Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. HeyMarvin: AI research assistant that records and transcribes user-research interviews and builds a searchable insights repository. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Buzz when transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline matters most, and HeyMarvin when product teams clustering interview feedback into shareable themes 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.
AI research assistant that records and transcribes user-research interviews and builds a searchable insights 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
HeyMarvin (Marvin) is an AI-native customer insights platform aimed at user-research and product teams, with the research interview as its central meeting type. During live user-research calls it records sessions, transcribes them automatically, and lets researchers capture time-stamped notes and highlights, including collaborative live note-taking with teammates. After the session, its AI workflows distill feedback into themes and patterns, and an Ask AI feature lets teams query their data and get answers with citations back to the source clips. Everything feeds a centralized, searchable research repository that brings qualitative and quantitative inputs together from many sources, so insights are not scattered across documents and recordings. The platform also offers AI-moderated interviews in multiple languages, video clips and curated playlists for sharing findings, and integrations with tools used to distribute insights. It includes privacy and security features such as PII redaction and enterprise compliance. For a meeting-tools directory, its relevance is the combination of interview capture, AI notetaking, and a repository tuned for analyzing user-research conversations rather than general meetings. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); HeyMarvin is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | HeyMarvin |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | Records and automatically transcribes user-research interview calls |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Time-stamped notes and collaborative live note-taking during sessions |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | AI thematic analysis that clusters feedback into themes and patterns |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | Ask AI querying across research data with citations to source clips |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | Searchable centralized research repository combining many data sources |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | Video clips, highlight reels, and insight reports for sharing findings |
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.
HeyMarvin
Choose HeyMarvin if you need ux researchers transcribing and tagging user-interview calls — strengths include tailored to user-research interviews rather than generic meeting notes.
Buzz
HeyMarvin
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while HeyMarvin is strong for ux researchers transcribing and tagging user-interview calls. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and HeyMarvin is a free tier with paid upgrades. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
Often yes: teams combine tools when one handles capture and another handles analysis.
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