Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. Steno: Steno is a tech-enabled court reporting and litigation support platform that captures, transcribes, and analyzes legal proceedings such as depositions, including an AI transcript analysis tool. 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 Steno when using ai to summarize, search, and compare deposition transcripts for case strategy 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.
Steno is a tech-enabled court reporting and litigation support platform that captures, transcribes, and analyzes legal proceedings such as depositions, including an AI transcript analysis tool.
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
Steno is a court reporting and litigation services company built for law firms and attorneys. It provides access to a network of certified court reporters who capture spoken proceedings and produce transcripts in rough, original, and certified formats, with realtime, next-day, and expedited delivery options. For remote work, Steno Connect is a Zoom app purpose-built for depositions, adding secure exhibit handling, annotation, and a live technical assistant; the company reports SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA compliance. Video capabilities include standard video plus text-to-video synchronization. Its AI tool, Transcript Genius, reads case transcripts to generate summaries, answer conversational questions with page and line citations, run semantic and exact-match search, and compare multiple transcripts to surface contradictions; users can also upload outside .txt and .pdf transcripts. A Firm Dashboard handles scheduling, file access, and invoicing, and integrations include Zoom, Clio, and Litify. Steno also offers deferred, contingency-friendly payment. It is aimed primarily at litigators and legal support staff rather than general business meetings.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Steno is custom pricing (contact sales). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | Steno |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | Certified court reporters producing rough, original, and certified transcripts |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Interactive realtime transcription during proceedings |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | Steno Connect Zoom app for remote depositions with exhibit handling |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | Transcript Genius AI for summaries, semantic search, and Q&A with page/line citations |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | Multi-transcript comparison to surface contradictions and discrepancies |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | Firm Dashboard for scheduling, file access, and invoice management |
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.
Steno
Choose Steno if you need scheduling and capturing certified transcripts for remote or in-person depositions — strengths include combines human-certified court reporting with ai-powered transcript analysis.
Buzz
Steno
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while Steno is strong for scheduling and capturing certified transcripts for remote or in-person depositions. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and Steno is custom pricing. 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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