Steno vs Fireflies.ai

Fireflies.ai is a cloud-based meeting recording and intelligence platform. Steno is a local macOS app. Both transcribe and summarize meetings, but they differ significantly in how they handle your audio and who they are designed for.

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At a glance

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Privacy

Fireflies records meetings via its “Fred” bot, which joins your calls and records audio server-side. The audio is processed on Fireflies’ infrastructure and stored in your Fireflies account. Steno records audio on your Mac and processes it entirely locally in its default configuration. Nothing is transmitted to any server unless you explicitly configure a cloud summarization model (off by default). If your meetings contain information you cannot send to a third party, use Steno with the default local model.

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Meeting bot vs local recording

Fireflies’ bot joins your video call as a visible participant. Attendees can see and hear that Fred has joined. This is standard for enterprise AI notetakers, but it changes the dynamic of the meeting and requires attendee awareness. Steno captures audio from your Mac’s audio system silently. No bot appears. The other participants are not notified by the app — consent obligations remain yours to manage.

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CRM and integrations

Fireflies has deep integration with sales and business workflows: Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, and others. It is widely used in sales and customer success teams where meeting notes need to flow into a CRM automatically. Steno has no CRM integration. Its output is plain Markdown files, which you can route into other tools manually or via automation.

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Cost

Fireflies’ free plan limits monthly transcription credits. The Pro plan is $10/user/month and Business is$19/user/month. Steno is free and open source.

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When to choose Steno

• Your meetings contain confidential or privileged information
• You do not want a visible bot in your calls
• You want free, unlimited local transcription
• You are a solo user on macOS and do not need team features

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When to choose Fireflies.ai

• You need automatic CRM sync for sales or customer calls
• Your team needs a shared meeting intelligence platform
• You rely on integrations with tools like Slack, Notion, or HubSpot
• You need cross-platform recording (Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, etc.)

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Does Fireflies store my audio permanently?

Fireflies stores recordings and transcripts in your account. Retention policies depend on your plan. Review Fireflies’ privacy policy for current details on data storage and deletion.

Can Steno record Zoom or Google Meet calls?

Yes. Steno captures system audio from your Mac, which includes the audio output from any call platform — Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, or any other app playing audio through your Mac’s speakers. The other participants do not see any bot.