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FocusBae vs Fireflies

Fireflies is an AI notetaker built for teams. Its notetaker, Fred, joins your calls as a participant, and a desktop app can also record without it. Either way, transcription and storage happen in Fireflies’ cloud. FocusBae records on your Mac with no bot, keeps the transcript on your Mac, and focuses on the action items: who promised what, in their own words, and whether it got done.

Feature	FocusBae	Fireflies
How it records	On your Mac: microphone, system audio or both. No bot joins.	Its notetaker, Fred, joins calls as a participant. The Mac and Windows desktop app can also record without it.
Where audio is transcribed	On your Mac by default. Team admins can choose cloud transcription for their workspace.	In Fireflies’ cloud, including recordings made without the bot.
Where notes are stored	On your Mac. Pages you share with a team sync to FocusBae for teams.	Fireflies’ cloud.
Account needed	No. The Mac app works without signing in.	Yes.
Works offline	Yes, once the speech models are downloaded.	No.
AI meeting notes	No. You write the notes; FocusBae suggests action items from the transcript.	Yes. AI summaries, and an assistant you can ask about your meetings.
Action items	Suggested from the transcript with the exact quote, owner and due date. You accept or dismiss each one.	Listed in each meeting’s summary.
Following up	One Actions list across all meetings, and a page per person: what you owe them and what they owe you.	Per meeting, with search, topic tracking and integrations.
Open source	Yes, MIT licence. The code is on GitHub.	No.
Devices	Mac with Apple Silicon, macOS 26 or later. Teams can read and comment on the web.	Web, Mac and Windows apps, iPhone and Android.
Price	Free. FocusBae for teams is in a free pilot.	Free plan with limits. Pro $18 a month ($10 billed yearly). Business $29 ($19 billed yearly). Enterprise $39, per user.

Checked October 31, 2026. Prices and features change, so check Fireflies’s own pages before deciding. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we’ll fix it.

Choose Fireflies if

You want a bot to record meetings you can’t attend.
You need many languages transcribed well. On-device transcription in FocusBae works best in English.
You want AI summaries and lots of integrations, such as CRMs and Slack.
You use Windows, Android or mostly the web.

Choose FocusBae if

You don’t want a bot in your client or team calls.
You don’t want meeting audio and transcripts stored on someone else’s servers.
You care most about what people promised and whether it got done.
You want it free, with no account and no recording limits.

Get FocusBae for Mac

Sources

FocusBae details come from the current Mac release and its source code. See all comparisons.