Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. Swiss Transcript: Swiss audio and video transcription platform hosted entirely in Switzerland, with automatic meeting reports and strong confidentiality. The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Buzz when transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline matters most, and Swiss Transcript when producing structured minutes from recorded multilingual meetings 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.
Swiss audio and video transcription platform hosted entirely in Switzerland, with automatic meeting reports and strong confidentiality.
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
Swiss Transcript is a transcription platform based in Lausanne, Switzerland, that converts audio and video recordings into text and can generate structured meeting reports. It is built for organizations that require strict confidentiality, with data processed and hosted entirely in Switzerland using the company's own servers alongside Infomaniak infrastructure in Geneva. The service supports multiple languages including French, German, Swiss German and English, and offers automatic speaker identification plus export to formats such as Word, PDF, RTF, SRT and VTT. It can produce several structured meeting reports per transcription. A defining feature is its avoidance of large third-party AI APIs: the platform states it relies on open-source models rather than services from major US providers, and it automatically deletes source files after transcription. Security measures described include AES-256 encryption and TLS 1.3. Swiss Transcript is positioned for Swiss healthcare, academic, administrative and non-profit organizations that prioritize data sovereignty and compliance with both GDPR and the Swiss Data Protection Act. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Swiss Transcript is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | Swiss Transcript |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | Audio and video transcription with automatic speaker identification |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Automatic generation of structured meeting reports |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | Multilingual support including French, German, Swiss German and English |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | Export to Word, PDF, RTF, SRT and VTT formats |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | Data processed and hosted entirely in Switzerland with automatic source-file deletion |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | Audio and video transcription with automatic speaker identification |
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.
Swiss Transcript
Choose Swiss Transcript if you need transcribing confidential meetings for swiss public-sector and healthcare bodies — strengths include full swiss hosting with gdpr and swiss data protection act compliance.
Buzz
Swiss Transcript
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while Swiss Transcript is strong for transcribing confidential meetings for swiss public-sector and healthcare bodies. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and Swiss Transcript is a free tier with paid upgrades. 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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