fireflies alternative: no bot, local capture
Full screen and audio capture vs meeting transcription only
The Verdict
Fireflies.ai is a capable meeting transcription tool with 90+ integrations and solid CRM sync. For sales teams that live in meetings, it delivers. screenpipe captures your full workday instead: screen text, audio, meetings, documents, and code, stored locally on your device. No bot joins your calls. In local-only mode, your data stays on your machine. You can use any AI model. When you want automation, pipes connect your captured data to the tools you already use. If you need meeting transcripts plus CRM sync and don't mind cloud storage, Fireflies is a reasonable pick. If you want a complete memory layer for your workday, privacy-first by default, and freedom to choose your AI stack, that's screenpipe.
Your SSN, cards, and keys never leave your device.
Screenpipe trained its own PII removal that runs entirely on your machine. Social Security numbers, credit cards, passwords, and API keys are detected and scrubbed before anything is stored — and it catches more sensitive data than OpenAI's and Microsoft's privacy filters do.
Cloud-first tools upload your raw screen and audio to their servers first. Your most sensitive data lands on someone else's infrastructure before any filtering happens.
See the PII engine- Catches more than OpenAI's privacy filter
- Beats Microsoft's PII filter
- Runs locally — no per-call cost, nothing sent out
Why Screenpipe Wins
At a Glance
screenpipe is the fireflies alternative for your full screen
Fireflies captures what was said in your meetings. screenpipe captures everything on your computer: every meeting, every document, every Slack thread, every code review, every browser tab, indexed locally so you can search or query any moment. The same no-bot philosophy, extended to your full workday.
Meeting notes without a bot
Both products can record without a meeting bot: Fireflies through its desktop app or Chrome extension, and screenpipe through device-level audio capture. screenpipe additionally keeps searchable screen context from the call, including slides, dashboards, and other visible work.
Local-first model choice
Fireflies processes meetings in its cloud and gates AI features behind credits. screenpipe can keep capture, transcription, indexing, and AI queries on your device with a local model such as Ollama. Optional screenpipe cloud AI is available with fair-use daily limits.
Build on top with pipes
Fireflies has 90+ native integrations, but you work within their UI and their data model. screenpipe exposes a full REST API and an MCP server so you can build pipes that trigger on any captured event: meeting ended, keyword spotted on screen, daily at a set time. Install pipes from the store (meeting notes, CRM updater, daily digest) or write your own.
Fireflies pricing vs screenpipe pricing
Fireflies pricing starts free and scales through per-seat Pro, Business, and Enterprise plans. AI features use separate credits. screenpipe starts at $25/month with full screen and audio capture; cloud AI has fair-use daily limits, while local models do not consume vendor AI credits. Check both pricing pages for current terms.
Fireflies.ai: pros & cons
Where Fireflies.ai Is Strong
- 90+ native integrations including Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, and Notion
- Broad meeting platform support: Zoom, Meet, Teams, Webex, GoToMeeting
- AskFred AI chat across your entire meeting history
- Conversation intelligence: speaker analytics, sentiment, topic tracking
- Mobile apps for iOS and Android (in-person recording)
- Team collaboration and shared meeting library
Limitations
- Meeting-scoped: nothing outside calls is captured
- Bot capture can be blocked by hosts; bot-free capture requires the desktop app or extension
- Cloud-only: no local processing, no self-hosting on standard plans
- AI features gated behind per-plan credit limits
- Per-seat pricing scales steeply for teams
- No continuous searchable visual and OCR history across the workday
- No Linux support
Is Screenpipe a Good Fireflies.ai Alternative?
Yes. Screenpipe is a strong Fireflies.ai alternative and Fireflies.ai competitor for anyone who values privacy, transparency, and data ownership. Unlike Fireflies.ai, Screenpipe is open-source, supports local-only capture and search, and works on macOS, Windows, and Linux.
Screenpipe directly compares itself to Fireflies.ai on this page. The key difference: Screenpipe captures your screen and audio 24/7 while keeping core capture local-first. Optional sync, cloud AI, exports, connectors, and team workflows are scoped separately.
Ready for True Data Ownership?
Join thousands who chose open-source, local-first AI memory. Your data stays yours.