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LokalBot vs Fireflies

Fireflies is built for teams: its notetaker joins your calls, transcribes in more than 100 languages, and pushes notes into CRMs and project tools. If your company runs on a shared call library, it's a strong choice. LokalBot is for the opposite need — notes that stay on your Mac. It captures the call from your Mac's audio with no bot, and runs transcription and summaries locally.

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Side by side

Feature by feature.

Feature LokalBot Fireflies.ai
How it captures a meeting Mic + system audio on your Mac — nothing joins the call A notetaker joins Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and more; the Chrome extension can capture without it
Where transcription runs On your Mac — Qwen3-ASR by default, with Parakeet, Granite Speech, and Whisper as alternatives Fireflies' cloud
Account required None Yes
Works offline After a one-time model download Needs a connection
Transcription languages 52 languages and dialects with the default model; 99 with Whisper 100+
Storage Limited only by your disk Free: 400 minutes per team · Pro: 8,000 minutes per seat · Business and up: unlimited
Integrations Markdown export, a daily memory note, and a read-only CLI and MCP server CRMs, project tools, and an API
Compliance No LokalBot server ever holds your meetings HIPAA compliance and private storage on Enterprise
System-wide dictation Hold ⌥ Space in any app No
Day timeline App and window activity by default; screen text and encrypted screenshots are opt-in and deleted after 14 days No
Source code Open source, GPLv3 Proprietary
Price Free Free · Pro $10/seat/mo annually ($18 monthly) · Business $19 ($29 monthly) · Enterprise $39, annual only
Platforms macOS 15+ on Apple Silicon Web, desktop, iOS, Android, and a Chrome extension

Verdict

Which one fits you?

Pick Fireflies if…

A team call library with a lot of plumbing.

  • You want every sales or support call logged to your CRM automatically
  • Your calls span 100+ languages
  • You need SSO, audit logs, and admin roles for a large team
  • You work across Windows, the web, and your phone

Pick LokalBot if…

For the calls you'd rather not upload.

  • Your calls involve clients, patients, or sources whose words can't go to a third-party cloud
  • No bot means no “who invited the notetaker?” moment
  • Free forever — no seats, no storage minutes
  • Dictation, a day timeline, and autocomplete come in the same app

Questions

The short answers.

Why not use Fireflies without the bot?

You can capture without the bot through Fireflies' Chrome extension, but the recording is still processed and stored in Fireflies' cloud under your account. LokalBot keeps the audio, transcript, and summary on your Mac.

Can LokalBot push notes into my CRM?

Not directly. LokalBot exports meetings as Markdown, can write a daily memory note to a folder, and exposes a read-only CLI and MCP server so local tools and agents can read your library. Anything beyond that is up to you.

Will people on the call know LokalBot is recording?

No — nothing appears in the call, which is why you need to tell participants yourself. On a fresh install, LokalBot asks through a notification before it records a detected meeting.

Download

Meeting notes that stay on your Mac.

Free and open source. Models download on first use; built-in inference then works offline.

Download for macOS

.dmg installer · brew install --cask stevyhacker/tap/lokalbot · all releases and notes

Fireflies and Fireflies.ai are trademarks of their owner; LokalBot is not affiliated with or endorsed by it. Details are based on public pages and pricing as of September 2026 and may change — if something here is wrong or out of date, open an issue and we'll fix it.