Fireflies alternatives: where to go and how to take your history with you
Seven destinations, one per reason to leave, and an eight-step exit plan.
The short answer: Fathom if you want a free plan that keeps everything with no storage cap, Granola if you want no bot in the call at all, Otter for a low-cost annual plan in English, tl;dv if your data needs to stay in the EU, MeetGeek for a low-cost paid plan, Read.ai for meeting reports across many languages, Notta if you mostly transcribe files. One thing to know before you pick: none of these tools imports your Fireflies history. Your archive comes out through Fireflies' own export, available to all users on request, delivered as a ZIP with a link that lasts seven days. We compared all seven destinations and their limits in 2026.
The ranking is editorial: a sponsored spot is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link changes a score.
Why teams leave Fireflies, and what catches them out
To be fair, Fireflies transcribes English well, the free plan has no cap on transcription minutes, and it plugs into almost everything. People rarely leave over transcript quality. They leave over the bot, the bill, the data and, more and more, the legal exposure. These are the reasons that keep coming up in reviews, forums and company policies.
A bot that joins everything, even after you leave
Once your calendar is connected, the Fireflies bot joins your calendar meetings by default, and reviewers call that behavior aggressive. One Teams user watched the bot keep coming back after canceling and deleting the account. The fix was revoking its calendar access, and an admin had to block the app on the Microsoft side.
For outside guests, an unexplained recorder in the call is about the worst first impression you can make.
Organizations that ban it outright
Some institutions now block note-taking bots. The University of Waterloo bans third-party AI note-taking bots from its meetings, names Fireflies, and tells staff to remove it right away and ban it if it rejoins.
If your clients or partners have rules like that, your note taker becomes a sales problem.
Two Illinois lawsuits over voiceprints
Two proposed class actions filed in Illinois under BIPA, the state's biometric privacy law, claim Fireflies builds voiceprints without written consent, including from people who never signed up. These are allegations: nothing has been decided and the cases are ongoing.
If you record calls with people in Illinois, it is worth a conversation with whoever handles your privacy policy.
AI credits that upgrade themselves
Custom summary sections, soundbites, CRM autofill for HubSpot and Salesforce, and live questions to the assistant all burn AI credits. Plans include few of them: 20 on Free and Pro, 30 on Business, 50 on Enterprise. On a paid plan, run out without a credit plan and Fireflies signs you up for the 50-credit pack at $5 a month. Already on a pack? It moves you to the next tier. Free users hit a paywall instead, with no automatic charge. Purchased credits don't roll over.
Transcription itself never costs credits. Everything around it does.
Annual plans with no prorated refunds
Monthly plans get a full refund in the first week if you recorded three meetings or fewer, then a prorated one. Annual plans get a full refund only in the first week and up to 20 meetings, and no prorated refund after that. AI credits are never refunded.
The angriest reviews are about charges that kept coming after canceling. Credit add-ons are canceled separately, which is where many people get caught.
A free plan that keeps little and lets you download nothing
Free transcription is unlimited only through the shared bot, the Chrome extension and the mobile app. Storage is 400 minutes for the whole team, not per person. Each recording stops at two hours, and downloading your own transcripts and recordings meeting by meeting is a paid feature.
Most people find this out the day they need one specific call back.
Seat pricing that is easy to misread
Every teammate added to your workspace counts as a seat, whether they record anything or not. Pro is $10 a seat on annual billing and $18 monthly; Business is $19 and $29.
Sharing a meeting note with someone outside the workspace is free, so you rarely need to add people just to let them read.
You're leaving because… go to…
The right Fireflies alternative depends on what is pushing you out. Usually one line applies. Each card links to the full profile below.
Unlimited recordings, transcripts and storage on the free plan.
Guests and clients don't want a bot in the callGranolaCaptures your device audio, no extra participant.
You want a low annual price for English callsOtterPro at $8.33 a month billed annually.
Your data has to stay in the EUtl;dvAI hosting in the EU or US, your choice.
You want meeting analytics on a budgetMeetGeekPro at $9.99 a user.
You run meetings in many languagesRead.aiReports in 16+ languages.
You mostly transcribe recorded filesNottaPro: 1,800 min a month, 5 h per recording.
Fireflies alternatives, tool by tool
For each tool: why move to it, who it fits, who it doesn't, its limit, how to get there from Fireflies, and what it costs. Prices are as listed in 2026, per user per month, billed annually unless stated, in the currency the vendor shows. Scores match our ranking of AI meeting note takers; tools we haven't scored there carry no score here. Cards follow the reasons for leaving in the router above, not the scores.
Fathom: the free plan that keeps everything
Best free planWhy move to it. The top complaint about Fireflies Free is 400 minutes of storage for the whole team. Fathom goes the other way: its free plan, sold as free forever, records and transcribes without limits, keeps unlimited storage and gives you an AI summary of every call.
Who it's for. Solo consultants, founders and small teams who want to replace Fireflies Free without a credit card. Also mixed-language teams: Fathom transcribes 38 languages.
Who it's not for. Teams that want to query their entire call history with AI every day: on free, AI actions and Ask Fathom are limited.
Its limit. Team and Business plans need at least two users. Translated summaries come only with Premium and Team.
How to migrate. Nothing imports from Fireflies. Request your Fireflies export first, store the ZIP, then connect your calendar to Fathom. Tip: switch off the Fireflies bot before turning Fathom on, or your guests will see two bots in the same call.
Pricing. Free at $0. Premium $16 ($20 monthly). Team $15 ($19 monthly). Business $25 ($34 monthly). Enterprise on quote.
- Labs score
- 4.3 / 5
- Free
- unlimited, storage included
- Paid
- Team $15, Premium $16
- Limit
- AI capped on free
Granola: no bot in the meeting
Best bot-freeWhy move to it. Granola fixes the problem that drives the most people away: it sends no bot. Every plan captures audio from your own device. Guests see nobody join, and a client with a no-bots policy has nothing to object to.
Who it's for. Founders, consultants and sales reps who take notes for themselves, in English or one of the other supported languages.
Who it's not for. Teams that need to record meetings nobody from their side attends: without a bot, someone has to be there with Granola open. You still need to tell people you are recording.
Its limit. The free Basic plan keeps 30 days of history and integrates with Slack only. Salesforce and SSO (single sign-on) come with Enterprise. The pricing page doesn't say whether prices are annual or monthly.
How to migrate. Nothing imports. Keep your Fireflies archive separately, install Granola, and pull the Fireflies bot from your invites the same day so calls aren't recorded twice.
Pricing. Basic at $0. Business $14 per user per month. Enterprise $35.
- Labs score
- 4.2 / 5
- Free
- 30 days of history
- Paid
- Business $14
- Limit
- only meetings you attend
Otter: a low-cost annual plan for English-first teams
Low-cost annual planWhy move to it. Otter is Fireflies' oldest rival. Pro costs $8.33 a month on annual billing for 1,200 minutes a month, and Business moves to unlimited transcription with meetings up to four hours.
Who it's for. English-first teams that want a tool most of their contacts already recognize.
Who it's not for. Teams leaving Fireflies over legal risk: Otter faces its own proposed class action in California over recording participants without consent (allegations, not decided). And teams that work in many languages: Otter handles six.
Its limit. Free cuts each conversation at 30 minutes and keeps only the 25 most recent. Pro stops at 90 minutes per meeting.
How to migrate. Otter accepts audio uploads: three for the life of a free account, ten a month on Pro. Pull the MP3s from your Fireflies export and re-upload only the calls you will search again.
Pricing. Basic at $0. Pro $8.33 billed annually or $16.99 monthly. Business $19.99 annually or $30 monthly. Enterprise via demo.
- Free
- 300 min, 30 min per call
- Paid
- Pro $8.33 annually
- Best for
- English-first teams
- Limit
- six languages
tl;dv: EU hosting, billed in euros
Best for EU dataWhy move to it. Fireflies doesn't list a data region on its pricing page. tl;dv, a German company, lets you choose EU or US hosting for its AI, and its free plan records and transcribes without limits.
Who it's for. Teams with European clients or a GDPR checklist to satisfy.
Who it's not for. Teams planning to stay on free for long: its quotas apply for the life of the account, not per month. US buyers should also note that pricing is billed in euros.
Its limit. On free, full AI notes stop after the first 10 meetings and then cover only the first 10 minutes. Videos are kept three months. Every plan caps meetings at three hours.
How to migrate. No Fireflies import. Free allows 5 file uploads: save them for the few calls you really want inside tl;dv and leave the rest in your ZIP.
Pricing. Free at €0. Pro €18 billed annually (€216 a year) or €29 monthly. Business €29 annually (€348 a year) or €39 monthly.
- Labs score
- 4.3 / 5
- Free
- unlimited transcription
- Paid
- Pro €18 annually
- Limit
- lifetime quotas on free
MeetGeek: low-cost meeting analytics
Budget meeting analyticsWhy move to it. MeetGeek Pro costs $9.99, just under Fireflies Pro on annual billing, and the tool puts conversation analytics front and center. It is the closest like-for-like swap if you want the same kind of tool for a bit less.
Who it's for. Small teams that want summaries and meeting stats without paying for a sales platform.
Who it's not for. Heavy users: past the Pro quota, each extra hour costs $0.50.
Its limit. The free plan transcribes three hours a month, which makes it a trial more than a plan.
How to migrate. No Fireflies import. Export your account, connect your calendar to MeetGeek, and compare a week of summaries from both tools before you cut Fireflies. Full details in our MeetGeek review.
Pricing. Basic free (3 hours a month). Pro $9.99. Business $17. Enterprise on quote.
- Labs score
- 4.0 / 5
- Free
- 3 hours a month
- Paid
- Pro $9.99
- Limit
- $0.50 per extra hour
Read.ai: reports in many languages
Best for multilingual reportsWhy move to it. Read.ai produces meeting reports in 16+ languages, French included, which helps if Fireflies' non-English beta has let you down.
Who it's for. Teams that run calls in several languages and mostly want the report afterward.
Who it's not for. Free users with long meetings: free stops at one hour per meeting.
Its limit. Free covers 5 transcripts and 5 reports a month. Enterprise+ needs at least five licenses.
How to migrate. No Fireflies import. Keep your ZIP, connect your calendar, and check the first reports in each language your team uses.
Pricing. Free at $0. Pro $15 annually or $19.75 monthly. Enterprise $22.50 or $29.75. Enterprise+ $29.75 or $39.75.
- Free
- 5 transcripts a month
- Paid
- Pro $15 annually
- Best for
- multilingual teams
- Limit
- 1-hour meetings on free
Notta: built for files
Best for uploadsWhy move to it. If much of your Fireflies use was transcribing recordings rather than live calls, Notta handles uploads well. Free allows 50 uploads a month, but each recording is cut at 3 minutes within 120 minutes a month: to re-transcribe real Fireflies meetings you need Pro ($8.17 a month billed annually, 1,800 minutes a month, up to 5 hours per recording). It lists SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001.
Who it's for. Researchers, journalists and teams that transcribe interviews and recorded files.
Who it's not for. Anyone hoping to stay on free: each recording, live or uploaded, stops at three minutes.
Its limit. Free gives 120 minutes a month and 10 AI summaries. The pricing page leads with annual prices; check the monthly toggle before you commit.
How to migrate. On Pro, upload your key recordings from the export, within the 100 uploads a month. On free, a real meeting won't fit in three minutes.
Pricing. Free at $0. Pro $8.17 a month billed annually ($97.99 a year). Business $16.67 a month billed annually ($199.99 a year).
- Free
- 120 min, 50 imports
- Paid
- Pro $8.17 annually
- Best for
- recorded files
- Limit
- 3 min per recording on free
7 Fireflies alternatives side by side
Our default picks: Fathom to replace Fireflies Free, Granola if the bot is the problem, Otter for a low annual bill on English calls. For scale, take a 10-person team on annual billing: Fireflies Business runs $190 a month and Pro $100. Against that, Otter Business costs $199.90 (Pro caps a workspace at 5 billed users), MeetGeek Pro $99.90, Granola Business $140, Fathom Team $150, Read.ai Pro $150 and Notta Business $166.70 (Pro is a single-seat plan). tl;dv Pro comes to €180, billed in euros. Each row shows the free plan and its limits on the left, the first paid price and what you can do with your history on the right.
| Free plan and limits | Entry price and your history | |
|---|---|---|
| FirefliesWhere you start | Unlimited transcription, 400 min stored per team, 2 h per meeting, no downloads | Pro $10 ($18 monthly), Business $19; imports other tools, none import it |
| FathomBest free plan | Unlimited recordings, transcripts and storage; AI capped | Team $15 (2 users min.), Premium $16; no import |
| GranolaBot-free | 30 days of history, Slack only | Business $14; no import |
| OtterLow-cost annual plan | 300 min a month, 30 min per call, 3 uploads lifetime | Pro $8.33 annually; 10 uploads a month |
| tl;dvEU data | Unlimited transcription, full AI notes on 10 meetings, videos kept 3 months | Pro €18 annually; 5 uploads on free |
| MeetGeekBudget paid plan | 3 h of transcription a month | Pro $9.99, then $0.50 an hour; no import |
| Read.aiMany languages | 5 transcripts and 5 reports a month, 1 h per meeting | Pro $15 annually; no import |
| NottaFile uploads | 120 min a month, 3 min per recording, 50 uploads | Pro $8.17 annually; uploads for your MP3s |
Entry prices per user per month, billed annually unless stated, in the currency the vendor shows, subject to change. Always check against your real team size.
Leaving Fireflies in eight steps
Order matters. Fireflies lets every account take its data out for free, but only on request, through a link that expires, and its bot keeps joining as long as your calendar is connected. Each step protects something people usually lose along the way.
Time the exit around your renewal date
FirstCheck when your plan renews. On annual billing, Fireflies offers no prorated refund after the first week, so start the exit about a month before renewal.
Check for an AI credit add-on too. It is a separate subscription and doesn't stop with the main one.
- Lead time
- about a month
- Risk if rushed
- a year paid for nothing
List what has to survive
Day 1Not every call is worth keeping. Flag the ones still in use: signed-client calls, hiring interviews, kickoff meetings. Note your integrations (CRM, Slack, Notion) and custom summary templates too; they won't come with the export.
This list decides what you re-upload and what stays in the archive.
- Time
- half a day
- Note down
- integrations, templates
Request the full account export
Day 2Fireflies offers a full account export to every user, free plan included, on request through a form. You then get a confirmation email from fred@fireflies.ai titled "Action Required – Confirm Your Data Export Request". Nothing happens until you approve it.
Tip: check your spam folder. An unconfirmed request just sits there, and it is the most common reason exits stall.
- Cost
- free, every plan
- Catch
- confirm the email
Download the ZIP within seven days
Day 3 or 4The archive arrives within 24 to 48 hours as a ZIP, and the download link is valid for seven days. It holds MP3 audio, MP4 video if it was captured, TXT transcripts with speaker names, TXT summaries, participant lists and all metadata as JSON.
Copy it to two places (your team drive and cloud storage). If the link expires, you have to request it again.
- Wait
- 24 to 48 h
- Link valid
- 7 days
Pull key calls in the right format
Pro and upWhile a paid plan is active, you can download meeting by meeting: transcripts as PDF, DOCX, SRT, CSV, JSON or Markdown (timestamps optional), summaries as DOCX, PDF, JSON or Markdown, audio as MP3 and video as MP4.
Use it for the 10 or 20 calls you actually reopen. On Free this download doesn't exist, so the full export is your only route.
- Plan needed
- Pro or higher
- Formats
- PDF, DOCX, SRT, CSV, JSON, MD
Re-upload only the audio that matters
Week 1No competitor imports Fireflies history. The only route is uploading audio files from the export so the new tool transcribes them again. Quotas are tight: 3 lifetime uploads on Otter free, 10 a month on Pro, 5 files on tl;dv free, and a 3-minute cut per file on Notta free.
Re-upload only what you will search for in the new tool. The rest is fine in the archive.
- Quotas
- 3 to 50 uploads
- Everything else
- stays in the ZIP
Run both tools for a week
Weeks 1 and 2Connect the new tool to your calendar and compare a week of notes. To avoid two bots in every call, turn off Fireflies auto-join for that period and add it by hand only to the calls you want to compare.
Check names of people, clients and products: that is where tools differ most.
- Duration
- one to two weeks
- Compare
- names, accuracy
Kill the bot, cancel, then delete the account
Cutover dayDisconnect your calendar from Fireflies and remove fred@fireflies.ai from invites already sent. On Teams, also revoke the app's calendar access, which is what stops the bot from coming back. Then cancel the subscription in account settings, and cancel the AI credit add-on separately.
Delete the account last, after checking that your ZIP opens. For a team, loop in your admin: they may need to block the app across the organization.
- Order
- calendar, plan, credits, account
- Keep
- proof of cancellation
Is your tool missing from this page? Email us: hello@hackceleration.com
What makes a Fireflies exit go wrong
Fireflies exits rarely fail on picking the tool. They fail on the archive, the bot and the bill.
Letting the export link expire
The ZIP can be downloaded for seven days only. Request it on a day you will be around to grab it, not the Friday before a vacation.
Deleting the account before checking the archive
A broken or partial ZIP shows up when you open it, not when you download it. Open a few transcripts and MP3s before deleting anything.
Forgetting the AI credit add-on
Credits are canceled separately. Teams that cancel the main plan and forget the pack keep paying, and can still be moved up a tier automatically.
Assuming canceling stops the bot
The bot follows your calendar, not your invoice. While the calendar stays connected or the bot's address sits in your invites, it can come back. On Teams, revoke the app's access.
Trying to re-upload everything
Upload quotas elsewhere are built for a handful of files, not years of meetings. Bring over the essentials and archive the rest.
Skipping consent with the new tool
Switching recorders doesn't change your duty to tell people they are being recorded. With a bot-free tool like Granola it matters more, because nobody sees it join.
- Renewal date noted, exit started a month ahead
- List of calls to keep done
- Full export requested and confirmation email approved
- ZIP downloaded within seven days and copied to two places
- Key calls downloaded as PDF if you are on Pro or higher
- Essential audio re-uploaded to the new tool
- One to two weeks of overlap
- Calendar disconnected and bot address removed from invites
- Plan and AI credits canceled separately
- Account deleted after checking the archive
Fireflies alternatives: frequently asked questions
What is the best alternative to Fireflies?
For most teams, Fathom: its free plan records, transcribes and stores without limits, while Fireflies Free keeps 400 minutes for the whole team. If the bot is your problem, pick Granola. Our ranking of AI meeting note takers compares them all. Grain and Avoma also come up often: Grain has a free plan and can transcribe without a bot; Avoma adds a meeting scheduler on top of notes, with a 14-day free trial and free view-only seats. Both lean toward sales teams more than a straight Fireflies swap.
What is the best free Fireflies alternative?
Fathom Free if you want to keep your whole history. tl;dv Free also transcribes without limits, but full AI notes stop after 10 meetings. Otter Free caps each conversation at 30 minutes.
Is there a Fireflies alternative without a bot?
Yes. Granola captures your device audio on every plan and never adds a participant. The trade-off: it can't record a meeting you aren't in. Its free plan keeps 30 days of history. Fathom also offers bot-free capture from its free plan, in beta and on Mac only; MeetGeek offers it from its free plan, and Noota from Pro.
How do I export all my data from Fireflies?
Request the full account export, available to all users on request, through Fireflies' form. Approve the confirmation email, and within 24 to 48 hours you get a ZIP with audio, video, transcripts, summaries and JSON metadata. The link expires after seven days.
Can I import Fireflies recordings into Fathom, Otter or tl;dv?
Not as history. None of them imports from Fireflies, although Fireflies imports from Otter, Fathom, Read.ai, Granola and Gong. To keep a call, re-upload its MP3 to the new tool within its upload quota.
How do I cancel Fireflies without getting charged again?
Cancel the plan in account settings, then cancel any AI credit add-on, which is billed separately. Annual plans get no prorated refund after the first week, so cancel before renewal and keep the confirmation.
How do I stop the Fireflies bot from joining my meetings?
Disconnect your calendar, remove fred@fireflies.ai from existing invites, and on Teams revoke the app's calendar access. Deleting the account isn't always enough; an admin may have to block the app for the whole organization.
Is Fireflies being sued?
Yes, two proposed class actions were filed in Illinois under the biometric privacy law BIPA, alleging Fireflies collects voiceprints without written consent, including from non-users. They are allegations and the cases are ongoing. If you are also moving away from Gong, see our guide to switching from Gong.
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