Fireflies vs Basil: On-Device AI Meeting Notes Comparison

Fireflies.ai is known for powerful integrations and team collaboration. But what if you don't want a bot joining your meetings or your data stored in the cloud? Let's compare Fireflies with Basil AI, the privacy-first alternative.

Fireflies.ai is a popular AI meeting assistant that transcribes and summarizes meetings with a strong focus on integration and collaboration. It can integrate with major web conferencing platforms and productivity apps, making it a versatile choice for many professionals.

Basil AI offers a fundamentally different approach: bot-free, on-device processing that keeps your meeting data entirely on your iPhone or Mac.

Basil AI Overview

Key Features

• On-Device Transcription & Summaries: Basil uses on-device AI (leveraging Apple's iOS foundation models) to transcribe speech to text and generate meeting summaries entirely offline.
• Privacy & Security: Your voice and transcripts are never sent to any server or used to train external AI models.
• Bot-Free Recording: No visible participant in your meetings—record discreetly with your iPhone or through the web app.
• Platform: Available on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and as a web app—all with local processing.
• Pricing: Free plan (60 minutes/month) and Pro plan at $9.99/month or $99.99/year for unlimited transcription.

Fireflies.ai: Features & Capabilities

Fireflies works by either joining your online meetings as an automated participant (a bot named "Fred" by default) or by transcribing audio you record/upload. It creates a full transcript of the meeting and then provides AI-generated "Super Summaries" that include key points, an outline of the discussion, and action items.

Key Features

• Highlight important moments, add comments, and tag teammates on transcripts
• Powerful search and filtering – search keywords across all meetings
• Filter by metrics like speaker talk time, sentiment, or topics mentioned
• Conversation intelligence: tracking who spoke when, detecting tasks/questions, providing analytics
• Integrates with 40+ apps (CRM like HubSpot/Salesforce, Slack, project tools like Trello/Asana, Zapier, etc.)
• Supports transcription in 60+ languages

Pricing

• Free tier: Limited usage – up to 800 minutes of storage (free users cannot download transcripts)
• Pro: $18/user/month (or $10/user/month billed annually) – unlimited transcription for individuals
• Business: $19/user/month (annual) with collaboration features
• Enterprise: $39/user/month with advanced admin controls

Fireflies' annual price ~$120/user/year vs Basil $100/year

User Reviews & Feedback

G2 Rating: 4.8/5 (700+ reviews)

Fireflies is highly regarded for its rich feature set. Users particularly praise its advanced capabilities (action item detection, comprehensive summaries) and ease of use. In expert reviews, Fireflies was picked as "best for advanced features" among AI notetakers.

Pros:

• Captures everything "like a fly on the wall"
• Makes content searchable and shareable
• Playback at variable speeds
• Skip to important parts of calls

Cons:

• Free plan users cannot download transcripts
• Priority support only for Enterprise tier
• Having the Fireflies bot join meetings can be awkward (requires explaining to attendees)

Privacy & Security

Fireflies is a cloud solution – all recordings and transcripts reside on Fireflies' servers (hosted on AWS). Security features include:

• Data encryption
• Options to restrict meeting attendance to specific domains
• Rules for not joining meetings unless invited
• Can opt out of having data used to improve AI models (may be opt-out rather than opt-in)

Consideration: By design, Fireflies stores your meeting data (unless you delete it) to enable search and analytics. Organizations concerned about confidentiality might need to sign a BAA or enterprise agreement.

Head-to-Head Comparison

Fireflies' Strengths

• Auto-joins online meetings: Set it and forget it—Fireflies attends meetings for you
• Integrates with dozens of services: Automatic workflow with Slack, CRM, project management tools
• Team collaboration: Multiple people can access and comment on transcripts in real-time
• Multi-language support: 60+ languages for transcription
• Conversation analytics: Speaker talk time, sentiment analysis, topic tracking
• Powerful search: Find keywords across all your meetings instantly

Basil's Advantages

• Absolute privacy: Transcription and summary happen on your iPhone itself—no meeting audio or text ever leaves your device
• Bot-free recording: No visible participant added to calls—more natural and less intrusive
• Works offline: Airplane mode, secure facilities, no internet required
• No account required: Install and start recording immediately
• Lower annual cost: $100/year unlimited vs Fireflies' $120/year with potential usage caps
• Discreet recording: Use your phone's mic or web app—no explaining to other attendees why a bot joined

The Bot Factor

One key difference that impacts user experience: Fireflies requires a bot to join your meetings to capture cloud-based calls. This means:

• Other participants see "Fireflies Notetaker" or similar in the participant list
• You may need to explain what the bot is and why it's recording
• Some participants may object to bot recording (privacy concerns, company policy)
• Professional settings may view bots as less polished than traditional recording

Basil eliminates this issue entirely by using your own device to capture audio—no external participant, no explanation needed.

Privacy Deep Dive

Basil's key advantage: Privacy. With Basil, transcription and summary happen on your iPhone itself, and no meeting audio or text ever leaves your device. Fireflies uploads and stores audio in the cloud.

Why This Matters

For Legal Professionals: Attorney-client privilege requires absolute confidentiality. Even with Fireflies' security measures, having conversations uploaded to AWS creates potential vulnerabilities. Basil's on-device processing maintains privilege by design.

For Healthcare: HIPAA requires strict controls over PHI (Protected Health Information). While Fireflies can sign BAAs for enterprise customers, Basil's architecture eliminates third-party risk entirely—no PHI ever leaves the device.

For Executives: Board meetings and strategy sessions contain market-moving information. Basil ensures this intelligence stays on your device, not in a cloud database that could be breached or subpoenaed.

Integration Trade-offs

Fireflies' strength is its integrations:

• Automatically push meeting notes to Slack channels
• Sync call summaries to Salesforce or HubSpot
• Create tasks in Asana or Trello from action items
• Connect via Zapier to hundreds of other apps

Basil takes a different approach: data stays local, you control sharing. This means:

• Manual export to Apple Notes, PDF, or text files
• You decide what to share and when
• No automatic syncing to third-party services
• Complete control over data distribution

The trade-off: Fireflies automates your workflow; Basil gives you manual control for maximum privacy.

When to Choose Fireflies

Fireflies is an excellent choice if:

• You need team collaboration on shared meeting notes
• You want automated workflow integration (CRM, project management)
• Multi-language support is essential
• You need conversation analytics (talk time, sentiment, topics)
• You're comfortable with bot participants in meetings
• Cloud storage is acceptable for your use case

When to Choose Basil

Basil is the right choice if:

• You handle confidential information that cannot be uploaded
• You want bot-free, discreet recording
• Privacy compliance is non-negotiable (GDPR, HIPAA, legal privilege)
• You work offline or in secure facilities
• You prefer manual control over automated sharing
• You value absolute data sovereignty

Conclusion

Both Fireflies and Basil are powerful AI meeting notetakers, but they serve fundamentally different needs:

Choose Fireflies if you need deep integration with work apps, multi-language support, and collaborative AI note-taking for general business use.

Choose Basil if you require maximum privacy, bot-free recording, or offline functionality for confidential conversations.

The decision comes down to this: Do you need automation and integrations, or is privacy your non-negotiable requirement?

Try the Bot-Free Alternative to Fireflies

100% on-device processing. No bots. No cloud uploads. Complete privacy.

Free to try • $99/year for unlimited transcription