Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. Vibe: Open-source, cross-platform desktop app that transcribes meeting and interview recordings offline using Whisper, keeping all data on your device. 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 Vibe when developers embedding local transcription via the cli or http api 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.
Open-source, cross-platform desktop app that transcribes meeting and interview recordings offline using Whisper, keeping all data on your device.
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
Vibe is a free, open-source transcription application created by the developer thewh1teagle and distributed under the MIT license. It lets users transcribe audio and video files entirely offline on their own machine using OpenAI's Whisper models, so recordings of meetings, interviews, lectures, and calls never have to leave the device. Vibe runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux, with GPU acceleration available for NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel hardware, and it supports a very wide range of languages. It includes speaker diarization so different participants can be separated in the transcript, and it can export results in multiple formats including SRT, VTT, TXT, HTML, PDF, JSON, and DOCX. For automation and integration, Vibe also exposes a command-line interface and an HTTP API with Swagger documentation, making it usable inside larger pipelines. Built with the Tauri framework on top of whisper.cpp, it is actively maintained with frequent releases. Vibe is best suited to privacy-conscious individuals, developers, and teams who want a no-subscription, local-first way to turn recorded conversations into editable text. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Vibe is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | Vibe |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | Offline transcription powered by OpenAI Whisper (whisper.cpp) |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Cross-platform: macOS, Windows, and Linux |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | Speaker diarization to separate participants |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | Multiple export formats (SRT, VTT, TXT, HTML, PDF, JSON, DOCX) |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | Command-line interface and HTTP API for automation |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | GPU acceleration for NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel |
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.
Vibe
Choose Vibe if you need transcribing recorded meetings or interviews privately on a laptop — strengths include free and open source under the mit license.
Buzz
Vibe
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while Vibe is strong for transcribing recorded meetings or interviews privately on a laptop. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and Vibe 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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