Comparison
Fireflies is a cloud meeting-notes hub built around a bot that joins your calls. echo99 records the same calls directly on your Mac, without a bot participant, and keeps everything there.
Fireflies.ai transcribes meetings 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 names) and a Chrome extension for Google Meet. Both still send your audio to the Fireflies cloud, though the desktop app keeps only the transcript and summary. The bot remains the primary path, and the only way to get named speakers on Zoom and Teams.
| Feature | echo99 | Fireflies |
|---|---|---|
| How it records | Captures your mic and your Mac's audio output locally, with no bot in 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 is always uploaded to the Fireflies cloud |
| Recording disclosure | Nothing joins the call, so giving notice and getting consent is your responsibility | Bot mode: the bot in the participant list signals recording; desktop app: spoken notice, chat message (Mac), and camera badge on by default, each of which can be turned off |
| Where your audio lives | On your Mac, as plain WAV and JSON files you own | In the Fireflies cloud workspace; botless desktop captures keep only the transcript and summary (audio is processed, not saved) |
| Transcription | On-device after the call, in 25 languages; works offline after a one-time model download | Cloud, with AI summaries and search |
| AI notes | On-device summaries (overview, key points, decisions, action items, open questions) written by a local language model; the transcript never leaves your Mac | AI summaries and action items in the Fireflies workspace, processed in the cloud |
| Speaker labels | Me + Them-1, Them-2, … plus on-device speaker recognition that remembers the names you assign across recordings | Participant names when the bot or Chrome extension joins; the botless desktop app shows Speaker 1, Speaker 2 |
| Team features | None; echo99 is single-user by design | Where Fireflies is strongest: shared workspace, team search, channels, clips |
| Integrations | Markdown export; no built-in integrations | CRM, Slack, Notion, calendar and dialer integrations |
| Needs host/calendar setup | No. It 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 with 400 min of storage and 20 AI credits; Pro from $10/seat/month (billed annually) |
| Platform | macOS 14.4+, Apple silicon and Intel | Web, Mac / Windows desktop app, iOS / Android, Chrome extension; bot works across meeting platforms |
Comparison last verified September 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). 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 (the Fireflies desktop app drops the bot but still uploads the audio), or you record calls a bot can’t join: phone bridges, webinars, anything that plays through your Mac. It is free, with no seats to buy.
Compare echo99 with other tools: Otter alternative, Fathom alternative, Gong alternative
Related guides: Speaker identification, Meeting summaries, Local transcription
Free download. No account. Recording and transcription stay on your Mac.
Free · macOS 14.4+ · Apple silicon & Intel · Notarized by Apple