Comparison
Fireflies is a cloud meeting-notes hub primarily built around a bot that joins your calls. echo99 records the same calls directly on your Mac — no bot participant — and keeps everything there.
Fireflies.ai transcribes meetings primarily through its notetaker bot (“Fireflies.ai Notetaker”), which joins your Zoom, Meet, or Teams call as a visible participant. Transcripts, recordings, and AI summaries land in a cloud workspace where your whole team can search them, clip them, and pipe them into CRMs and Slack. Fireflies also offers a botless desktop app (records system audio from any source, no speaker labels) and a Chrome extension for Google Meet — both still upload audio and transcripts to the Fireflies cloud. The bot remains the primary path and the one that gives you full speaker labels and team features.
| echo99 | Fireflies | |
|---|---|---|
| How it records | Captures your mic and your Mac's audio output locally — nothing joins the call | Bot joins by default as a visible participant; also offers a botless desktop app (any audio source) and Chrome extension (Google Meet) — audio always uploaded to Fireflies cloud |
| Recording disclosure | Nothing joins the call — giving notice and getting consent is your responsibility | Bot mode: bot appears in the participant list, which itself signals recording; botless modes: giving notice is your responsibility |
| Where your audio lives | On your Mac, as plain WAV and JSON files you own | In the Fireflies cloud workspace — including botless desktop app captures |
| Transcription | On-device, works offline | Cloud, with AI summaries and search |
| Team features | None — single-user by design | Its core strength: shared workspace, team search, channels, clips |
| Integrations | Plain local files; use them with any tool | CRM, Slack, Notion, calendar and dialer integrations |
| Needs host/calendar setup | No — works for any call you can hear | Bot mode: must be invited or auto-join via calendar; botless desktop app and extension: no bot invite needed |
| Account | None | Account required |
| Price | Free | Free tier: 400 min team storage, 20 one-time AI credits for new accounts; Pro from $10/seat/month (annual) |
| Platform | macOS 14.4+ menu-bar app | Web + mobile; bot works across meeting platforms |
Comparison last verified July 2026 — check both products for current details.
Your team wants a shared, searchable archive of everyone’s meetings with CRM and Slack integrations, across every OS and device — and a visible bot in calls is acceptable (sometimes even desirable, as recording disclosure) — or you’re fine with botless capture that still lives in their cloud. echo99 has no team features.
You’d rather announce the recording yourself than have a third-party bot join the meeting, you need the audio and transcript to stay off third-party servers, or you record calls a bot can’t join — phone bridges, webinars, anything that plays through your Mac. Free, no seats.
Compare echo99 with other tools: Otter alternative, Fathom alternative, Gong alternative
Free download. No account. Recording and transcription stay on your Mac.
Free · macOS 14.4+ · Notarized by Apple