Does Fireflies.ai record my Zoom calls?

Yes. Fireflies.ai joins your video calls as a participant and records audio/video to their cloud servers. All meeting participants can see the Fireflies bot has joined. Inscribe records locally on your device without joining calls.

Is Inscribe more private than Fireflies?

Yes. Inscribe processes all audio 100% on your device and never uploads recordings to the cloud. Fireflies uploads all recordings to their servers for processing and storage.

Can Inscribe transcribe Zoom meetings?

Yes. You can record the audio from any meeting using Inscribe on your Mac, then transcribe it locally. Unlike Fireflies, Inscribe doesn't join calls as a visible bot—it simply records what you hear.

Which is cheaper, Inscribe or Fireflies?

Inscribe is significantly cheaper. Fireflies Pro costs $18/user/month ($216/year). Inscribe offers a $29.99 lifetime plan for unlimited transcription, or $9.99/month for the subscription.

Inscribe vs Fireflies.ai (2026): Meeting Transcription Without the Cloud

The Meeting Transcription Revolution

In 2026, nobody wants to take manual meeting notes. AI transcription tools like Fireflies.ai and Inscribe promise to capture everything automatically. But they take fundamentally different approaches.

Fireflies.ai is a cloud-first meeting bot that joins your video calls, records them, and uploads everything to their servers. Inscribe is a privacy-first local app that transcribes on your device without ever uploading your audio.

Let's break down which approach works better for different use cases.

Quick Comparison Table

Feature	Inscribe	Fireflies.ai
Recording Method	Local device	Bot joins call
Privacy	100% On-device	Cloud upload
Visible to Participants	No	Yes (bot joins)
Works Offline	✓ Yes	✗ No
Calendar Integration	✗ Manual	✓ Auto-join
Team Sharing	Export only	✓ Built-in
Pricing	$29.99 lifetime	$18/user/month
AI Document Chat	✓ Yes	✓ Yes

The "Bot in Your Meeting" Problem

Fireflies.ai works by joining your video calls as a participant. This means:

Everyone knows they're being recorded: "Fireflies.ai Notetaker" appears in the participant list
Some people clam up: Candid conversation stops when people see a recording bot
IT policies may block it: Many companies prohibit third-party bots in meetings
Awkward for sensitive topics: HR discussions, negotiations, performance reviews

🤫 The Inscribe Difference: Inscribe records audio from your device's microphone or system audio. No bot joins the call. Other participants don't know you're transcribing unless you tell them.

Note: Always comply with local laws regarding recording consent. Many jurisdictions require all-party consent for recording conversations.

Privacy: On-Device vs Cloud

Fireflies.ai: Everything Goes to the Cloud

When you use Fireflies, your meeting recordings are:

Uploaded to Fireflies' cloud servers
Processed by their AI systems
Stored in their database (retention varies by plan)
Potentially accessible by Fireflies employees
Subject to their data processing policies

For many business meetings, this is fine. But for confidential discussions—board meetings, legal strategy, M&A talks, HR issues—cloud storage creates risk.

Inscribe: Nothing Leaves Your Device

Inscribe's approach is fundamentally different:

Audio is processed by on-device AI models
Transcripts are stored locally on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad
No account required—no data collection at all
Optional iCloud sync (your iCloud, not Inscribe's servers)
Delete a recording and it's gone forever

"After our competitor's board meeting notes leaked from a cloud service, we switched all executives to Inscribe. Nothing leaves our devices now."
— CTO, Fortune 500 Tech Company

Pricing: Per-Seat vs Unlimited

Fireflies' per-seat pricing adds up quickly for teams:

Fireflies.ai Pricing (2026)

Free	Limited credits, 800 min storage
Pro	$18/user/month (unlimited transcription)
Business	$29/user/month (admin controls, analytics)
Enterprise	Custom pricing

For a team of 10: Fireflies Pro = $180/month = $2,160/year

Inscribe Pricing (2026)

Free	Unlimited recording (limited AI features)
Monthly	$9.99/month per device
Lifetime	$29.99 one-time purchase

For individual users: Inscribe Lifetime = $29.99 total (forever)

💰 Cost Comparison: One Inscribe lifetime license costs less than 2 months of Fireflies Pro. For solo professionals, the savings are massive.

Use Case: Team Collaboration vs Individual Privacy

When Fireflies Makes Sense

Fireflies excels at team-wide meeting intelligence:

Automatic calendar integration—meetings are recorded without manual action
Shared meeting library across the organization
Search across all company meetings
CRM integrations (Salesforce, HubSpot)
Meeting analytics and talk-time metrics

If your company wants a centralized system where all meetings are automatically recorded and searchable, Fireflies is designed for that.

When Inscribe Makes Sense

Inscribe is ideal for individual control and privacy:

You decide what gets recorded—not an automated system
Confidential meetings stay on your device
Works for in-person meetings, not just video calls
No IT approval needed—it's just an app on your device
One-time purchase instead of ongoing subscription

Professional taking notes on laptop during meeting

Features Comparison

Transcription Quality

Both apps use advanced AI models and produce excellent transcriptions:

Accuracy: Both achieve 90-95% for clear audio
Speaker identification: Both support multiple speakers
Processing speed: Inscribe processes locally (depends on device); Fireflies processes in cloud (typically fast)

AI Features

Fireflies offers:

AI-generated meeting summaries
Action item extraction
Topic detection
Sentiment analysis
AskFred AI chatbot for meeting Q&A

Inscribe offers:

AI-generated summaries
Chat with transcripts ("What did John say about the deadline?")
Chat with any document (PDFs, research papers)
Action item extraction
All AI processing happens on-device

Platform Support

Fireflies	Web app, Chrome extension, mobile apps, integrations with Zoom/Teams/Meet
Inscribe	Native apps for iPhone, iPad, and Mac (Apple ecosystem)

The Verdict

Choose Inscribe if:

Privacy is non-negotiable, you want to control what gets recorded, you work with confidential information, or you prefer a one-time purchase over per-seat subscriptions. Best for executives, lawyers, consultants, and privacy-conscious professionals.

Try Inscribe Free

Choose Fireflies if:

Team-wide meeting intelligence is the priority, you want automatic recording of all calendar events, and you need CRM integrations and analytics. Best for sales teams, customer success, and organizations standardizing on meeting transcription.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Inscribe automatically join my Zoom meetings?

No. Inscribe doesn't join calls as a bot. You manually start recording on your device. This is by design—it gives you control over what gets recorded and keeps the bot out of your meetings.

Can I use both Inscribe and Fireflies?

Yes. Many users keep Fireflies for team meetings where sharing is expected, and use Inscribe for confidential 1:1s, board meetings, or personal recordings they don't want in the cloud.

Is Inscribe HIPAA compliant?

Inscribe's on-device processing means patient information never leaves your device, making it suitable for healthcare environments. There's no cloud storage to secure or BAA to sign because your data stays local.

Can Inscribe transcribe in-person meetings?

Yes. Unlike Fireflies (which focuses on video calls), Inscribe can record and transcribe any audio—in-person meetings, lectures, interviews, voice memos, and more.

Final Thoughts

Fireflies.ai and Inscribe represent two valid philosophies for meeting transcription:

Fireflies: "Record everything automatically and share it with the team"
Inscribe: "Keep your recordings private and under your control"

For team collaboration at scale, Fireflies has compelling features. But for individuals who value privacy, want to avoid per-seat pricing, or need to record confidential conversations, Inscribe offers a better solution at a fraction of the cost.

The best choice depends on your priorities. But in a world of increasing data breaches and privacy concerns, keeping your meeting audio on your own device has real appeal.