8 Best Fireflies Alternatives in 2026 (Tested and Compared)

The best Fireflies.ai alternative depends on which Fireflies wall you hit. If the Fred notetaker bot joining your calls is the problem, Scribbl is the strongest pick: it is botless (nothing ever joins, nothing is announced), works on Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams, has a free plan with no credit card, and connects each meeting to ChatGPT or Claude so the follow-up actually gets done. For deep sales conversation intelligence, Gong or the cheaper Avoma fit better; for a generous free bot, Fathom; for an on-device private option, Granola. Below we rank eight real alternatives by use case so you pick by your actual frustration, not by feature-list length.

Fireflies.ai is one of the most established AI meeting notetakers, with broad platform coverage, a large searchable archive, and deep integrations. Most people who go looking for a Fireflies alternative are not confused about what it does; they have hit one specific wall: the Fred notetaker bot that auto-joins calls and can force guests to sign up, shaky accuracy on accents and non-American English, AI-credit and storage caps that arrive faster than expected, billing surprises with a hard-to-find cancel flow, slow processing on long calls, or automation that stops at basic task detection.

Self-route in ten seconds. Jump to the pick that matches your blocker:

• The bot showed up on a client or sales call → Scribbl, botless.
• I want a free notetaker and a bot is fine → Fathom.
• I just need reliable live transcription → Otter.ai.
• Sales notes plus light analytics, not enterprise pricing → Avoma.
• Full enterprise revenue intelligence → Gong.
• Clip-and-share and many languages → tl;dv.
• On-device privacy, I take my own notes → Granola.
• A free, lightweight no-bot transcript → Tactiq.

How we tested: we ran each tool on the same set of real, recorded Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams calls (internal standups, an external sales-style demo, and an accented non-American-English conversation), then compared what attendees saw, transcript quality, and what each tool produced after the call. Prices below are entry-tier list prices and free-plan limits as published by each vendor in June 2026; vendors change these often, so confirm on their own pricing page before you buy. We do not invent competitor numbers. What we are most precise about is the one thing that changes your day to day: does the tool send a bot into your call, or not, and what does it actually do after the meeting ends.

The 8 best Fireflies alternatives at a glance

Scan this first, then read the one or two sections that fit your use case. "Capture model" is the column most people are actually shopping on, and "best for" is how you self-route. Prices are entry-tier list prices in USD as published by each vendor in June 2026 and round to the nearest dollar; they move often, so confirm on each vendor's site before buying.

Tool	Best for	Capture model	Free plan	Starting paid price	G2 rating
Scribbl	Bot-free notes on external and sales calls	Botless (your own session)	Yes, no credit card	See pricing	5.0 (3,000 reviews)
Fathom	A polished free notetaker with a bot	Bot joins the call	Yes, generous (unlimited recording)	~$19/user/mo (annual)	~5.0, high volume
Otter.ai	Mature live transcription	Bot joins the call	Yes, 300 min/mo, 30 min/call	~$17/user/mo (annual)	~4.3
Avoma	Sales notes plus light revenue intelligence	Bot joins the call	Yes, limited	~$19/user/mo (annual)	~4.6
Gong	Enterprise conversation intelligence	Bot joins the call	No, sales-led	Custom + ~platform fee	~4.8
tl;dv	Clip-and-share meeting moments	Bot joins the call	Yes, unlimited recordings	~$18/user/mo (annual)	~4.7
Granola	Solo note-takers who type during calls	On-device, no bot	Yes, limited (trial of meetings)	~$18/user/mo	newer, fewer reviews
Tactiq	A free, lightweight bot-free transcript	Caption-based, no bot	Yes, 10 meetings/mo (5 AI credits)	~$12/user/mo (annual)	~4.4

Feature	Scribbl	Fireflies	Otter	Fathom	tl;dv
No bot ever joins the call		–	–	–	–
Nothing announced, no email to attendees		–	–	–	–
Free plan, no credit card		Free plan	Free plan	Free plan	Free plan
Google Meet
Zoom
Microsoft Teams
Connects meetings to your ChatGPT or Claude		–	–	–	–
Video recording and searchable transcript
Desktop app for in-person and system audio		–	–	–	–
Built-in sales / revenue analytics	–	Limited	Limited	Limited	Paid
Capture model	Your own session	Notetaker bot	Notetaker bot	Notetaker bot	Notetaker bot
Rated 5.0 from 3,000 reviews		–	–	–	–

Why people leave Fireflies.ai

Before the list, here are the real pain points behind the "fireflies alternative" search. Match yours to the alternative that fixes it, because the best tool for you is the one that removes your specific blocker.

• The Fred bot auto-joins and is visible. Fireflies is generally known for sending a notetaker bot, often called Fred, into the call from your calendar. On internal calls that is fine. On a sales demo, an interview, or a first client conversation, a visible third-party participant changes the tone, and in some setups guests are pushed to sign up to see the notes. Many people start the search the first time Fred surprises them on an external call.
• Accuracy on accents and non-American English. A recurring complaint is that transcription quality drops on strong accents and non-standard or non-American English. If your calls are not in clean US English, accuracy matters more than any feature list, and it is the single most common quality frustration we see cited.
• AI-credit limits and the storage cap. Lower tiers meter AI features as credits and cap how much you can store and search (commonly cited around 800 minutes of storage on the free tier). People who run a lot of meetings hit these walls and feel pushed toward an upgrade sooner than expected.
• Billing surprises and hard-to-cancel. Users report unexpected charges and a cancellation flow that is not easy to find, which is a trust issue more than a feature one. If billing transparency is your concern, weight free plans that need no card and vendors with a clear cancel path.
• Slow processing on long calls. Transcripts and summaries can lag after long meetings, which hurts when you need the recap right after the call to send a follow-up.
• Automation stops at task detection. Fireflies detects action items, but turning a meeting into finished follow-up work (the drafted email, the CRM update, the recap actually sent) is where people want more than detection.

What Fireflies itself costs and caps (the baseline you are comparing against)

So that every "X vs Fireflies" comparison below has a concrete reference point, here is Fireflies' own published shape as of June 2026. Fireflies changes these, so verify on their pricing page; we do not invent numbers.

Fireflies attribute	What it looks like
Capture model	Notetaker bot (Fred) joins the call as a visible participant
Free plan	Yes, but with limited AI summaries and a storage/transcription cap (commonly cited around 800 minutes of stored audio per seat)
Entry paid tier	Pro tier published around the high-teens dollars per user per month billed annually (Business and Enterprise above)
AI features	Metered as AI credits on lower tiers; heavier use pushes an upgrade
Connects meetings to ChatGPT or Claude	No (its AskFred assistant is built in, not your own ChatGPT or Claude)
Common complaints	Visible bot on external calls, accent and non-American-English accuracy, surprise billing and hard-to-find cancel, slow processing on long calls

When you read a "vs Fireflies" line under each tool below, this is the thing on the other side of the comparison.

How we ranked these Fireflies alternatives

We weighted the capture model first, because it is what attendees notice and what decides whether you even get notes on external calls. After that we considered platform coverage (Meet, Zoom, Teams, and in-person), whether there is a genuinely usable free plan rather than a trial, transcription quality including non-English, integrations and automation, and what each tool does once the call ends. A tool that joins your meeting is not bad; it is a different trade. For anyone on client, sales, or candidate calls, a botless tool is usually the one that fits, which is why our top pick is the bot-free one. We also note publicly cited G2 and Capterra standing where it is relevant, while flagging that ratings shift over time.

1. Scribbl, the botless pick (best overall and best free plan)

Best for: anyone with client, sales, or external calls who wants notes with no bot, plus a free start.

Scribbl is our top recommendation because it solves the exact problem that sends most people looking for a Fireflies alternative: the bot. It is botless. Instead of sending Fred or any participant into the call, it captures from your own session, so nothing joins, nothing is announced, and no notification goes to the people you are meeting with. Because it never tries to join, the whole class of "the bot got denied, removed, or forced a guest signup" problems disappears. It runs as a Chrome extension plus a desktop app, works across Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams, and has a free plan with no credit card.

What sets it apart after the meeting: Scribbl connects your conversations to the AI you already use, ChatGPT or Claude, so the call turns into the actual follow-up work, a recap, a draft message, the next steps, not just a transcript sitting in a folder. That directly answers the "automation stops at task detection" complaint above. It is used by more than 10,000 organizations.

Pricing: free plan with no credit card; paid plans are on the pricing page. The free start (no card required) is itself the answer to the surprise-billing and hard-to-cancel complaints that send people away from Fireflies.

Scribbl vs Fireflies: the head-to-head difference is the bot. Fireflies sends Fred and is visible; Scribbl joins nothing and is invisible to the room. Both have a free plan; Scribbl's needs no credit card, and there is no surprise-billing or hard-cancel friction to navigate. For the full breakdown, see Scribbl vs Fireflies.

	Scribbl	Fireflies.ai
Capture model	Botless, captures from your own session	Notetaker bot (Fred) joins as a participant
Attendees see a recorder	No, nothing joins or is announced	Yes, a visible bot in the call
Platforms	Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams	Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams
Free plan	Yes, no credit card	Yes, with AI and storage caps
Connects to your ChatGPT or Claude	Yes	No (built-in AskFred instead)
Desktop app for in-person and system audio	Yes	Bot-based, not session capture
G2 rating	5.0 from 3,000 reviews	Public average, varies

• Pros: truly botless on Meet, Zoom, and Teams; free plan with no credit card; Chrome extension plus a desktop app for the calls a browser cannot reach; connects to ChatGPT or Claude so the follow-up work actually gets done; 5.0 from 3,000 reviews.
• Cons: like every botless tool, you have to be in the call to capture it; it is not built to send an unattended bot to meetings you skip, and it is not a heavy revenue-analytics dashboard like Gong. More on the approach in our botless AI notetaker explainer.

2. Fathom (best polished free notetaker, if a bot is fine)

Best for: people who want a clean, generous free notetaker and do not mind a bot in the call.

Fathom is widely liked for clean automatic recaps and one of the most generous free tiers in the category (unlimited recording and transcription on the free plan, with AI summaries metered). It typically joins the meeting to record, then produces tidy summaries and action items. If your meetings are mostly internal and a visible participant is no big deal, Fathom is a strong, well-reviewed choice; it carries one of the highest G2 review volumes in the category at a near-5.0 average at the time of writing.

Pricing: generous free plan; paid plans (Premium) start around $19 per user per month billed annually, with team tiers above that. Confirm current tiers on Fathom's site.

Fathom vs Fireflies: Fathom is leaner and more recap-focused with a more generous free plan; Fireflies leans on breadth of integrations and team analytics. Both put a bot in the room, so the choice is recap polish versus integration depth. For the closer look, see Fathom vs Fireflies, or the full Fathom alternative list if its bot is the issue.

• Pros: polished automatic recaps; fast highlights; one of the most generous free tiers; very high G2 review volume.
• Cons: the notetaker is visible to attendees, so it carries the same external-call awkwardness as Fireflies; some capabilities (extra AI actions, integrations) sit behind paid plans.

3. Otter.ai (best for mature live transcription)

Best for: users who want reliable live transcription and search and do not mind the bot.

Otter is one of the longest-running options, strong on live transcription, search, and its OtterPilot assistant. Its standard model sends a notetaker into the meeting. If you primarily need a dependable live transcript and a mature product, Otter does that job well. Note that its free tier meters monthly transcription minutes, so heavy users hit the cap quickly.

Pricing: free plan with roughly 300 transcription minutes per month and a 30-minute-per-conversation limit; the Pro plan starts around $17 per user per month billed annually (higher month-to-month). Business and Enterprise tiers add more minutes and admin controls. Confirm current limits, which Otter has changed over time.

Otter vs Fireflies: both are bot-based; Otter leans transcription-first while Fireflies leans toward integrations and analytics. Otter's free minute cap is tighter than Fireflies' free tier for transcription volume. If you want a botless route instead, compare both against the Otter alternative writeup, or read Otter.ai vs Fireflies directly.

• Pros: mature, dependable product; solid live transcription and search; well-known OtterPilot assistant.
• Cons: the bot joins and is visible; the free tier's 300 minutes per month and 30-minute call cap are restrictive for heavy users; its G2 average (around 4.3) sits below the bot-free and recap-focused options here.

4. Avoma (best affordable sales notes plus light revenue intelligence)

Best for: sales and customer teams who want meeting notes blended with light conversation intelligence without enterprise pricing.

Avoma sits between a notetaker and a conversation-intelligence platform. It records and summarizes calls and adds scorecards, talk-time, and pipeline-oriented insights, which makes it a common Fireflies alternative for revenue teams that want more than notes but are not ready for Gong's price. It uses a bot to join calls.

Pricing: a limited free plan exists; paid notetaker tiers start around $19 per user per month billed annually, and the conversation-intelligence and revenue-intelligence tiers cost more. Confirm which tier includes the scorecards and analytics you want, because the feature set is split across plans.

Avoma vs Fireflies: Avoma leans further into sales coaching and scorecards; Fireflies is broader as a general notetaker with integrations. Both are bot-based, and both meter their higher-value features by tier. See the Avoma alternative page if you want the analytics but not the bot, or Scribbl vs Avoma for the botless contrast.

• Pros: more sales intelligence (scorecards, talk-time, pipeline insight) than a plain notetaker; far more affordable than Gong; solid G2 average around 4.6.
• Cons: the bot is visible to attendees on external calls; the feature set is broad and tier-gated, so the plan that has the intelligence you want may cost more than the entry price.

5. Gong (best enterprise conversation intelligence)

Best for: revenue organizations that need deal scoring, coaching, and forecasting, not just notes.

Gong is the heavyweight of conversation intelligence. It goes far beyond meeting notes into deal risk, rep coaching, call analytics, and forecasting, and it is built for sales-led organizations with the budget to match. If your real need is a revenue-intelligence platform rather than a notetaker, Gong is the serious option; if you just want clean, bot-free notes, it is far more than you need.

Pricing: no public free plan and no published list price. Gong is sales-led: pricing is custom and typically combines a per-user license with an annual platform fee, which in practice puts it well above every other tool on this list and out of reach for individuals and small teams. Expect a sales process and an annual commitment. Records via a bot.

Gong vs Fireflies: Gong is an enterprise revenue platform; Fireflies is a notetaker with integrations at a fraction of the cost. Different leagues entirely. See the Gong AI notetaker alternative and Scribbl vs Gong.

• Pros: the deepest analytics, coaching, and forecasting in the category; strong enterprise G2 standing (around 4.8); the right tool if revenue intelligence is the actual goal.
• Cons: opaque, enterprise-only pricing with a sales process and annual commitment; massive overkill if you only want meeting notes; bot-based capture that is visible on every call.

6. tl;dv (best for clip-and-share moments)

Best for: teams that share meeting clips and highlights and want strong multi-language support.

tl;dv focuses on recording and highlighting, with clipping and sharing that teams use to spread context, plus broad language coverage (it advertises support for a very large number of languages) that can help if Fireflies' non-English accuracy is your blocker. It captures by joining the call. It fits workflows built around sharing moments rather than just text notes.

Pricing: free plan with unlimited recordings and transcriptions (AI features and integrations are limited); paid plans (Pro) start around $18 per user per month billed annually, with Business tiers above for coaching and CRM features. Confirm current tiers on tl;dv's site.

tl;dv vs Fireflies: both are bot-based; tl;dv leans clip-and-share and broad language coverage, Fireflies leans integrations and analytics. tl;dv's free recording allowance is more generous than Fireflies' free tier. See Fireflies vs tl;dv for the head-to-head, or the tl;dv alternative page if the bot is the issue.

• Pros: strong clip and highlight sharing; broad multi-language support that helps with non-English calls; generous free recording allowance.
• Cons: it joins the call and is visible; the more useful AI, coaching, and CRM features sit on paid tiers, so the entry price understates the cost of the full workflow.

7. Granola (best bot-free, on-device option for solo note-takers)

Best for: individuals who take their own notes during calls and want AI to enhance them, with no bot and good privacy posture.

Granola takes a notes-forward, on-device approach: you take rough notes and it records locally and enhances them with an AI summary, avoiding the traditional join-the-call bot. Because it captures on your device, it can also handle in-person conversations, and the local-capture model appeals to people who care about privacy. It is currently a Mac-first desktop app.

Pricing: free to try with a limited number of meetings, after which a paid plan (around $18 per user per month) unlocks unlimited use; team and business tiers add collaboration features. Confirm the current free-meeting allowance and platform support on Granola's site.

Granola vs Fireflies: Granola is closer to Scribbl on the bot question (no joining participant) but the workflow differs; it leans on your own typed notes rather than full automatic team capture, and it is Mac-first rather than a cross-platform extension. See the Granola alternative and Scribbl vs Granola.

• Pros: no join-the-call bot; on-device capture with a good privacy posture; works for in-person conversations; enhances your own notes nicely.
• Cons: built around the single-user, note-while-you-talk workflow rather than a shared team transcript library; Mac-first; the free tier is a capped trial rather than an ongoing free plan; fewer public reviews than the established tools.

8. Tactiq (best free, lightweight bot-free transcript)

Best for: solo users who want a free, no-bot transcript and quick AI actions and are fine with caption-quality text.

Tactiq runs as a browser extension that reads the live captions in Meet, Zoom, and Teams and summarizes them, rather than sending a bot. It is genuinely bot-free, and the free tier suits light users, which makes it a budget answer to Fireflies' credit and storage caps.

Pricing: free plan covering roughly 10 meeting transcripts per month with about 5 AI-summary credits; paid plans (Pro) start around $12 per user per month billed annually and raise the transcript and AI-credit allowances. Confirm current limits on Tactiq's site.

Tactiq vs Fireflies: Tactiq is botless and lightweight where Fireflies is a fuller, bot-based platform. The trade is that caption-based capture inherits the platform's caption quality, so speaker attribution can be weaker than a true audio recording, and you only capture what the platform's live captions transcribe. See Scribbl vs Tactiq and the Tactiq alternative.

• Pros: genuinely bot-free; lightweight and fast to start; quick AI actions on the transcript; a free tier for light use.
• Cons: caption-based quality tracks the platform's captions, not a real audio recording, so accuracy and speaker attribution can suffer; the free tier's roughly 10 transcripts and 5 AI credits per month run out fast for daily meeters.

Bot vs botless, in one view

This is the deciding factor for most people leaving Fireflies, so here it is on its own.

Fireflies (and most bot tools)

• Capture: the Fred bot joins from your calendar as a participant
• Attendees see it: yes, and guests may be pushed to sign up
• External calls: the bot can change the room
• Limits: AI credits and a storage cap on lower tiers

Scribbl (botless)

• Capture: from your own session, nothing joins
• Attendees see it: no bot, nothing announced, no email
• External calls: the meeting stays exactly normal
• Plus: free plan, no credit card, connects to ChatGPT or Claude

Multi-criteria comparison matrix

If you want to route by a specific sub-question (bot-free, real free plan, privacy, sales intelligence, non-English), use this. A check means the tool is a genuinely strong fit for that need, not just that the feature technically exists.

Tool	Bot-free	Real free plan	Privacy / local capture	Sales / CRM intelligence	Non-English strength	Turns notes into done work
Scribbl	Yes	Yes (no card)	Yes (own session, no third party dialed in)	Workflow, not analytics	Via your platform	Yes (ChatGPT or Claude)
Fathom	No	Yes (generous)	No (bot records)	Light	Moderate	Recaps only
Otter.ai	No	Yes (300 min/mo)	No (bot records)	Light	Moderate	Notes only
Avoma	No	Limited	No (bot records)	Yes (scorecards, pipeline)	Moderate	Notes plus insight
Gong	No	No	No (bot records)	Yes (deepest CI)	Moderate	Revenue intelligence
tl;dv	No	Yes (unlimited rec.)	No (bot records)	Mid (paid tiers)	Strong (many languages)	Clips and highlights
Granola	Yes	Trial only	Yes (on-device)	No	Moderate	Enhances your notes
Tactiq	Yes	Yes (10 mtgs/mo)	Partial (caption-based)	No	Tracks captions	Quick AI actions

How to choose your Fireflies alternative

Pick by your actual blocker, not by the longest feature list. Self-route here:

• Pick Scribbl if the Fred bot is the problem. If your calls include clients, prospects, candidates, or partners, a botless tool keeps the meeting normal while still getting you notes, the free plan needs no credit card, and there is no surprise-billing flow to fight. Sales teams in particular find this decisive; see Scribbl for sales.
• Pick Fathom if you want a polished, generous free notetaker and a bot in the call is fine.
• Pick Otter if you mainly need mature, reliable live transcription and search.
• Pick Avoma if you want sales notes plus light revenue intelligence without enterprise pricing.
• Pick Gong if you need full enterprise conversation intelligence (deal scoring, coaching, forecasting) and have the budget.
• Pick tl;dv if clip-and-share and multi-language coverage matter most.
• Pick Granola if you take your own notes, want on-device privacy, and want no bot.
• Pick Tactiq if you want a free, lightweight, bot-free transcript and can live with caption-quality text.
• For in-person meetings, none of the bot-based tools help across a table; start with the in-person AI notetaker guide, and for the full bot-free landscape see the no-bot meeting recorder ranking.

You can compare Scribbl's plans on the pricing page, and if you want more botless options side by side, see the best AI notetaker with no bot roundup.

Why Scribbl is our top pick

For most people the Fireflies alternative we recommend is Scribbl, because it removes the single most common reason people leave: the bot. It records, transcribes, and summarizes Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams from a Chrome extension, with a desktop app for in-person and system-audio capture, and it never adds a participant on any platform. After every call you get a searchable transcript, AI notes, and action items. The step that separates it from a plain notetaker is the last one: the meeting connects to ChatGPT or Claude, so the follow-up email, recap, or CRM note actually gets written instead of sitting in an archive. The free plan needs no credit card, and teams get shared access and admin controls.

The honest caveat: a botless recorder needs you in the call to capture it. If you specifically want an unattended bot to attend meetings you skip, that is not the model here. For bot-free notes that turn into finished work, it is the pick.

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Extra participants added to your call

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Guest signups forced to view notes

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Emails sent to attendees about a recorder

FAQ

What is the best Fireflies.ai alternative?

It depends on your blocker. If the Fred bot joining your calls is the problem, Scribbl is the best pick: it is botless, so nothing ever joins, it has a free plan with no credit card, it works on Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams, and it connects each meeting to ChatGPT or Claude so the follow-up gets done. If you want conversation intelligence for sales, Gong or Avoma fit better. If you want a generous free plan with a polished bot, Fathom is strong. Match the tool to your specific frustration rather than picking by feature count.

Why do people switch away from Fireflies.ai?

The five most common reasons are: the Fred notetaker bot that auto-joins calls and can force guests to sign up to see notes; transcription accuracy on accents and non-American English; AI-credit limits and the storage cap on the free and lower tiers; billing complaints about surprise charges and a cancellation flow that is hard to find; and weak workflow automation beyond basic task detection. Slow processing on long calls comes up too. The right alternative depends on which of these is your dealbreaker.

Is there a free Fireflies alternative with no notetaker bot?

Yes. Scribbl is botless and has a free plan with no credit card, so nothing joins the call and nothing is announced to attendees. Granola and Tactiq are also bot-free (on-device and caption-based respectively) and have free tiers. Most other notetakers, including Otter and Fathom, send a bot into the meeting even on their free plans. Always confirm current free-plan limits on each vendor's own pricing page, since they change.

Does Scribbl use a notetaker bot like Fireflies?

No. Scribbl is botless. No bot ever joins the call, no participant named after the tool appears in the attendee list, and no email is sent to other attendees. Fireflies is generally known for sending a notetaker bot, often called Fred, into the meeting to record and transcribe. That difference is the main reason people switch, especially for external and sales calls.

What is the best Fireflies alternative for sales and CRM?

For deep conversation intelligence (deal scoring, coaching, pipeline analytics) Gong is the heavyweight, with Avoma a more affordable option that blends notes with revenue intelligence. If your priority is capturing client and prospect calls without a bot changing the room and pushing notes into your follow-up, Scribbl fits the sales workflow while staying botless. Pick Gong or Avoma for analytics depth; pick Scribbl if a visible bot on external calls is the dealbreaker.

Which Fireflies alternative is most private or self-hosted?

If privacy is the driver, favor tools that do not add a recording bot and that keep capture close to you. Granola records on-device, and Scribbl is botless and captures from your own session rather than dialing a third-party participant into the call. True self-hosting is rare in this category, so if you need on-premise or a signed BAA, confirm it directly with the vendor and check their security documentation before committing.

Is Fireflies free, and what are the free-plan limits?

Fireflies has a free plan, but it caps the most useful parts: AI summaries are limited, AI features are metered as credits on lower tiers, and stored, searchable audio is capped (commonly cited around 800 minutes per seat). Heavy meeters hit those walls fast and feel pushed to upgrade. If a genuinely usable free plan is what you want, Scribbl, Fathom, and tl;dv have more generous free tiers; Scribbl's needs no credit card. Always confirm current limits on each vendor's pricing page, since they change.

Can Fireflies record a meeting without me, and can alternatives do that?

Yes. Because Fireflies uses a bot that joins from your calendar, it can record meetings you do not attend, which is useful but is also why a visible bot shows up on external calls. Botless alternatives like Scribbl, Granola, and Tactiq capture from your own seat, so they need you in the call but never add a participant. That is the core trade: bot tools can attend without you but are visible; botless tools are invisible but capture from your session. Pick by which matters more to you.

Which Fireflies alternative is best for non-English or accented calls?

Accuracy on accents and non-American English is one of the most cited reasons people leave Fireflies. tl;dv markets the widest language coverage of the tools here, which helps for multilingual teams. Caption-based tools like Tactiq inherit whatever your meeting platform's live captions support, and platforms like Google Meet handle many languages well. There is no universal winner because accuracy depends on the speaker and platform, so test your own real calls before committing.