Walkie vs Fireflies.ai
Fireflies gives away transcription and charges for everything you do with it. Walkie charges for the recording and does not meter the thinking.
The short answer
Choose Walkie if you want no bot in the call, no credit meter on the AI, and the option to keep audio on your machine. Choose Fireflies.ai if you need unlimited free transcription at volume, deep Salesforce or HubSpot sync, or conversation intelligence for a sales team.
Fireflies.ai pricing: Free (unlimited transcription, 400 minutes of storage per team, 20 AI credits); Pro $18/user/mo or $10 annually; Business $29/user/mo or $19 annually; Enterprise $39/user/mo annual only.
| Feature | Walkie | Fireflies.ai |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free · Pro $6 · Work $14 · Team $25 (per month, billed annually) | Free · Pro $10 · Business $19 · Enterprise $39 (per seat/month, billed annually) |
| Free tier | 3-meeting trial, plus unlimited on-device dictation forever | Unlimited transcription, but 400 minutes of storage per team and 20 AI credits |
| Paid allowance | 3-meeting trial free · Pro 10/mo (8 h) · Work 100/mo (40 h) · Team 150/mo (75 h) | Unlimited transcription; AI features metered by credit (20 Pro, 30 Business) |
| AI answers metered | No — Ask is not credit-metered | Yes — AskFred and summaries run on monthly credits |
| Joins with a bot | No — records your machine's audio | Yes — Fred joins the call |
| Fully on-device capture | Yes — hours count the same either way | No — cloud service |
| Speaker labels | Yes | Yes |
| Dictation in every app | Yes — free offline mode | No |
| Read Aloud (text-to-speech) | Yes — 950+ voices. 10 min/mo free · Pro 2 h/mo · Work & Team 5 h/mo | No |
| CRM integrations | 10+ connectors (Asana, Linear, Slack, GitHub) | Deep CRM sync — Salesforce, HubSpot and more |
| Conversation intelligence | No | Yes — talk-time, sentiment, deal signals |
| Platforms | macOS, Windows, iPhone; Linux experimental; Android coming soon | Web, iOS, Android, Chrome extension |
Fireflies.ai pricing and features verified from their pricing page. Walkie's own numbers are read live from our plan definitions.
Why choose Walkie over Fireflies.ai?
Nothing joins your call. Fred is a visible participant, and on a client call somebody always asks about it. Walkie records the audio your machine already hears — no bot, no participant, no explanation.
The AI is not on a meter. Fireflies gives away transcription and then rations what you do with it: AskFred, summaries, action items and highlights all draw on 20–30 credits a month. Walkie's Ask has no credit counter — the meeting allowance is the only number to watch.
Storage that isn't a team-wide cap. The Fireflies free plan's 400 minutes of storage is per TEAM, not per person — a five-person team can spend it in a week. Walkie's free trial is a fixed number of meetings that belong to you.
It can stay on your machine, and it does more. On-device capture for the conversations that should not leave the laptop, plus dictation in every app and Read Aloud in 950+ voices from the same subscription.
When Fireflies.ai is the better fit
Unlimited transcription, free. Every Fireflies plan including Free transcribes without limit. If sheer volume is the constraint and cloud is fine, that is hard to argue with — Walkie meters meetings on every tier.
Built for revenue teams. Salesforce and HubSpot sync, conversation intelligence, talk-time and deal signals. If your notetaker has to feed a pipeline, Fireflies is a category ahead of Walkie.
Cross-platform, and it covers calls you skip. Web, mobile and a bot that can attend without you. Walkie's notetaker is macOS-only and you have to be in the room.
The bottom line
Fireflies is the better tool for a sales org that needs volume, CRM sync and conversation intelligence. Walkie is the better tool if you want no bot in the call, no credit meter on the AI, the option to keep audio local, and dictation and Read Aloud in the same bill.
Walkie vs Fireflies.ai — common questions
Is Walkie a good Fireflies.ai alternative?
If you dislike the bot or the credit meter, yes. Walkie records your machine's audio with nothing joining the call, does not ration Ask by credit, and can keep the whole meeting on-device. Fireflies wins on unlimited volume and CRM depth.
Is Fireflies.ai really free?
Transcription is unlimited on the free plan, but storage is capped at 400 minutes for the whole team and AI features run on 20 monthly credits. The cap is what you hit, not the transcription.
Does Fireflies send a bot into meetings?
Yes — Fred joins as a visible participant. Walkie records what your computer already hears, so nothing shows up in the call.