Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. Zenarate: Zenarate's Performance Analyzer is an AI tool that transcribes, redacts, and scores live contact-center agent calls for quality assurance and coaching. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Buzz when transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline matters most, and Zenarate when monitoring customer sentiment and emerging call topics to surface compliance and experience issues matters most. Test each on your own meetings; the right choice tends to become obvious quickly.
Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper.
Zenarate's Performance Analyzer is an AI tool that transcribes, redacts, and scores live contact-center agent calls for quality assurance and coaching.
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
Zenarate is an AI simulation-training and conversation-analytics platform for contact centers, and its Performance Analyzer (formerly Call Analyzer) is the module that turns live customer calls into structured quality and coaching data. The AI engine automatically transcribes each interaction, redacts sensitive information, and scores calls against a client's defined call model and skill expectations, processing up to 100% of calls rather than a small sampled subset. Analysis runs nightly so leaders have results the next day, with automated scorecards, sentiment analysis, topic and trend reporting, and next-action coaching recommendations. Managers can drill into specific conversation moments, listen to the audio, and add commentary directly from the scorecard. Because it sits inside Zenarate's AI Coach platform, identified gaps can be turned into personalized roleplay simulations and coaching plans. It is built for QA managers, training leaders, and contact-center operations across industries such as financial services, healthcare, insurance, telecom, retail, and travel, and supports multiple languages and global deployments.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Zenarate is custom pricing (contact sales). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | Zenarate |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | AI transcription of live agent calls with automatic redaction of sensitive information |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Automated scoring of up to 100% of calls against a client's defined call model and skill parameters |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | Quality-assurance scorecards with the ability to listen to audio and add manager commentary |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | Sentiment analysis plus topic-frequency and trend reporting across interactions |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | Next-action coaching recommendations that convert QA findings into roleplay simulations |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | Nightly batch processing so insights are ready the following day |
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.
Zenarate
Choose Zenarate if you need automating contact-center qa by transcribing and scoring every agent call instead of manual sampling — strengths include analyzes up to 100% of calls instead of a small manual qa sample, with automatic transcription and redaction.
Buzz
Zenarate
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while Zenarate is strong for automating contact-center qa by transcribing and scoring every agent call instead of manual sampling. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and Zenarate is custom pricing. 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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