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Comparison

Oatmeal vs Fireflies.ai

Fireflies is built for teams that want meetings flowing into their CRM and workspace. Oatmeal is built for people who want their meetings to stay on their own Mac.

Coming soon for MacFree for Apple silicon Macs · macOS 15 or later

At a glance

Oatmeal and Fireflies.ai side by side
OatmealFireflies.ai
Bot in the callNoneNotetaker bot, or bot-free recording from the desktop app or Chrome extension
Where your meetings end upOn your MacIn your Fireflies web dashboard
When you see the transcriptAfter the meetingLive transcription is available
Who said whatLabelled Me and System audio; no speaker namesNamed speakers with the bot; Speaker 1 and 2 without it
LanguagesEnglishEnglish, with Spanish, French and many more in beta
Works with other appsNo connections; export to MarkdownSlack, Notion, Salesforce, HubSpot and more
PlatformsMac with Apple siliconWeb, Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android and Chrome
PriceFree, coming soonFree plan and paid plans per seat

Choose Oatmeal if

  • Your meetings are sensitive and you’d rather they never left your Mac.
  • You want no bot, no account and no seats to manage.
  • You want to confirm decisions yourself instead of having them pushed to other tools.

Choose Fireflies.ai if

  • Your team wants meeting notes in Slack, Notion or your CRM automatically.
  • You need named speakers, more languages, or apps beyond the Mac.

Fireflies and Oatmeal answer different questions. Fireflies asks how your whole team can share what happened in every meeting. Oatmeal asks how you can keep a good record of your meetings without them leaving your Mac.

Fireflies: a notetaker for the team

Fireflies can send a bot into your meetings or record without one from its desktop app. Transcripts and summaries appear in your Fireflies web dashboard, live transcription is available, and paid plans connect to tools like Slack, Notion, Salesforce and HubSpot.

Oatmeal: a private record for you

Oatmeal records your microphone and your Mac’s audio, then writes the transcript and summary on your Mac after the meeting, with models you add yourself. Suggested decisions and action items stay suggestions until you confirm them. There’s no account and no integrations; export to Markdown when you want to share.

The short version

For a team workflow with CRM sync, Fireflies does far more. For private notes that stay on your Mac, choose Oatmeal.

Sources

Details about Fireflies.ai were last checked on . Products change; check their site for the latest.

Questions

Does Fireflies have a bot-free option too?

Yes. Its desktop app and Chrome extension can record without a bot. Transcripts still go to your Fireflies web dashboard, and speakers show as Speaker 1 and Speaker 2 in that mode.

Can Oatmeal send action items to my CRM?

No. Oatmeal doesn’t connect to other apps. You can export a meeting as Markdown and take it wherever you like.

No bot

Oatmeal records your microphone and the sound your Mac plays. Nothing joins the meeting, nobody gets a notetaker invite, and it works with whatever call app you use.

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Decisions and action items

Oatmeal can suggest what was decided and who said they’d do what. Each suggestion shows when it was said, and it only counts once you confirm it.

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Export to Markdown

Your notes shouldn’t be stuck in one app. Oatmeal exports a meeting as a Markdown file that opens in Obsidian, Bear or any text editor.

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Oatmeal vs Granola

Neither puts a bot in your call. The difference is where your audio goes. Granola sends it to a transcription service as you talk; Oatmeal keeps everything on your Mac.

Read more

Oatmeal vs Otter.ai

Otter is a cloud notetaker with live captions and a bot that can join your calls. Oatmeal is a private Mac app that records without a bot and does the work afterwards, on your Mac.

Read more

Oatmeal vs Fathom

Fathom is a generous cloud notetaker with CRM sync, now with a bot-free option in beta on Mac. Oatmeal skips the cloud entirely and keeps every meeting on your Mac.

Read more

Oatmeal is almost here

Free for Apple silicon Macs running macOS 15 or later. Coming soon.

Coming soon for Mac