Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. Meetily: Open-source, privacy-first AI meeting assistant that records, transcribes, and summarizes meetings entirely on your own device. 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 Meetily when capturing and summarizing in-person or any-platform meetings from one app 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.
Open-source, privacy-first AI meeting assistant that records, transcribes, and summarizes meetings entirely on your own device.
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
Meetily is an open-source, privacy-first AI meeting assistant that records, transcribes, and summarizes conversations locally on the user's own machine rather than in the cloud. Instead of joining calls as a visible bot participant, Meetily captures system audio directly from the device, the same way screen recording works, so no extra attendee shows up in the meeting and recordings stay on the host's computer. Because processing happens on-device, it works with effectively any meeting software, including Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Discord, as well as in-person conversations. After a meeting, it generates AI summaries that surface key decisions and action items, supports customizable summary templates, and can export notes to Markdown. The project is MIT licensed with a free community edition alongside paid Pro and Enterprise tiers, and it is distributed for macOS and Windows. Meetily is aimed at privacy-conscious individuals, technical teams, and organizations that want a self-hostable, local-first alternative to bot-based notetakers and need to keep sensitive meeting audio off third-party servers. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Meetily is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | Meetily |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | Local, on-device recording, transcription, and summarization |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Bot-free capture via system audio (no visible meeting participant) |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | Works across Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Discord, and in-person meetings |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | AI summaries highlighting key decisions and action items |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | Customizable summary templates and Markdown export |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | Open-source (MIT licensed) with self-hosting option |
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.
Meetily
Choose Meetily if you need privacy-conscious teams that need meeting notes without sending audio to the cloud — strengths include strong privacy posture since audio and processing stay on the user's device.
Buzz
Meetily
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while Meetily is strong for privacy-conscious teams that need meeting notes without sending audio to the cloud. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and Meetily 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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