Buzz

by Chidi Williams

Cross-platform desktop app for Whisper — open-source MacWhisper alternative.

TL;DR

Cross-platform desktop app for Whisper — open-source MacWhisper alternative.

Best for non-technical users who want Whisper on their desktop without touching a terminal. Pricing: free.

What it is

Buzz is the open-source cross-platform desktop app for Whisper. File drop, live microphone, multiple model sizes, batch processing — all running locally. Free, MIT-licensed, and the closest OSS equivalent to MacWhisper across all three desktop OSes.

Best for: Non-technical users who want Whisper on their desktop without touching a terminal.
Watch out for: No native diarization; UI is functional rather than polished.

Install / use

brew install --cask buzz  # or Windows/Linux installers from releases

Features

Speaker diarization	No
Word-level timestamps	Yes
Streaming / real-time	Yes
Languages supported	99
HIPAA eligible	No

Links

GitHub repo ↗

Buzz vs Whipscribe

Feature	Buzz	Whipscribe
Category	Open source	Transcription APIs
Pricing	free	free beta
Speaker diarization	No	Yes
Word timestamps	Yes	Yes
Streaming	Yes	No
Languages	99	99
Platforms	macOS, Linux, Windows	Web, API, MCP

Alternatives to Buzz

OpenAI Whisper

OpenAI

The reference open-source multilingual ASR model from OpenAI.

OSS · MIT ★ 98.1k

whisper.cpp

Georgi Gerganov

C/C++ port of Whisper — runs on anything, from a Raspberry Pi to Apple Silicon.

OSS · MIT ★ 48.8k

faster-whisper

SYSTRAN

4× faster than reference Whisper using CTranslate2 — production sweet spot.

OSS · MIT ★ 22.3k

Frequently asked about Buzz

Is Buzz free?

Yes. Buzz is free and MIT-licensed. You can also grab Buzz Pro from the App Store if you want to pay to support development, but it's not required.

Does Buzz work on Windows and Linux?

Yes — Buzz is cross-platform. macOS, Windows, and Linux builds are published in the GitHub releases, plus a Homebrew cask for macOS.

Does Buzz support speaker diarization?

No native diarization. Buzz transcribes audio and produces text + segment timestamps; it doesn't label speakers.

How does Buzz compare to MacWhisper?

Buzz is the open-source cross-platform equivalent. MacWhisper is macOS-only, closed-source, and more polished. Pick Buzz if you want free + cross-platform; pick MacWhisper if you're on Mac and want a more refined UX.

Can Buzz transcribe in real time from my microphone?

Yes. Buzz supports live microphone input in addition to file transcription.

Whipscribe is a managed faster-whisper + whisperX service. If you want transcripts without running infrastructure, paste a URL or drop a file in the form below — you'll have a transcript in seconds.