Circleback: AI meeting assistant that automatically takes notes, transcribes in 100+ languages, assigns action items, and runs automations across Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Webex, and in-person calls. Handy: Handy is a free, open-source, cross-platform push-to-talk app that transcribes your speech to text completely offline and pastes it into any text field. 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 Circleback when automatically capturing notes and action items so attendees can stay focused in meetings matters most, and Handy when privacy-sensitive voice-to-text where audio must stay on-device matters most. Test each on your own meetings; the right choice tends to become obvious quickly.
AI meeting assistant that automatically takes notes, transcribes in 100+ languages, assigns action items, and runs automations across Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Webex, and in-person calls.
Handy is a free, open-source, cross-platform push-to-talk app that transcribes your speech to text completely offline and pastes it into any text field.
Circleback is a Y Combinator-backed AI meeting assistant that captures, transcribes, and organizes conversations automatically. It works with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, GoTo, Slack huddles, and in-person meetings, and offers a botless option via its desktop app for those who prefer not to send a bot into calls. After each meeting it produces structured notes, identifies and auto-assigns action items, and provides searchable transcripts with speaker identification across 100+ languages. AI-driven automations and "Insights" can push data into connected tools and answer questions across past meetings. Integrations include Gmail, Outlook, Slack, Google Calendar, HubSpot, Salesforce, Attio, Zoho, Linear, Notion, Monday, Zapier, and Make, plus developer access through MCP, a CLI, and webhooks. Circleback states SOC 2, GDPR, EU-US DPF, and HIPAA compliance, and offers mobile and desktop apps. New users can try it free before subscribing.
Best suited for
Handy is a free, open-source desktop application that turns your voice into text completely offline, with no audio ever leaving your computer. You press a configurable keyboard shortcut, speak, and release (push-to-talk), or use a toggle mode to start and stop; Handy transcribes what you said and automatically pastes the result into whatever text field is active. Because it runs entirely on-device, it is built for privacy-conscious users who want dictation without cloud uploads or subscriptions. Under the hood it is built with Tauri (a Rust backend with a React/TypeScript frontend) and supports multiple local speech-recognition models, including OpenAI's Whisper variants with GPU acceleration and the CPU-friendly Parakeet V3 model with automatic language detection. Silero Voice Activity Detection filters out silence so only speech is processed. Handy runs on macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon), Windows, and Linux, and is released under the MIT license. It positions itself as an accessible, extensible alternative to paid dictation tools, and is best suited for hands-free typing rather than recording multi-party meetings.
Best suited for
Circleback is from $20.83/mo (paid); Handy is open source (open source). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Circleback | Handy |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | AI meeting notes | Push-to-talk and toggle dictation modes with a configurable global keyboard shortcut |
| Standout feature | Action item tracking | Fully offline, on-device transcription with no cloud uploads |
| Team usage | Multi-language transcription | Multiple local speech models including Whisper (GPU-accelerated) and Parakeet V3 (CPU, auto language detection) |
| Integrations | AI search across meetings | Silero Voice Activity Detection to filter silence and process only speech |
| Languages & capture | Workflow automations | Automatically pastes transcribed text into any active application text field |
| Best-fit workflow | AI meeting notes | Cross-platform desktop app (macOS, Windows, Linux) built with Tauri |
Circleback
Choose Circleback if you need automatically capturing notes and action items so attendees can stay focused in meetings — strengths include works across zoom, google meet, microsoft teams, webex, goto, slack huddles, and in-person meetings.
Handy
Choose Handy if you need hands-free dictation into emails, documents, chat apps, and code editors — strengths include completely free, open-source (mit) with no subscription or paywall.
Circleback
Handy
It depends on your workflow. Circleback is strong for automatically capturing notes and action items so attendees can stay focused in meetings, while Handy is strong for hands-free dictation into emails, documents, chat apps, and code editors. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Circleback is from $20.83/mo and Handy is open source. 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.
More head-to-head comparisons involving Circleback and Handy.
Circleback is automation-first (it triggers CRM, Linear and Slack actions); Granola is a bot-free personal notepad. Automation versus privacy.
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