video with high stated accuracy |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Subtitles and translations across more than 100 languages |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | AI writer and chat that generate content and answer questions from the transcript |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | Short-clip generation from long recordings for social video |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | Video editing tools including trimming, filler-word removal, and caption styling |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | Dedicated transcription workflows for podcasts, webinars, and academic recordings |
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.
Exemplary AI
Choose Exemplary AI if you need transcribing and captioning podcasts, webinars, and recorded interviews — strengths include combines transcription, captioning, and content repurposing in one tool.
Buzz
Exemplary AI
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while Exemplary AI is strong for transcribing and captioning podcasts, webinars, and recorded interviews. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and Exemplary AI is a free tier with paid upgrades. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
Sure. Running both makes sense when their strengths don't overlap and the budget allows.
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