Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. SyncWords: Live AI captioning, subtitling, and voice-dubbing platform for webinars, streams, and hybrid events with real-time multilingual output. 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 SyncWords when delivering accessible, fcc-compliant live captions for a broadcast 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.
Live AI captioning, subtitling, and voice-dubbing platform for webinars, streams, and hybrid events with real-time multilingual output.
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
SyncWords is an AI-powered platform for delivering live and recorded video content to multilingual audiences through real-time captions, subtitles, and voice dubbing. For live scenarios, it produces frame-accurate AI captions that meet broadcast accessibility standards such as CEA-608/708, and its SyncWords Live offering provides professional captioning and real-time translated subtitles for webinars, streaming services, and hybrid events. The platform translates into a wide range of languages, including non-Latin scripts such as Cyrillic, CJK, Arabic, Hebrew, and Thai, and recent engineering work has driven latency down to roughly a second or less even in demanding live environments. Its newer Vocalics capability adds real-time AI voice dubbing that aims to preserve a speaker's tone and delivery across languages. Content is delivered through no-download widget URLs as well as streaming formats like HLS, SRT, CMAF, and VTT, with integrations spanning platforms such as AWS, YouTube, and Vimeo. SyncWords reports processing tens of thousands of events and hundreds of thousands of hours of media, and it received an industry innovation award in 2025, confirming active operation. It best fits broadcasters, media teams, and event organizers who need accessible, multilingual live captioning and translation at scale. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); SyncWords is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | SyncWords |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | Real-time AI live captions with broadcast accessibility compliance |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Live translated subtitles across many languages including non-Latin scripts |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | Vocalics real-time AI voice dubbing that preserves speaker delivery |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | Ultra-low latency output for live streams and events |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | No-download widget URLs plus HLS, SRT, CMAF, and VTT delivery |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | Custom dictionaries for accurate terminology in live sessions |
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.
SyncWords
Choose SyncWords if you need providing live translated subtitles for a webinar or streamed event — strengths include strong focus on broadcast-grade, low-latency live captioning.
Buzz
SyncWords
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while SyncWords is strong for providing live translated subtitles for a webinar or streamed event. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and SyncWords 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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