ParrotChecked 24 September 2026
Parrot vs Fireflies
Fireflies is a cloud note taker built for teams. Its bot joins your calls, by default every calendar meeting with a link, and everything is transcribed and stored in Fireflies' cloud. Its desktop app and Chrome extension can record without the bot. Parrot records on your Mac with no bot, keeps the audio there, and helps during the call from your own documents. Fireflies wins on team analytics and integrations; Parrot on privacy and price.
Released 24 Sept 2026. 17 MB. macOS 14 or later on Apple Silicon. or build from source
The short answer
Pick Parrot if
you want your calls kept private, no bot in the room, and live help that doesn't depend on one.
Pick Fireflies if
you run a sales or hiring team that wants analytics, CRM sync and every call searchable in one place.
The big differences
Price
Parrot
YesFree, no account
Fireflies
PartlyLimited free plan, then from $10 a month
Where your audio goes
Parrot
YesStays on your Mac
Fireflies
NoFireflies' cloud
Help during the call
Parrot
YesAnswers from your documents
Fireflies
PartlyAnswers, only with its bot in the call
What help during the call looks like
When the other side asks something your documents cover, the answer appears on a card within seconds, with the file it came from. Open questions stay pinned until you answer them, and a one-line coach tells you how the call is going.
Feature by feature
| Feature | Parrot | Fireflies |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy | ||
| Bot in the call | YesNo. It records what your Mac plays and hears. | PartlyYes, and by default it joins every calendar meeting with a link. The desktop app and Chrome extension can record without it. |
| Where your audio goes | YesStays on your Mac. Sent out only if you pick Groq or Deepgram for transcription. | NoTo Fireflies' cloud, transcribed by AssemblyAI and Soniox. Stored in the US and other countries. |
| Works offline | YesYes, with Whisper and Ollama. | NoNot listed. Transcription happens in the cloud. |
| Open source | YesYes, GPL-3.0. | NoNo. |
| During the call | ||
| Help during the call | YesYes. Answers from your own documents, open questions pinned, a live coach. | PartlyLive notes and catch-up summaries. Answers from your knowledge base only while its bot is in the meeting. |
| Choice of AI | YesClaude, Ollama, or any OpenAI-compatible server, with your own keys. | PartlyPick a Claude, GPT or Gemini model in its chat. No local models or your own keys listed. |
| Cost and platforms | ||
| Price | YesFree. No paid plan. Cloud AI with your own key costs a few cents per call hour. | PartlyFree with limits, including 400 minutes of storage per team. Pro is $10 per seat a month billed yearly, or $18 monthly. Business is $19 billed yearly. |
| Runs on | PartlyMac only: macOS 14 or later on Apple Silicon. | YesMac, Windows, iPhone, Android, the web and a Chrome extension. |
Where Fireflies is better
- More than 100 transcription languages.
- Team analytics: talk time, sentiment and topic tracking across your company's calls.
- Integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, Asana and hiring tools, plus an API.
- Apps on every platform, and a bot that records meetings you can't attend.
- Company controls: SSO, audit logs, SOC 2 and HIPAA.
Where Parrot is better
- No bot and no cloud. Your audio stays on your Mac.
- Live answers from your documents with no bot in the call. Fireflies' version needs its bot there.
- Free with no storage or credit limits.
- Open source, and it works offline.
Try both on the same call
- 1
Keep Fireflies
Nothing to cancel or move. Parrot works on its own, next to what you already use.
- 2
Hit record in Parrot on your next call
It records what your Mac hears, so both can record the same call.
- 3
Compare afterwards
Read both sets of notes and keep whichever helped more. Parrot costs nothing to try or to keep.
Questions
- Can I use Parrot and Fireflies together?
- Yes. They don't touch each other, and Parrot never joins the call, so it adds nothing the other people can see.
- Why is Parrot free?
- It started as Uygar's own tool for client calls and is open source under GPL-3.0. There are no servers to pay for, because it all runs on your Mac. If you use cloud AI, you pay that provider directly with your own key, usually a few cents per call hour.
- Can I bring my Fireflies recordings?
- If you have the audio as a file, yes. Drop it on Parrot and it's transcribed, split by speaker and summarised like a live call. Notes you wrote in Fireflies stay there.
- Is Parrot on Windows or iPhone?
- No. Parrot is Mac only: macOS 14 or later on Apple Silicon. If you need another platform, Fireflies is the better pick.
Sources, checked 24 September 2026
Checked on 24 September 2026 against their own pages. Prices and features change, so check before you buy. If something here is out of date, email me and I'll fix it.
