Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. Swell AI: Swell AI transcribes podcast audio and video with automatic speaker labeling and turns the transcript into show notes, articles, summaries, and social posts. 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 Swell AI when turning a single episode into show notes, a blog article, and social posts for distribution 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.
Swell AI transcribes podcast audio and video with automatic speaker labeling and turns the transcript into show notes, articles, summaries, and social posts.
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
Swell AI is a transcription and content-repurposing platform built for podcasters, content creators, marketers, and agencies. Users upload audio or video, or pull episodes in from sources such as RSS feeds, Apple Podcasts, YouTube links, and cloud storage like Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive. Swell AI generates a transcript in which speakers are automatically identified and labeled, and provides a transcript editor where you can highlight and clip sections, which the platform saves for reuse across a team. From the same transcript it produces repurposed content: show notes, summaries, long-form SEO articles, newsletters, titles and keywords, and social posts such as LinkedIn posts, Twitter/X threads, and Instagram captions. It can also export highlighted sections as video clips and audiograms, and create an episode-trained chatbot that can be embedded on a site. The platform offers a REST API for custom integrations and a dashboard for managing multiple shows. It is distinct in pairing accurate transcription with a broad, podcast-focused repurposing pipeline rather than transcription alone.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Swell AI is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | Swell AI |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | Audio and video transcription with automatic speaker identification and labeling |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Transcript editor for highlighting and clipping sections, with AI-suggested compelling segments |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | Content repurposing into show notes, summaries, SEO articles, newsletters, and social posts |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | Video clip and audiogram export from highlighted transcript sections |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | Bulk import from RSS feeds, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and cloud storage (Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive) |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | REST API and multi-show dashboard for teams and agencies |
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.
Swell AI
Choose Swell AI if you need transcribing podcast episodes and labeling speakers for an accurate, editable transcript — strengths include combines accurate transcription with a wide range of automated repurposing outputs in one tool.
Buzz
Swell AI
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while Swell AI is strong for transcribing podcast episodes and labeling speakers for an accurate, editable transcript. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and Swell AI 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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