Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. ZMEETING: AI meeting-minutes service by Hmcomm that automatically transcribes Zoom and Microsoft Teams meetings, identifies speakers, and supports multilingual transcription. We compare them on cost, capture approach, and day-to-day fit so you can choose faster.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Buzz when transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline matters most, and ZMEETING when department-wide meeting transcription deployments 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 meeting-minutes service by Hmcomm that automatically transcribes Zoom and Microsoft Teams meetings, identifies speakers, and supports multilingual transcription.
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
ZMEETING is an AI meeting-minutes tool developed by Hmcomm Co., Ltd., a Japanese company that originated from a national research institute and uses its own speech-recognition technology. The service automatically transcribes both online and in-person conversations, with the vendor reporting speech-recognition accuracy of over 90 percent. ZMEETING integrates with web conferencing platforms including Zoom and Microsoft Teams to join and transcribe meetings, and it supports real-time speech-to-text with speaker identification on higher-tier plans. Beyond transcription, the platform offers automatic filler-word removal, a custom dictionary for specialized terminology, and multilingual transcription and translation across Japanese, English, and additional languages such as Chinese, Korean, and others depending on plan and options. Higher-tier licenses add features like speaker-emotion recognition and quantified meeting-atmosphere analysis. ZMEETING runs in modern browsers on Windows and macOS and supports login via Google and Microsoft accounts, with various storage integrations. It is licensed by the number of simultaneous meetings rather than per user, making it suited to department-wide deployment. The product is actively maintained, with company updates dated through 2025. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); ZMEETING is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | ZMEETING |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | Automatic transcription of Zoom and Microsoft Teams meetings |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Speaker identification on higher-tier plans |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | Multilingual transcription and translation (Japanese, English, and more) |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | Custom dictionary for specialized terminology |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | Automatic filler-word removal |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | Emotion recognition and meeting-atmosphere analysis on upper tiers |
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.
ZMEETING
Choose ZMEETING if you need automatically generating minutes for zoom or teams calls — strengths include proprietary speech-recognition technology from a research-derived vendor.
Buzz
ZMEETING
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while ZMEETING is strong for automatically generating minutes for zoom or teams calls. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and ZMEETING is a free tier with paid upgrades. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
Yes. Many teams run more than one meeting assistant when the workflows are complementary.
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