Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. Vexa: API-first, open-source meeting transcription platform that deploys bots to capture real-time, speaker-labeled transcripts for developers. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Buzz when transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline matters most, and Vexa when streaming live, speaker-labeled transcripts into applications 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.
API-first, open-source meeting transcription platform that deploys bots to capture real-time, speaker-labeled transcripts for developers.
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
Vexa is an API-first, open-source meeting transcription and intelligence platform aimed primarily at developers and technical teams who want to build meeting features into their own products. Rather than being a polished end-user notetaking app, Vexa provides a developer toolkit: it deploys bots that join meetings via a URL, capture audio, and stream back real-time, speaker-diarized transcripts with low latency over WebSocket, alongside REST interfaces for programmatic bot control. Captured data can be stored and queried for retrieval and export, enabling teams to build live transcription, searchable meeting repositories, or downstream analysis on top of the platform. Vexa currently supports Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, with Zoom support indicated as planned, and its codebase is available on GitHub under an Apache 2.0 license, with both self-hosted and managed cloud deployment options. Because it exposes meeting capture and transcription as programmable infrastructure, Vexa is suited to engineering teams in areas like sales, recruiting, and other domains that need to embed meeting intelligence into custom workflows rather than rely on a standalone consumer app. It is best for developers who want control over how transcripts are captured, stored, and used. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Vexa is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | Vexa |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | API-first design with REST and WebSocket interfaces |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Real-time, speaker-diarized transcription with low latency |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | Deployable bots that join meetings via URL to capture audio |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | Open-source (Apache 2.0) with self-hosted or managed cloud options |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | Data storage with query and export capabilities |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | Supports Google Meet and Microsoft Teams (Zoom planned) |
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.
Vexa
Choose Vexa if you need building custom meeting-intelligence features into a product — strengths include programmable infrastructure for embedding meeting transcription into products.
Buzz
Vexa
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while Vexa is strong for building custom meeting-intelligence features into a product. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and Vexa is a free tier with paid upgrades. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
Often yes: teams combine tools when one handles capture and another handles analysis.
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