Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. UserCall: AI-moderated voice user interview tool that runs qualitative discovery calls and turns transcripts into evidence-linked themes. We compare them on cost, capture approach, and day-to-day fit so you can choose faster.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Buzz when transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline matters most, and UserCall when triggering qualitative interviews after key in-product events 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.
AI-moderated voice user interview tool that runs qualitative discovery calls and turns transcripts into evidence-linked themes.
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
UserCall is a qualitative research platform centered on AI-moderated voice (and text) user interviews. Researchers create a custom AI interviewer link, and the AI conducts structured one-to-one conversations using qualitative research best practices, asking adaptive follow-up questions to probe for depth that surveys typically miss. Sessions can run from a few minutes up to around 45 minutes and support 30-plus languages with customizable voices, with AI-powered translation and moderation for reaching global audiences. Interviews can be triggered automatically after key product moments such as signup, onboarding friction, upgrade hesitation, feature adoption, cancellation, or checkout abandonment, and the platform connects with analytics tools including PostHog, GA4, Mixpanel, Amplitude, and Segment. On the analysis side, UserCall converts interview transcripts into organized theme hierarchies with tagged excerpts, links conclusions back to supporting quotes, and offers an AI chat for custom exploration and pattern detection across the collected data. It is positioned for continuous discovery, voice-of-customer programs, and large-scale qualitative studies where scheduling many human-moderated sessions would be impractical. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); UserCall is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | UserCall |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | AI-moderated voice and text interviews via shareable interviewer links |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Adaptive follow-up questioning trained on qualitative research practices |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | Event-triggered interviews tied to product moments (signup, cancellation, etc.) |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | Theme hierarchies with tagged, quote-linked excerpts from transcripts |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | AI chat for custom exploration and pattern detection across data |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | Support for 30+ languages with AI translation and moderation |
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.
UserCall
Choose UserCall if you need continuous product discovery and voice-of-customer programs — strengths include captures deeper qualitative context than static surveys without live scheduling.
Buzz
UserCall
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while UserCall is strong for continuous product discovery and voice-of-customer programs. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and UserCall 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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