Meeting transcription without the awkward "Fireflies has joined" announcement or monthly subscription.
Local-first vs cloud-native team notes.
Clearminutes is the better choice for individuals and privacy-conscious teams who want free local transcription without bots joining calls. Fireflies.ai is better for teams needing CRM integrations like Salesforce and HubSpot, video recording, and conversation analytics, but requires a bot, processes everything in the cloud, and caps its free tier. Clearminutes also adds a built-in local LLM (Gemma) and bring-your-own API keys that Fireflies doesn't offer.
| Clearminuteslocal-first | Fireflies.aicloud-first | |
|---|---|---|
| Capture & privacy | ||
| Meeting bots | No | Yes (bot joins call) |
| Local processing | Yes (on-device models) | No (cloud-only) |
| AI & summaries | ||
| AI summaries | Yes (local or BYO keys) | Yes (cloud) |
| Bring-your-own cloud AI keys | Yes (Claude, Groq, OpenRouter) | No |
| Chat with meetings | Yes | Yes |
| Transcription | ||
| Speaker diarization | Yes | Yes |
| Workflow | ||
| Action items + decisions | Yes + TickTick sync (Pro) | Yes |
| Platform & performance | ||
| Cross-platform | macOS + Windows + Linux | Web-based |
| Audio & export | ||
| Audio file import | Yes (Pro) | Yes |
| Works with | Any audio source | Meeting platforms only |
| Capture & privacy | ||
| Works offline | Yes (local models) | No |
| Integrations | ||
| CRM integrations | Not yet | Yes (Salesforce, HubSpot) |
| Workflow | ||
| Team analytics | Not yet | Yes (Business+) |
| Video recording | No | Yes (Business+) |
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | Yes | Yes (limited AI summaries, 800 min storage) |
| Transcription | ||
| Language support | 6+ languages | 69 languages |
Local transcription for unlimited meetings, no bot, no cloud. Pro only if you want speaker ID and cross-device sync.
Last updated: 2026-04-01. Compared from each tool's public pricing and feature data (see sources), as of the last-updated date.
Sources: Fireflies.ai official site (2026-06-21), Fireflies.ai pricing page (2026-06-21), Fireflies.ai privacy page (2026-06-21).
Clearminutes is our own product; we've kept the comparison fair.