Head to head · Audio · updated Oct 25, 2026
AssemblyAI vs Fireflies.ai
AssemblyAI scores 25 to Fireflies.ai's 11 on public evidence for speech-to-text transcription, and they rank #2 and #4 there. Both are free to start. Numbers below are the same public signals the ranking uses, recomputed nightly — nothing here is sponsored.
AssemblyAI
A speech-to-text API with diarization, sentiment, chapters and an LLM layer for summarizing transcripts.
+ Strong accuracy plus built-in audio intelligence (speaker labels, chapters, PII redaction) and LeMUR for asking questions of a transcript.
− No consumer app, and per-hour pricing adds up on high volumes compared with self-hosted Whisper.
Fireflies.ai
A meeting bot that records, transcribes and summarizes calls and pushes notes to CRMs and Slack.
+ Deep integration list (Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, Notion) and searchable transcripts across every past meeting.
− Speaker labeling and accuracy drop on noisy or accented audio, and the bot joining every calendar event by default surprises people.
Side by side
public evidence| AssemblyAI | Fireflies.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Evidence score / 100 | 25 | 11 |
| GitHub stars | closed source | closed source |
| Hacker News stories, 30d | 5 | 0 |
| Release-feed mentions, 30d | 0 | 0 |
| Last activity | – | – |
| Pricing | Free tier · Free credits; then per hour of audio | Free tier · Pro from $10/mo billed annually |
| Platforms | api | web, ios, android, chrome-extension |
| Maker | AssemblyAI | Fireflies.ai |
Which one?
Pick AssemblyAI if
- you want the stronger public evidence (25 vs 11)
- you need it on api
Best for developers building transcript analysis.
Pick Fireflies.ai if
- you need it on android, chrome-extension, ios
Best for teams piping meeting notes into a CRM.