Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. Letterly: Letterly is a multilingual AI speech-to-text app that turns dictated speech into polished notes, emails, summaries, and meeting transcripts across iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, and Web. 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 Letterly when transcribing and summarizing meetings or interviews with speaker separation 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.
Letterly is a multilingual AI speech-to-text app that turns dictated speech into polished notes, emails, summaries, and meeting transcripts across iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, and Web.
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
Letterly is a voice-to-text application that converts spoken words into clean, structured written text. Aimed at professionals, students, content creators, and anyone who prefers talking to typing, it lets users record speech directly in the app or dictate into other apps, then automatically transcribes the audio. Beyond raw transcription, Letterly applies AI rewriting so a single recording can become an email, a summary, a social post, a task list, a journal entry, or a meeting recap, using preset styles or custom instructions. It automatically detects and transcribes a wide range of languages and can handle mid-sentence language switching. For meetings and interviews, it offers speaker separation and can generate summaries from a recording. The app supports extended recordings, offline and screen-off dictation, quick-record widgets, and live sync across devices, including Apple Watch. It also integrates with external tools via Zapier and webhooks. Letterly states that user data is kept private and not used to train AI models. It runs on iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, and Web.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Letterly is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | Letterly |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | Automatic speech-to-text transcription of recorded or dictated audio |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | AI rewriting into multiple formats (emails, summaries, posts, task lists, journal entries) |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | Multilingual transcription with automatic language detection and mid-sentence switching |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | Meeting/interview support with speaker separation and summary generation |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | Offline and screen-off recording, plus quick-record widget and Apple Watch dictation |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | Cross-device sync and integrations via Zapier and webhooks |
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.
Letterly
Choose Letterly if you need dictating and polishing emails, messages, and notes faster than typing — strengths include broad multilingual coverage with automatic language detection.
Buzz
Letterly
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while Letterly is strong for dictating and polishing emails, messages, and notes faster than typing. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and Letterly 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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