Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. Screenpipe: Screenpipe is an open, local-first desktop app that records your screen and audio, transcribes calls on-device with Whisper, and auto-generates meeting summaries with action items. 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 Screenpipe when building a searchable, private record of meetings and screen activity to recall past discussions and decisions matters most. Try them side by side on real calls before deciding — needs vary by team.
Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper.
Screenpipe is an open, local-first desktop app that records your screen and audio, transcribes calls on-device with Whisper, and auto-generates meeting summaries with action items.
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
Screenpipe is a local-first, source-available desktop application that continuously captures your screen and audio to build a private, searchable AI memory of your computer activity. For meetings, it records microphone and system audio in the background and transcribes in real time using OpenAI's Whisper model running locally, so calls from any app that plays through your speakers, including Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Slack huddles, are captured without a bot joining the call. It supports speaker diarization and many languages. When a meeting ends, a meeting-summary pipe can generate structured notes, including a short bullet summary, action items per person, and decisions plus next steps, and write them to destinations such as Obsidian, Notion, or Apple Notes. Because capture, text extraction, transcription, and search can run entirely offline, data stays in a local database on your device, with options to redact PII and exclude specific apps or windows. Screenpipe also runs as an MCP server, letting AI assistants query your history. It is aimed at engineers, researchers, and privacy-conscious professionals. It runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Screenpipe is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | Screenpipe |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | On-device screen and audio recording that captures system audio from any app, including Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and Slack huddles |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Local real-time transcription using OpenAI's Whisper model, with speaker diarization and multi-language support |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | Automatic meeting summaries with bullet recap, action items per person, and decisions plus next steps |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | Writes structured notes to destinations like Obsidian, Notion, and Apple Notes via configurable pipes |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | Fully offline operation with local storage, on-device PII redaction, and app/window/URL exclusions |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | Runs as an MCP server so AI assistants and clients can query your screen and audio history |
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.
Screenpipe
Choose Screenpipe if you need automatically capturing and summarizing video calls across zoom, meet, and teams without a meeting bot — strengths include privacy-first: capture, transcription, and search can run entirely on-device with no cloud dependency.
Buzz
Screenpipe
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while Screenpipe is strong for automatically capturing and summarizing video calls across zoom, meet, and teams without a meeting bot. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and Screenpipe 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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