Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. Wudpecker: AI notes with templates for sales, CS and product calls 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 Wudpecker when standardized meeting summaries 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.
AI notes with templates for sales, CS and product calls
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
Wudpecker is an AI meeting notetaker that records and transcribes calls and then generates structured, template-based summaries so each meeting produces consistent, ready-to-use notes. It works across major conferencing platforms and focuses on turning conversations into organized write-ups — decisions, next steps, and key points — rather than leaving users with a raw transcript. Templates let teams standardize how different meeting types are documented, which is useful for sales discovery calls, customer conversations, and recurring internal meetings. Wudpecker can share summaries and push notes into other tools so follow-ups happen where teams already work, and it supports multiple languages for international users. It is typically adopted by customer-facing and sales teams that value clean, repeatable summaries and want to reduce the manual effort of writing up calls, positioning itself as a lightweight, template-driven notetaker rather than a heavy analytics platform. Platforms: Zoom / Google Meet / Microsoft Teams. Integrations: Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, HubSpot. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Wudpecker is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | Wudpecker |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | Recording and transcription |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Template-based AI summaries |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | Action items and key points |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | Sharing and integrations |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | Multi-language support |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | Recording and transcription |
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.
Wudpecker
Choose Wudpecker if you need sales discovery call notes — strengths include consistent, template-driven summaries.
Buzz
Wudpecker
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while Wudpecker is strong for sales discovery call notes. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and Wudpecker 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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