Fireflies AI is a legacy meeting transcription tool used mostly by sales teams. It enables users to record, transcribe and analyze conversations. However, multiple users online claimed that they’re unhappy with the tool’s quality-to-price ratio and suggested opting for other solutions.

Recently we decided to research the application and test how it works. Today we publish the results along with an overview of the best Fireflies.ai alternative.

Fireflies.ai review and test results

We tested Fireflies Free Plan for several days from several accounts. Overall, we have a negative experience for multiple reasons which we explain in detail below. And now we understand why multiple users were unhappy with the app and looked for alternatives.

We believe that the tool might fit the needs of a sales department. However, other teams might not benefit from it as much.

We also suggest against using their Free Plan as it literally has only one credit for transcription. 

What is Fireflies.ai?

Fireflies AI is a legacy meeting transcription tool that enables teams to record, transcribe and analyze the conversations. It works with multiple video-conferencing tools, including Google Meet, Zoom, and Skype. It also integrates with the major CRM systems and several popular project management solutions.

How does Fireflies AI work?

Fireflies AI uses the outdated bot technology to join online calls in video conferencing tools. It requires at least 3 minutes of conversation time to transcribe. It also uses AI to analyze conversations and summarize it.

Features

The tool has some of the basic features in its class: 

• Meeting transcription

• Sharing option (copy link or send it via email)

• AI summarization (paid plans)

Additional features, not common in class:

• Meeting recording

• Conversation analysis.

Pricing & Plans

Fireflies has four plans:

• Free

• Pro: $18 per user per month

• Business: $29 per user per month

• Custom

Fireflies AI User reviews

User reviews were overall positive. However, some users were unhappy with the following issues:

• Poor UI/UX

• The advertised features weren’t available yet

• The AI summarization wasn’t correct

• Doesn’t automatically join calls.

• Doesn’t identify speakers correctly

• Some meeting recordings didn’t show up in the app.

• The price-to-quality ratio

• Problems with APIs and integrations

• Poor customer service

• Small storage space

Testing Fireflies AI

Similarly to other meeting transcription apps, we tested Fireflies AI ourselves to share what we liked and hated about this tool.

We liked the following features

• The number of integrations.

• The analysis of the conversation.

The conversation analysis provides the percentage of time a speaker talked and the mood (negative, neutral or positive). We believe it can be really helpful for sales teams as they need to constantly analyze and improve their communication with clients.

What went right in the testing:

• The accuracy of transcription was good. We picked the lecture on the basics of quantum mechanics explained for the general public. And we were generally satisfied with the result.

• We didn’t see the reported problems with transcribing British English.

• You can share the meeting with others

What went wrong with the tool during the testing:

We started an instant meeting in Google Meet and waited for the Fireflies chatbot to join but it never happened. Over the next 10 minutes we initiated several more instant meetings and the bot never showed up to any of them.

Another problem that occurred was when we stopped meeting 30 minutes earlier than planned on Google Calendar. The Fireflies bot stayed there and continued recording an empty meeting. So to get to your transcription you really need to either use “End meeting for all” functionality (requires Host Management to be enabled). Another way to do it is to remove the meeting bot from the meeting manually. This also entails that you cannot pause the transcription process.

Our general user experience 

Frankly speaking, our user experience with Fireflies was worse than with Tactiq. And the latter failed to summarize the transcript due to some bug as we tested it.

First, the Free Plan per se is not really a plan, as you only have 1 transcription credit, next you can only record your meetings, but not transcribe them. Both Google Meet and Zoom has meeting recording functionality. Thus, it’s unclear why anyone would need a third-party app to do the same job. Overall, Fireflies on Free Plan can be replaced by native tools without the loss of productivity.

As a company that provides free unlimited meeting transcriptions to all users regardless of their plan, we find this practice strange.

Second, the Free Trial of Fireflies requires users to enter their credit card information. We didn’t risk doing it. During our research of users reviews, we found that some people reported problems with their money being automatically charged after they canceled.

Third, it took around 2 minutes to process a 6-minute call. And a 10-minute call took even longer. Most people begin working on their call (e.g., summarize, write follow-ups) right after it’s over. The delay can be frustrating.

Finally, we couldn’t do much with the transcription. Unlike our own app and other tested competitive products, Fireflies didn’t provide highlights, follow-ups, or transcript export. These are all features that are usually available in free plans of meeting transcription solutions.

Noty: The Best Fireflies.ai Alternative

Noty Workplace AI Assistant is a modern tool for meeting productivity that integrates with Google Meet and Zoom. It provides a number of automation features that help knowledge workers save 65% of their time on daily meeting-related tasks.

Noty Overview

Noty uses widget technology to transcribe calls rather than bots. It also enables users to track the transcription in real time and highlight the key parts of conversation right in the meeting tool.

Teams use Noty Workplace AI assistant to solve three major pain points:

1. Data loss. 

Every online meeting your team has contains critical business data. Most of it is lost as people tend to forget 50% of information within the hour after a conversation. Transcription is the best way to store that information. It takes less storage space. You can implement search in the text. And most people perceive written information better than audio.

2. Not following through the decisions.

Many team make important decisions during online calls. However, their implementation often lags behind. One of the key reasons is that managers and employees tend to forget about them and do not transfer these decisions to task managers. Noty uses AI to create lists of decisions and action items that can then be send as a follow-up or exported into a project management tool.

3. Spending hours on meeting routine.

Writing follow-ups, summaries, and meeting notes takes up to one hour for a single employee. Noty automates and streamlines these processes leaving you more time to be creative.

Try Noty

Noty vs. Fireflies.ai: Feature Comparison

Both tools transcribe the video calls and provide AI summary. However, Fireflies have more features specifically tailored for conversation analysis for sales teams. Meanwhile, Noty has features that generally boost productivity.

Fireflies advantages over Noty:

• More integrations

• More languages

• Meeting recording

• Recording upload for transcription

• Conversation analysis

Noty advantages over Fireflies:

• Free unlimited transcriptions for all users regardless of their plan

• Free unlimited AI follow-ups 

• Better accuracy (94-95% against 90%)

• Meeting widget and instant transcription

• Ability to highlight the important parts of conversations during and after call

• Gmail and Calendar add-on to generate AI follow-ups

• Better pricing for paid plans

• Google Docs integration and one-click export

• Better UX

Overall, Noty seems to be a better choice for users that want a meeting productivity tool with higher quality. 

Try Noty