Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. Kapwing: Collaborative browser-based video editor with auto subtitle generation and video-to-text transcription. 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 Kapwing when collaboratively editing captions across a team 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.
Collaborative browser-based video editor with auto subtitle generation and video-to-text transcription.
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
Kapwing is a collaborative, browser-based video creation and editing platform that includes automatic subtitle generation and transcription among its core tools. Users can upload audio or video, or create content within the editor, and Kapwing's auto subtitle generator transcribes the spoken audio into time-synced captions that can be edited, restyled, and exported. The platform also offers a dedicated function to turn videos into text automatically, producing a transcript from the recording. Captions can be translated into many languages, supporting creators who publish across regions. Kapwing positions itself as a workspace for teams, with collaboration features that let multiple people work on the same project, alongside a broad set of editing tools such as trimming, resizing for different platforms, and adding text and graphics. It is aimed at social media teams, marketers, educators, and creators who need quick, editable captions and transcripts integrated directly into a video editing and collaboration workflow rather than a separate transcription service. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Kapwing is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | Kapwing |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | Automatic subtitle and caption generation |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Video-to-text transcription |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | Subtitle translation across many languages |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | Browser-based collaborative editing workspace |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | Editing tools for trimming, resizing, and styling captions |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | Automatic subtitle and caption generation |
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.
Kapwing
Choose Kapwing if you need adding auto-generated subtitles to social and marketing videos — strengths include collaboration features let teams work on the same project.
Buzz
Kapwing
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while Kapwing is strong for adding auto-generated subtitles to social and marketing videos. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and Kapwing is a free tier with paid upgrades. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
Yes. Many teams run more than one meeting assistant when the workflows are complementary.
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