Briefing (Buzz / Speaches)
Open-source · self-hostable · replaces 1 SaaS tool on os-alt
chidiwilliams/buzz · alive · ★ 19.2k · last commit 10d ago · 25 open issues
License: MIT
Good fit for Teams that already rely on the OpenAI Audio API and want a drop-in self-hosted endpoint via Speaches plus a desktop tool for one-off jobs.
Weak at No first-class meeting-recorder or speaker-diarization workflow bundled — pair with a separate diarization step.
In a terminal? npx -y github:SolvoHQ/os-alt-cli otter-ai prints
the Otter.ai comparison table including Briefing (Buzz / Speaches).
how the CLI works →
Replaces these SaaS
- Otter.ai · Meeting transcription / AI notes
Buzz wraps Whisper.cpp with a desktop UI for transcription + live captioning. Install from chidiwilliams.com/buzz. Drop audio files in batch; outputs SRT/VTT/TXT/JSON. For server-mode live transcription, deploy `speaches-ai/speaches` (an OpenAI-API-compatible Whisper server) — your apps call `/v1/audio/transcriptions` exactly as they would call OpenAI.
README badges for the SaaS this replaces
Maintainers and forks: drop a badge in your README to link readers from the SaaS-comparison page back to your repo.
FAQ
Is Briefing (Buzz / Speaches) actively maintained?
Yes — last commit 10d ago. The repository is alive (commit activity within the past 90 days).
What does Briefing (Buzz / Speaches) cost to self-host?
Briefing (Buzz / Speaches) is free and open source under MIT. Typical self-host VPS cost: $0 desktop; ~$50/mo cloud GPU if you run a server.
Which SaaS does Briefing (Buzz / Speaches) replace?
Briefing (Buzz / Speaches) is listed as an open-source self-host alternative to: Otter.ai.