Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. Great Question: All-in-one UX research platform combining recruitment, scheduling, and AI analysis of interviews into a connected research repository. 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 Great Question when auto-summarizing and tagging interview sessions with ai 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.
All-in-one UX research platform combining recruitment, scheduling, and AI analysis of interviews into a connected 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
Great Question is a UX research platform that consolidates participant recruitment, study setup, and AI analysis into a single workflow for product managers, designers, UX researchers, and research operations teams. On the recruitment side it offers access to a large participant panel, the ability to build customer panels from CRM systems, automated screening, eligibility rules, incentive payments, and a research calendar for scheduling one-on-one, collective, or round-robin interviews. For conducting research it supports moderated user interviews, AI-moderated interviews, unmoderated prototype testing with Figma, surveys, card sorting, tree testing, and focus groups, with observer rooms for live team participation. After sessions, Great Question's AI analysis generates summaries, chapters, highlights, and tags, and builds a searchable research repository where transcripts, themes, highlight reels, and insights are connected so teams can query their entire body of research. It offers a wide range of integrations and an MCP that lets users run and analyze research from AI tools, and meets enterprise requirements with SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and HIPAA compliance. The platform aims to take research from recruitment through synthesis without stitching together multiple tools. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Great Question is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | Great Question |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | AI analysis generating summaries, chapters, highlights, and tags from interviews |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Searchable research repository connecting transcripts, themes, and insights |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | Participant recruitment from a large panel plus CRM-based custom panels |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | Scheduling, screening, eligibility rules, and incentive payments |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | Moderated, AI-moderated, and unmoderated study methods including prototype testing |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | 50+ integrations plus an MCP for running research from AI tools |
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.
Great Question
Choose Great Question if you need recruiting participants and scheduling user interviews end to end — strengths include handles recruitment, study execution, and analysis in one platform.
Buzz
Great Question
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while Great Question is strong for recruiting participants and scheduling user interviews end to end. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and Great Question 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 Great Question.
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.
Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. Calendly Notetaker: An AI meeting notetaker built into the Calendly scheduling platform that records meetings and generates summaries, transcripts, and action items. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
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Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. Castmagic: AI content platform that transcribes podcasts, videos, and recorded meetings with speaker diarization and turns them into show notes, summaries, and other assets. The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.
Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. Celeste AI: Brazilian Portuguese-focused AI voice and transcription platform offering on-demand transcription plus a meeting assistant and AI notes, with credit-based and subscription plans. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. Choppity: AI video and audio platform that transcribes recordings, generates styled captions, and turns long-form content into short clips. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. Claap: Async video plus AI meeting recording and CRM updates This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
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