Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. Felo Subtitles: A browser extension and companion app that adds real-time transcription and translated live subtitles to online meetings and live streams without joining as a bot. 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 Felo Subtitles when generating live bilingual subtitles and downloadable transcripts for youtube live and other streams 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.
A browser extension and companion app that adds real-time transcription and translated live subtitles to online meetings and live streams without joining as a bot.
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
Felo Subtitles, made by Felo Inc. (Sparticle), is a real-time transcription and translation tool delivered as a Chrome/Edge browser extension plus companion desktop apps for Windows and macOS. It listens to meeting and video audio, recognizes speech, and overlays live captions with instant translation into other languages, so participants can follow conversations across language barriers. The browser extension captions web-based audio such as Google Meet (web), YouTube Live, Twitch, and Facebook Live, while the separate Felo desktop app extends coverage to Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and Tencent Meeting without a bot joining the call. It recognizes speech in roughly 23 languages and translates into about 20 target languages. Captured sessions can be saved as transcripts and exported as text, and the tool offers AI summaries using templates for contexts like sales, learning, and one-on-ones. Custom speech and translation dictionaries let teams add industry terminology. It is aimed at IT, research, HR, legal, education, and video-creator users needing multilingual meeting communication.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Felo Subtitles is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | Felo Subtitles |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | Real-time live transcription with subtitles overlaid on meetings and video streams |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Instant translation of captions across roughly 20 target languages (speech recognition in ~23 languages) |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | No-bot capture: transcribes audio locally/in-browser without joining the meeting as a participant |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | Transcript saving and export to text documents |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | AI-generated meeting summaries using templates (sales, learning, one-on-one) |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | Custom speech and translation dictionaries for industry-specific terminology |
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.
Felo Subtitles
Choose Felo Subtitles if you need following and translating multilingual video meetings on zoom, google meet, teams, or webex in real time — strengths include captures meetings without adding a visible bot participant, which is less intrusive than bot-based notetakers.
Buzz
Felo Subtitles
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while Felo Subtitles is strong for following and translating multilingual video meetings on zoom, google meet, teams, or webex in real time. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and Felo Subtitles 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.
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