Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. FinScribe: AI meeting note taker for wealth and financial advisors that produces compliance-ready notes, prep pages, and follow-up emails. We compare them on cost, capture approach, and day-to-day fit so you can choose faster.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Buzz when transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline matters most, and FinScribe when generating pre-meeting prep pages for advisory sessions 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.
AI meeting note taker for wealth and financial advisors that produces compliance-ready notes, prep pages, and follow-up emails.
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
FinScribe is an AI meeting assistant focused on wealth and financial advisory client meetings. It joins virtual meetings on platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and Webex as a note-taking participant, and supports in-person meetings through its mobile and web apps, then turns client conversations, financial consultations, and strategy sessions into structured, professionally formatted documentation. Beyond notes, FinScribe generates pre-meeting prep pages with agendas and background information, drafts follow-up emails summarizing decisions and action items, and pushes information into the user's CRM. It integrates with financial-services CRMs and tools including Salesforce, Redtail, Wealthbox, HubSpot, Practifi, Salentica, and others, along with Slack, Aircall, Google Calendar, and Zapier. The product emphasizes a recording-free approach in which meeting audio is discarded after notes are processed, SOC 2 Type II certification, MFA and SSO support, redaction of sensitive identifiers, and a commitment not to train its models on client data. FinScribe serves solo advisors, RIAs, asset management firms, private bankers, accountants, and family offices, and is a Y Combinator-backed company. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); FinScribe is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | FinScribe |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | AI notetaker that joins virtual meetings and supports in-person capture |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Compliance-oriented, structured meeting documentation |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | Pre-meeting prep pages with agendas and background |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | Automated follow-up emails with summaries and action items |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | CRM integrations with Salesforce, Redtail, Wealthbox, HubSpot, Practifi, and more |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | Recording-free processing with redaction of sensitive identifiers |
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.
FinScribe
Choose FinScribe if you need documenting financial advisor client review and planning meetings — strengths include purpose-built for financial and wealth advisory client meetings.
Buzz
FinScribe
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while FinScribe is strong for documenting financial advisor client review and planning meetings. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and FinScribe 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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