yapyap vs Fireflies. No bot on the invite.
Fireflies’ bot Fred is still the product people remember: auto-join, AskFred, 100+ integrations, conversation intelligence on Business+. Desktop and Chrome can skip the bot, but the cloud workspace remains the center. yapyap’s product is an archive that never needs to walk into the call.
How we compare
We judge meeting notetakers on five questions: does the tape stay on hardware you control by default; does anything join the call as a guest bot; can one recording become several write-ups (lenses); do speaker names persist across sessions; and is the core price a seat you rent or a tool you own. We are the makers of yapyap — read the side-by-side as a clear product argument, then verify competitor packaging on their own sites before you buy.
- Local-first default: audio and transcripts do not require a cloud account to work.
- Empty guest list: capture from your device, not a bot invite.
- Lenses: reusable views of one recording (summary, actions, quotes, or your own).
- Speaker identity across sessions on your machine.
- Pricing model: pay-once core (€69) vs subscription or seat fees — confirm current vendor prices on their pages.
Background on on-device speech recognition: whisper.cpp is the open stack many local tools build on. For call-host privacy expectations, start from the vendor’s own help (for example Zoom’s security and privacy resources).
Which should you pick?
- No bot avatar for clients or sources to stare at.
- Transcripts and lenses on your computer.
- Companion phone and interview-friendly capture.
- €69 once, not Pro/Business seats + AI credits.
- You want automatic bot join plus CRM / Salesforce hooks.
- Your company standardizes on Fireflies workspaces.
- You need Live Assist, Voice Agents, or team conversation intelligence.
Side by side
| Dimension | yapyap | Fireflies |
|---|---|---|
| Bot in meeting | Never | Fred by default, desktop/Chrome can be bot-free |
| Where your audio goes | Stays local | Cloud product + storage minutes per plan |
| Pricing (July 2026) | €69 once | Free · Pro ~$10 · Business ~$19 · Ent ~$39 /seat/mo ann. |
| Integrations | Local archive first | 100+ integrations · CRM automation focus |
What Fireflies costs over five years
Every app here records a meeting and writes it up. Five years of that, for one person, at the cheapest plan that unlocks the product. Only one of the bills ever ends.
yapyap
€69
· €69 once, every future version included
Stop paying: Nothing. There is no licence to renew and no server to check in with — the copy you bought keeps recording, transcribing and writing.
Otter
$500
· Pro $8.33/user/month billed yearly ($16.99 monthly)
Stop paying: You drop to 300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation, and your notes stay in their cloud.
Meetily
$600
· Free MIT Community · Pro $120/user/year, one device per licence
Stop paying: Speaker names, enhanced models and PDF/DOCX export switch off and the app falls back to free Community. Local, but rented.
Fireflies
$600
· Pro $10/seat/month billed yearly ($18 monthly)
Stop paying: The team drops to 400 minutes of storage, and a bot has been sitting in your meetings the whole time.
Plaud
$659
· Recorder from $159, then Pro cloud minutes at $99.99/year
Stop paying: You fall back to 300 cloud minutes a month. The device still records; turning that recording into words is the part you rent.
Prices as each vendor published them, July 2026. Bars compare the printed figures; currencies are not converted, and packaging changes — check the vendor’s own page before you buy. Ours is on the pricing page.
Bot fatigue vs automation depth
Pick Fireflies when bot join and cloud integrations are the point. Pick yapyap when the bot would chill the room, or when the tape must not leave. Their newer no-bot desktop path does not change the trust model of a cloud-first assistant.
Looking for a Fireflies alternative? Switch when the bot is the problem
- No bot join on Zoom, Meet, or Teams. Clients and sources never see a guest avatar.
- Capture from your computer, which suits interviews and client calls.
- Lenses for actions and summaries afterwards, on your computer.
- Pay once instead of stacking AI credits and seat storage.
Stay on Fireflies if you need automatic bot join, 100+ integrations, AskFred, or company-standard workspaces. That is a different category from a local archive.
What switching actually involves
- New recordings start local from the first one. There is no migration to finish first.
- Old audio files can come with you: yapyap imports recordings you already have.
- Old transcripts cannot. Export those from your current tool if they matter to you.
- Cancel the old seat when you are ready. Nothing here needs the other tool disabled.
FAQ
- Who is Fred in Fireflies?
- Fred is Fireflies’ meeting bot / AI assistant identity, the guest that joins Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams in the default workflow.
- Can I use Fireflies without a bot?
- Yes, via desktop or Chrome extension. If avoiding any guest on the invite is non-negotiable, yapyap never joins.
- Is yapyap a Fireflies alternative for sales teams?
- Only if local ownership beats CRM automation. Fireflies built Business+ for conversation intelligence into Salesforce and HubSpot. yapyap is built for tape you keep and re-lens.
When to pick Fireflies instead
yapyap is not for everyone. Choose Fireflies if:
- You want automatic bot join plus CRM / Salesforce hooks.
- Your company standardizes on Fireflies workspaces.
- You need Live Assist, Voice Agents, or team conversation intelligence.
Record your meetings. See who spoke. Turn one recording into the write-up you need, on your computer, with no cloud account.
Free to try. No card, no account.
Then €69, once. Yours forever, every update included.
Your recordings never leave your computer.