Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. VoiceboxMD: VoiceboxMD is a medical dictation and AI scribe platform that turns physician speech and doctor-patient conversations into structured clinical notes. 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 VoiceboxMD when generating ehr-ready soap notes from in-person or telehealth conversations 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.
VoiceboxMD is a medical dictation and AI scribe platform that turns physician speech and doctor-patient conversations into structured clinical notes.
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
VoiceboxMD is a cloud-based medical dictation and AI scribe platform built for physicians, nurse practitioners, and other clinicians. It converts spoken words into clinical text in real time using speech recognition trained on medical terminology, drug names, diagnostic codes, and clinical abbreviations. Beyond solo dictation into an EHR, its ambient AI scribe can listen to in-person or telehealth encounters over Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Doxy.me, separate the clinician's voice from the patient's, and produce structured SOAP, H&P, DAP, or custom-template notes with suggested CPT and ICD-10 codes. Audio can be captured through real-time ambient listening or by uploading recorded files, depending on plan. It runs on Windows, macOS (including Apple Silicon), and iOS, and is EHR-agnostic, working with systems such as Epic, Cerner, Athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, and Practice Fusion, plus apps like Word and Outlook. The service is HIPAA-compliant, encrypts data in transit and at rest, deletes audio after processing, and includes a Business Associate Agreement on every plan.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); VoiceboxMD is a free tier with paid upgrades (paid). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | VoiceboxMD |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | Ambient AI scribe that listens to in-person and telehealth encounters and generates structured notes |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Real-time medical speech-to-text dictation trained on clinical terminology |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | Automatic SOAP, H&P, and DAP note generation with custom templates |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | CPT and ICD-10 billing code suggestions plus superbill creation |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | EHR-agnostic integration (Epic, Cerner, Athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, Practice Fusion) |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | Cross-platform support on Windows, macOS, and iOS with audio file upload |
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.
VoiceboxMD
Choose VoiceboxMD if you need physicians documenting patient visits hands-free during or after encounters — strengths include combines solo dictation and ambient conversation capture in one platform.
Buzz
VoiceboxMD
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while VoiceboxMD is strong for physicians documenting patient visits hands-free during or after encounters. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and VoiceboxMD 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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