Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. Read.ai: Meeting summaries with engagement and sentiment analytics Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Buzz when transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline matters most, and Read.ai when personal meeting coaching 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.
Meeting summaries with engagement and sentiment analytics
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
Read.ai generates AI summaries, transcripts, and live notes for meetings, and adds a personalized meeting coach with speaker and engagement analytics. It works across Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, supports 20+ languages, and integrates with Slack, Salesforce, HubSpot, Notion, and Jira. The permanent free plan covers 5 meeting transcripts per month (reports kept about a year); video and audio playback are reserved for the Enterprise tier and above.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Read.ai is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | Read.ai |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | Transcripts and AI summaries |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Action items |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | Meeting engagement and sentiment metrics |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | Automatic recaps |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | Searchable notes |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | Transcripts and 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.
Read.ai
Choose Read.ai if you need team meeting notes and recaps — strengths include adds meeting analytics on top of notes.
Buzz
Read.ai
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while Read.ai is strong for ai summaries with meeting analytics. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and Read.ai is from $15/mo. 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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