Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. HyNote: AI note taker that records meetings, audio, and PDFs without a bot, generating transcripts, summaries, and action items. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Buzz when transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline matters most, and HyNote when turning pdfs, web pages, and youtube videos into concise notes 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 note taker that records meetings, audio, and PDFs without a bot, generating transcripts, summaries, and action items.
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
HyNote is an AI note-taking app that transforms meetings, audio recordings, and a range of other content into structured, searchable notes with summaries and action items. For meetings, HyNote records live sessions on platforms such as Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and Webex without requiring a separate meeting bot to join the call, and it can also process uploaded audio files. It transcribes speech with speaker identification, supports many languages with timestamps, and uses AI to generate instant summaries, key points, action items, and meeting minutes. Beyond meetings, HyNote accepts multiple input types including recorded files, PDFs, images via OCR, web page capture, phone calls, and YouTube links, making it a general-purpose capture and summarization tool. It is available across web, iOS, Android, iPad, Apple Watch, and a Chrome extension, with cross-device syncing so notes stay consistent everywhere. HyNote is aimed at professionals and students such as product managers, sales teams, researchers, founders, creative teams, and people in healthcare and legal roles who need reliable, organized notes from conversations and documents. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); HyNote is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | HyNote |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | Bot-less recording of meetings on Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and Webex |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Transcription with speaker identification across 50+ languages |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | AI summaries, key points, action items, and meeting minutes |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | Multimodal capture including PDFs, images via OCR, web pages, and YouTube links |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | Cross-platform apps for web, iOS, Android, iPad, and Apple Watch |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | Chrome extension with real-time cross-device syncing |
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.
HyNote
Choose HyNote if you need recording and summarizing online or in-person meetings without a bot — strengths include captures meetings without injecting a bot into the call.
Buzz
HyNote
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while HyNote is strong for recording and summarizing online or in-person meetings without a bot. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and HyNote 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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