Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. StreamText: StreamText is a real-time captioning platform that delivers live human or AI-generated captions, translations, and transcripts for events and meetings. 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 StreamText when real-time captioning and translation in classrooms and lectures for accessibility 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.
StreamText is a real-time captioning platform that delivers live human or AI-generated captions, translations, and transcripts for events and meetings.
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
StreamText is an enterprise real-time captioning platform, founded in 2003, that delivers spoken words as live captions to web pages, devices, and conferencing tools. It supports two modes: professional human captioners (using stenography, re-speaking, and text interpreting) and AI-powered automatic speech recognition (ASR), which converts speech to text in real time and produces captions, translations, and transcripts. Source audio is captioned live and streamed to an ADA-compliant viewer that works with screen readers, while AI captioning recognizes around 20 source languages and offers realtime translation into well over 100 languages. Captioned sessions can be exported as timed-text transcript files such as .srt and .vtt, and StreamCast lets organizers overlay captions onto videos and presentations. It integrates with Zoom, Webex, YouTube, and Adobe, and exposes a full API for OEM and third-party embedding. It is aimed at corporate and hybrid events, conferences, classrooms, trade shows, and legal or government settings needing accessibility. Pricing is usage-based per minute with no subscriptions or setup fees.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); StreamText is a free tier with paid upgrades (paid). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | StreamText |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | Real-time live captioning streamed to web pages and devices |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | AI-powered automatic speech recognition (ASR) for live captions and transcripts |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | Professional human captioning via stenography, re-speaking, and text interpreting |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | Realtime translation into 100+ languages with ~20 source languages |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | Downloadable timed-text transcripts (.srt, .vtt) and on-demand transcription |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | Integrations with Zoom, Webex, YouTube, and Adobe plus a full API |
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.
StreamText
Choose StreamText if you need providing live captions and transcripts for corporate, hybrid, and virtual events — strengths include offers both professional human captions and ai captions on one platform.
Buzz
StreamText
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while StreamText is strong for providing live captions and transcripts for corporate, hybrid, and virtual events. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and StreamText is a free tier with paid upgrades. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
You can — some teams pair them when each covers a different part of the meeting workflow.
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