Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. Notigo: Real-time AI meeting assistant that generates live summaries, structured notes, and action items as conversations unfold. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Buzz when transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline matters most, and Notigo when helping educators and students organize lectures and study sessions 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.
Real-time AI meeting assistant that generates live summaries, structured notes, and action items as conversations unfold.
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
Notigo is an AI-powered meeting assistant that captures and structures meeting notes in real time as a conversation happens, rather than only producing a transcript after the fact. It listens to the discussion, identifies key points, decisions, and action items, and continuously builds an organized, shareable set of notes throughout the meeting. The product positions itself for a range of professional contexts, with dedicated solution pages for business teams, education, consultants, and legal professionals, reflecting an emphasis on adapting its output to different meeting types. Notigo supports multilingual transcription and translation across a large set of languages, includes real-time collaborative editing so multiple participants can contribute to the same notes, and offers post-meeting editing and sharing. Notes can be exported in common document formats for record-keeping and follow-up. The website is actively maintained, with sign-up and login flows, customer testimonials, security references, and a free entry tier. It is best suited to teams and individuals who want structured meeting documentation produced live instead of reviewing a raw transcript later. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Notigo is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | Notigo |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | Real-time meeting summaries generated during the conversation |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Automatic extraction of key points, decisions, and action items |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | Multilingual transcription and translation support |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | Real-time collaborative note editing for multiple participants |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | Export of notes to common document formats (PDF, Word, TXT) |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | Profession-specific solution pages for business, education, consultants, and legal |
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.
Notigo
Choose Notigo if you need capturing structured notes during business and team meetings — strengths include produces structured notes live instead of only a post-meeting transcript.
Buzz
Notigo
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while Notigo is strong for capturing structured notes during business and team meetings. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and Notigo 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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