Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. Notta: High-accuracy transcription with 42+ language translation The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Buzz when transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline matters most, and Notta when transcribing uploaded audio and video files matters most. Run both through a week of actual calls to see which suits your workflow.
Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper.
High-accuracy transcription with 42+ language translation
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
Notta records and transcribes meetings and uploaded audio/video in 58 languages, then generates AI summaries, chapters, and action items. It joins Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Webex calls and integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, Notion, Slack, and Zapier. The permanent free plan is limited — 120 transcription minutes per month with a hard 3-minute cap per recording, and no transcript export — so it suits trying the product more than recording full meetings; paid plans lift the caps substantially.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Notta is from $8.17/mo (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | Notta |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | 58-language transcription |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | AI summaries |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | File upload transcription |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | CRM integrations |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | 58-language transcription |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | AI summaries |
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.
Notta
Choose Notta if you need multilingual meeting transcription — strengths include transcription in 58 languages — among the widest coverage.
Buzz
Notta
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while Notta is strong for multilingual meeting transcription. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and Notta is from $8.17/mo. 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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