Bubbles vs Fireflies.ai (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Bubbles if

• Fits if you're on a Mac and want to look back over the last two hours
• Works for small teams that want a notetaker and shareable replay clips

Look elsewhere if

• Tight if you stay free: 5 recordings a week, 30 minutes each, locked after 2 weeks
• Pricey if you're alone: $18 a month while the workspace has 1 or 2 members
• Watch out: on the free plan the Notetaker joins all meetings with 2 or more invitees, and everyone gets the recording
• Not for you if you don't use a Mac and want a no-bot mode, which needs macOS 13 or later
• Watch out: the homepage says no bots join calls, but the notetaker is a bot

Pick Fireflies.ai if

• Fits if your team wants every call transcribed and searchable in one place
• Works for sales or recruiting calls that need logging to a CRM or applicant tracker

Look elsewhere if

• Tight if you're staying free, since 400 minutes of storage is shared by the whole team and there are no downloads or video
• Pricey if you pay monthly, at $18 a seat for Pro against $10 on the yearly plan
• Not for you if you lean on AI Skills and soundbites, as plans include a one-time credit allowance and packs start at $5 a month
• Watch out: every teammate added counts as a paid seat, and team analytics need Business at $19
• Watch out: the Business trial needs a card, and SSO, SCIM and HIPAA are Enterprise only at $39 a seat yearly

Bubbles

• The homepage says no bots join your calls, while the Notetaker and pricing pages describe a bot that joins meetings; the two modes work differently.
• The download listed is for macOS 13 or later; the Notetaker is the route for other computers.
• On the free plan the Notetaker joins all meetings with 2 or more invitees and every invitee gets the recording.
• Pro pricing is $18 per member a month for 1 or 2 members and $12 at 3 or more.

Fireflies.ai

• The Free plan stores 400 minutes per team, limits AI summaries and does not include transcript downloads or video recording.
• AI Skills, custom summary sections and soundbites draw on AI credits; plans include only a one-time allowance and extra packs start at $5 a month.
• Conversation intelligence starts on Business. SSO, SCIM and HIPAA compliance are Enterprise only, and Enterprise is billed annually.
• Every teammate added to a workspace counts as a paid seat on paid plans.

Bubbles

Two-hour rolling replay

The Mac app keeps the last two hours of screen and audio, encrypted on your computer, and erases the oldest minute as new ones arrive.

Notes from jotted fragments

During a call you can type a few fragments; on save, AI turns the transcript and your fragments into a summary, action items and a full transcript.

AI Notetaker for calendar meetings

After you connect a calendar, the Notetaker joins meetings on Zoom, Google Meet and Teams and emails a summary and action items.

Trim and share

Scroll back through the replay, trim a moment and share a link. The site says only the trimmed part is uploaded.

Chat with your meetings

The site shows ChatGPT and Claude among the places where you can chat with your meeting content, and it publishes a Bubbles API.

Controls on who gets recordings

On Pro you choose which meetings the Notetaker joins and who receives recordings. On the free plan all invitees receive them.

Fireflies.ai

Notetaker bot or bot-free capture

Invite the Fireflies notetaker to a call or let it auto-join meetings on your calendar. The desktop app can instead take notes from device audio with no bot in the meeting.

Transcripts and AI summaries

Every plan includes unlimited transcription, and paid plans add unlimited AI summaries with an overview, notes and action items. Fireflies lists support for 100+ languages.

AskFred and Live Assist

AskFred is an AI assistant for questions about meeting content. In the desktop app, a floating Live Assist pane shows notes, the transcript and AskFred during the call.

Fireflies Talk dictation

Hold a key and speak to dictate text into any app from the desktop app. Fireflies says this is free and unlimited on every plan, including Free.

Conversation intelligence

Business and Enterprise add analytics on team and individual conversations. Free and Pro do not include them.

Integrations and MCP server

Connects to CRMs, project tools, applicant tracking systems and dialers such as Aircall and RingCentral. An MCP server exposes meeting data to assistants like Claude and ChatGPT.

Bubbles

• BasicFree

  5 meeting recordings a week of up to 30 minutes, unlimited screen recordings; Bubbles lock after 2 weeks and the Notetaker joins all meetings.

• Pro Teams$12

  per member / month, billed yearly ($15 billed monthly)

  For workspaces of 3 or more: unlimited length and recordings, AI transcripts, choose which meetings the Notetaker joins, custom branding.

• Pro Personal$18

  per member / month, billed yearly ($22 billed monthly)

  Same features as Pro Teams for workspaces of 1 or 2 members; switches to Pro Teams pricing when the workspace reaches 3.

Fireflies.ai

• Free$0

  Unlimited transcription and limited AI summaries, with 400 minutes of storage per team and 20 AI credits.

• Pro$10

  per seat / month, billed annually ($18 billed monthly)

  Unlimited AI summaries, 8,000 minutes of storage per seat, video recording, and transcript and recording downloads.

• Business$19

  per seat / month, billed annually ($29 billed monthly)

  Unlimited storage plus team and individual conversation intelligence.

• Enterprise$39

  per seat / month, billed annually only

  Adds SSO and SCIM, HIPAA and FERPA compliance, with volume discounts as the team grows.

Bubbles

• Annual discount

  Yearly billing lowers the member price

  Pro Teams is $12 a member billed yearly against $15 billed monthly. Pro Personal is $18 against $22.

Fireflies.ai

• Annual discount

  Save up to 44% with annual billing

  Fireflies' pricing page says annual billing saves up to 44%: Pro is $10 instead of $18 per seat a month, and Business is $19 instead of $29.

• Education

  10% off paid plans for students

  Fireflies' help center lists a 10% discount on Pro, Business or Enterprise for students, on monthly or yearly plans. It is claimed by emailing support from a school address.

• Nonprofit

  10% off paid plans for NGOs and nonprofits

  The same help article lists a 10% discount on Pro, Business or Enterprise for NGOs and non-profit organizations, requested by emailing support from the organization's email domain.