Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. LexiTranscript: Taiwan-made AI speech-to-text tool from TaiLexi AI optimized for Traditional Chinese, with meeting transcription and summaries. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Buzz when transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline matters most, and LexiTranscript when transcribing interviews, lectures, and study sessions 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.
Taiwan-made AI speech-to-text tool from TaiLexi AI optimized for Traditional Chinese, with meeting transcription and summaries.
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
LexiTranscript is an AI speech-to-text and transcription tool developed by TaiLexi AI, a Taiwan-based legal AI team, and is offered through its online transcription product. It is optimized for the Taiwan market and Traditional Chinese, and is built to handle mixed Chinese-and-English sentences and Taiwanese-accented speech, with the company stating high recognition accuracy even in the presence of background noise. The tool converts uploaded audio and video into text quickly, supports common video formats such as MP4, MOV, AVI, and WebM, and provides speaker identification for multi-person recordings such as meetings and interviews. Beyond raw transcription it offers AI-assisted proofreading that removes filler words and corrects phrasing, automatic personal-data masking, and recognition of legal terminology, reflecting its origins as a legal-focused team, along with AI-generated summaries of transcripts. For privacy, LexiTranscript follows a delete-after-processing policy in which audio files are not retained on its servers or used to train models after transcription completes. It provides daily free credits without requiring a complex account or credit card, positioning itself as a cost-effective Traditional Chinese transcription option for meetings, interviews, lectures, and legal work. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); LexiTranscript is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | LexiTranscript |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | AI speech-to-text optimized for Traditional Chinese and Taiwanese-accented speech |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Handling of mixed Chinese-and-English audio |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | Speaker identification for multi-person recordings |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | AI proofreading that removes filler words and corrects phrasing |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | Automatic personal-data masking and legal-terminology recognition |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | AI-generated summaries of transcripts |
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.
LexiTranscript
Choose LexiTranscript if you need producing traditional chinese transcripts and summaries of meetings — strengths include strong traditional chinese and taiwan-accent recognition.
Buzz
LexiTranscript
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while LexiTranscript is strong for producing traditional chinese transcripts and summaries of meetings. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and LexiTranscript 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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