Important: consent and recording laws still apply
Recording a meeting without a visible bot does not remove the need to tell participants and respect local recording laws. Use these tools with the consent of the people on your calls.
Alternatives / Fireflies
4 open-source alternatives
4 Best Open Source Fireflies Alternatives in 2026
Looking for an open source Fireflies alternative? We compared 4 open source AI meeting note takers by license, local transcription, platforms, and AI summaries. Unlike Fireflies, which joins calls as a bot, they capture audio without a bot and transcribe on your own device.
Written by Maxime DERAME
Last updated:
Best Fireflies alternatives at a glance
| Alternative | Best for | License |
|---|---|---|
| Meetily | Local transcription and summaries | MIT |
| Anarlog | Notepad with local files | MIT core + enterprise |
| Minutes | Markdown transcripts for AI agents | MIT |
| Prismical | Free note taker (very young) | MIT |
How we chose these Fireflies alternatives
We looked for open-source tools that overlap with Fireflies' core: recording meetings without a bot, transcribing speech, and producing summaries. We verified each project's license, recent activity, stars, and platforms in its repository. See our methodology for the full criteria.
Closest to Fireflies
Meetily is the most popular: it records system audio without a bot, transcribes locally with Whisper or Parakeet models, and generates structured summaries with local or cloud models. Anarlog is a meeting notepad that turns rough notes into editable summaries, with audio and notes stored as local files.
Developer-oriented options
Minutes is an MIT local recorder using whisper.cpp that saves Markdown transcripts and exposes MCP tools so AI agents can query them, with some workflows specific to macOS. Prismical is an MIT note taker for Mac and Windows, with iOS and Android listed as coming soon.
Important: paid tiers and enterprise code
Meetily's Community Edition is MIT, with a Pro tier at $10 per user per month, and cloud summary options send data off your device if you choose them. Anarlog's community application is MIT, but its repository also contains an enterprise license directory.
License details
Meetily, Anarlog's community application, Minutes, and Prismical are MIT. Some directories list Anarlog as GPL, but the project says it moved to MIT in April 2026.
Maintenance status
Anarlog, Minutes, and Prismical had commits within days of this update. Prismical is very young with about 100 stars.
Why look for a Fireflies alternative?
Fireflies is a proprietary service that joins your calls as a bot, stores recordings and transcripts in its cloud, and limits features and storage by plan. Open-source tools capture system audio without a bot, transcribe locally, and keep files on your device, at the cost of local compute and less polished team sharing.
meetily.ai
Meetily records, transcribes, and summarizes meetings locally using Whisper or Parakeet, without bots or cloud uploads. It offers pluggable AI summaries through Ollama, Claude, OpenAI, or Groq, audio file import, offline use, and export to Markdown, PDF, and DOCX.
31.8K3.5KMITSelf-hosted
Pricing: Free Community Edition; Pro from $10/user/month (annual); Enterprise plans available.
- Local transcription with GPU acceleration
- Bot-free recording and offline use
- Pluggable AI summaries and multiple export formats
- Some features are in paid Pro and Enterprise tiers
- Local transcription needs suitable hardware
anarlog.so
Anarlog (formerly Hyprnote) records system audio without joining your call and turns rough notes into editable summaries. Audio, transcripts, and notes stay as local files, with a flexible AI backend that can run offline or use cloud models. The community app is MIT; the enterprise/ directory is commercially licensed.
9.5K795MIT core + enterpriseSelf-hosted
Pricing: Free community app; enterprise components are commercially licensed.
- System audio capture without a bot
- Rough notes become structured, editable summaries
- Local file storage and flexible AI backend
- Mixed-license repository with commercial enterprise components
- Older sources list a different (GPL) license
useminutes.app
Minutes records meetings and voice memos locally using whisper.cpp or Parakeet, writes structured Markdown to disk, and exposes 31 MCP tools so AI agents can query your conversation history. It includes speaker diarization, action item extraction, cross-meeting memory, and dictation.
1.6K173MITSelf-hosted
Pricing: Free and open source; optional summaries use Claude or Ollama.
- 31 MCP tools for agent integration
- Speaker diarization and action items
- Markdown files on disk
- Small project with a young community
- Geared toward developers and AI-heavy workflows
prismical.ai
Prismical transcribes meetings and voice notes locally using Whisper and Parakeet, with real-time transcription, speaker identification, automatic summaries and action items, and an MCP server. It captures system audio without bots joining calls and runs on Mac, Windows, and mobile.
11216MITSelf-hosted
Pricing: Free and open source.
- Local Whisper and Parakeet transcription
- System audio capture with no bot
- Summaries, action items, and MCP server
- Very young project with a small community
- Less proven than Meetily or Anarlog
Compare Fireflies alternatives
| Alternative | Type | License | Self-hosted | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meetily | Meeting assistant | MIT (Community) + paid Pro | Yes | Everyday meetings |
| Anarlog | Meeting notepad | MIT + enterprise directory | Yes | Notes as files |
| Minutes | Local recorder | MIT | Yes | Developers and agents |
| Prismical | AI note taker | MIT | Yes | Free transcription |
Which one should you choose?
Want local transcription and summaries without a bot
Meetily records system audio, transcribes locally, and summarizes with local or cloud models.
Want notes and transcripts as local files
Anarlog stores audio, transcripts, and notes as local files.
Want transcripts that AI agents can query
Minutes saves Markdown transcripts and exposes MCP tools.
Want a free note taker for Mac and Windows
Prismical transcribes locally, but it is very young.