An open-source alternative to Fireflies
Fireflies is a cloud meeting assistant: your meetings are recorded and processed on its servers, under an account. Echo does the same core job (recording, transcription, speaker labels and notes) entirely on your own Mac.
How they differ
- Where it runs. Fireflies is a cloud service. Echo runs on your Mac and listens only on its loopback address.
- In the call. Fireflies: yes, by default; a Chrome extension can record without the bot. Echo never joins as a participant; its extension records your own meeting tab.
- Your data. Fireflies stores meetings in Fireflies’ cloud. Echo keeps them in an encrypted library on your disk, with the key in the macOS Keychain.
- Price. Fireflies: free plan; paid Pro, Business and Enterprise plans. Echo is free and open source under the MIT licence.
When Fireflies is the better fit
If you need team workspaces, sharing, mobile apps, CRM integrations, or don’t want to run software yourself, a hosted service like Fireflies is the simpler choice. Echo is for one person on an Apple Silicon Mac who wants their meetings to stay on that Mac.
Try Echo
Follow the install guide (about ten minutes from a fresh Mac), or read the full comparison. The source is on GitHub.
Details about Fireflies come from fireflies.ai/pricing, checked on 1 November 2026. Plans change; check Fireflies for current details. Fireflies is a trademark of its owner; Echo is not affiliated with it.