# Fireflies vs Circleback: pricing, features, and which is better > Fireflies.ai and Circleback compared across pricing, capture, speaker labels, recordings, notes, sharing, automations, integrations, AI-agent access, and administration. - Canonical HTML: https://circleback.ai/compare/fireflies-ai-vs-circleback - Structured JSON: https://circleback.ai/compare/fireflies-ai-vs-circleback.json - Comparison directory: https://circleback.ai/compare - Language: en-US - Editorial perspective: Circleback-authored direct comparison. The point of view is explicit, and each product gets credit for what it does well. ## Short answer Fireflies has broad live assistance. Circleback gives every capture mode the same durable record and deeper company workflows. The useful buying test is to run both products on the same external call, internal planning session, and noisy in-person meeting. Compare the result, the sharing defaults, and the work that still has to happen by hand. ## Fireflies.ai at a glance Fireflies is one of the broadest meeting assistants: bot, desktop, mobile, integrations, search, API, and live or sales assistance. The nuanced bit is that its capture modes are not equivalent—bot-free desktop gives up recordings, named speakers, and Sales Assist. **Best for:** Teams that prioritize a large integration catalog, live assistance, sales workflows, flexible bot/desktop/mobile capture, and competitive pricing. **Less ideal for:** Teams that expect bot-free capture to preserve the same media, speaker fidelity, and sales intelligence as the bot experience. **Price:** Free; Pro from $10/user/month annually Prices are per user/month: Pro is $10 with annual billing or $18 month-to-month; Business is $19 or $29; Enterprise is $39 with annual billing. Storage, AI credits, video, advanced integrations, and governance differ by plan. **Free option:** Yes. Unlimited transcription requires both Auto-join and Share-all; otherwise initial transcription credits, storage limits, and plan-gated summaries or AI features apply. ### Fireflies.ai strengths - Bot, bot-free macOS/Windows, iOS/Android, uploads, and supported native meeting SDK paths. - A large integration catalog, public API, webhooks, remote MCP, AI apps, live assistance, and Sales Assist. - Automatically generated and assigned action items live in a team-wide task feed and can flow into tools such as Linear, Asana, Monday.com, and Microsoft Planner. - Competitive pricing and 100+ language claims make it accessible to distributed teams. - Meeting content is not used to train internal or external AI models, and compliance modes can retain the full record, text only, summary only, or summary plus audio. ### Fireflies.ai tradeoffs - Bot-free desktop mode stores no audio/video, labels speakers generically, and cannot run Sales Assist. - Fireflies says mobile recordings often do not auto-detect speakers, so in-person transcripts may need manual speaker relabeling. - The Google Meet SDK bot-free path asks attendees for approval, so “bot-free” does not always mean invisible or frictionless. - The advertised unlimited free transcription is conditional: users must enable both automatic bot joining and automatic sharing with every participant. Teams choosing tighter defaults fall back to a small transcription-credit allowance. - Meeting recaps default to workspace-wide access plus anyone with the link. Admins can enforce safer defaults and Enterprise rules can protect sensitive categories, but teams should configure this before broad rollout. - Two current Fireflies help articles disagree on whether Free includes 400 or 800 stored minutes, so confirm the live limit before relying on long-term free storage. - Advanced AI features use workspace-pooled credits that do not increase with seat count, so heavier teams may need a paid credit add-on. - The GraphQL API exposes transcripts and core meeting data but not Super Summaries or Custom Apps output. - The MCP server is much richer than the older API-only story, but some advanced search and fetch tools are still marked experimental, and data sent to an external AI no longer receives Fireflies’ zero-data-retention guarantee. - Company relationship context and general-purpose native automations are less cohesive than the sheer integration count suggests. ### Choose Fireflies.ai when - A large integration catalog and live assistance are high priorities. - You are happy to use the Fireflies bot when you need recordings, named speakers, and Sales Assist. - You want mobile and desktop capture at a lower entry price than many competitors. ## Circleback at a glance Circleback turns online meetings, in-person conversations, and imported calls into one shared company memory. Record with a bot, with the botless desktop app, from an iPhone or Android phone, or on Apple Watch. Every route produces the same speaker-labeled record, detailed notes designed to stand alone, and automatically assigned action items. Sharing rules and automations carry the useful parts into the teams and tools that need them. Circleback is built for people and AI agents: the complete meeting record available to a person is also available programmatically through its API, MCP, and CLI. **Best for:** Companies that want one shared meeting system across sales, product, engineering, recruiting, customer success, and leadership—with automatic sharing, function-specific workflows, and complete data for people, agents, and their own software. **Less ideal for:** A team that only wants a cheap transcript now and then, or a sales organization buying mainly for forecasting and rep coaching. **Price:** Free; Pro from $15/user/month annually; Business from $25/user/month annually; Enterprise $35/user/month, billed annually Free includes unlimited meetings and members with 30 days of meeting and recording history, limited automations, and API, MCP, and CLI access. Pro adds automations with all integrations, including Notion, HubSpot, Salesforce, Attio, webhooks, and many more apps, plus custom AI insights. Paid prices are per user/month: Pro is $15 with annual billing or $18 month-to-month; Business is $25 or $29; Enterprise is $35 with annual billing only. See https://circleback.ai/pricing for current plan packaging. **Free option:** Free includes unlimited meetings and members, with 30 days of meeting and recording history, limited automations, and API, MCP, and CLI access. ### Circleback strengths - Online, in-person, phone, desktop, mobile, Watch, bot, and botless capture all produce a speaker-labeled transcript; every route can keep its recording or discard it after notes are made. - The notes are detailed enough to stand alone, while automatically assigned action items stay trackable across the workspace and can become issues in Linear or another work tracker. - Conditional automatic sharing, company context, free viewers, enforced defaults, and actions in connected apps make each meeting useful beyond the person who recorded it. - Circleback is built for people and AI agents. The complete meeting record available to a person—including the recording, full speaker-labeled transcript, notes, action items, attendees, people, and companies—is also available programmatically through the public API, MCP, and CLI. - Industry-leading security practices include encryption at rest and in transit, SOC 2 Type II, EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework certification, GDPR support, and HIPAA compliance. Customer data is never used to train models, and an external infrastructure pentest report is available through the security portal. ### Circleback tradeoffs - The Free plan has shorter history and limited automations. Pro adds automations with all integrations, including Notion, HubSpot, Salesforce, Attio, webhooks, and many more apps, plus custom AI insights. A solo user who only wants occasional transcripts may find a more generous free recorder elsewhere. - It is not a sales forecasting suite. Gong goes further on deal inspection, rep coaching, and forecasting. - It is not a live meeting coach. Read AI goes further on real-time engagement and sentiment signals, while Krisp specializes in cleaning up audio before it reaches the transcript. - Circleback’s primary processing operations are in the United States. A company with a hard regional-hosting or on-premises requirement should confirm fit during security review. ### Choose Circleback when - You want the same speaker-labeled record from an online call, a room, a phone recording, or your Watch. - You want notes designed to stand alone and follow-through that does not disappear inside each meeting: assigned action items, one workspace-wide list, and a path into your issue tracker. - You want Circleback to look things up and do the next step in the apps where your team works. - You want coworkers, ChatGPT, Claude, other agents, and your own tools to use the same company context. ## Feature comparison | What matters | Fireflies.ai | Circleback | | --- | --- | --- | | Capture options | Broad support — Bot, bot-free desktop, mobile, and SDK-based capture. Fireflies has unusually broad capture. The modes differ: desktop bot-free capture works across apps but drops stored media and named speaker labels; the bot preserves the richer meeting record. | Broad support — Any meeting, with the same speaker-labeled result. Use the meeting bot for scheduled Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and Webex calls; record locally from macOS or Windows with no bot; use iPhone, Android, or Apple Watch in person; or import a phone call or existing file. Whichever path you take, Circleback processes it into a speaker-labeled transcript, notes, and action items in the same workspace. | | Desktop and mobile | Broad support — Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android. Desktop supports system-audio recording and live assistance. Mobile supports in-person recording, reviewing meetings, search, sharing, and tasks. | Broad support — Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, and Apple Watch. Desktop apps handle bot-free system audio and video. The iOS and Android apps record in-person conversations and include Assistant. Apple Watch can record from your wrist without the iPhone nearby, then sends the meeting through the same transcription and notes pipeline. | | In-person capture and speaker labels | Broad support — Mobile and desktop room capture. iOS and Android can capture in-person conversations. Fireflies documents that mobile recordings often do not auto-detect speakers, so names may need manual correction. Bot-free desktop can also hear room/system audio, with its own media and generic-label caveats. | Broad support — Phone, desktop, or Watch—with speaker labels. Record an in-person meeting from iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, or Apple Watch. Circleback separates and labels the speakers instead of returning one undifferentiated wall of text. Imported phone recordings get the same treatment. | | Recordings, playback, and clips | Available with limits — Bot mode saves AV; bot-free desktop saves neither. This is the key evaluation detail: bot meetings can preserve audio/video and named speakers, while desktop bot-free mode produces notes/transcript without recording files and uses Speaker 1/Speaker 2 labels. | Broad support — A recording when you want one; notes-only when you do not. Every capture route can keep the source recording with the meeting. Play it beside the transcript, download it, link to a moment, or make a clip. If you only want notes and the speaker-labeled transcript, turn recording storage off. | | Notes, action items, and search | Broad support — Notes, search, and a workspace-wide assigned task feed. Fireflies offers strong meeting search and multiple AI surfaces. It automatically creates and assigns meeting tasks, lets teams manage all accessible tasks in one feed, and can turn action items into trackable work in several project tools. Usage credits and plan gates still apply to advanced AI apps and assistant capabilities. | Broad support — Detailed standalone notes, assigned action items, and cited search. Our editorial judgment is that Circleback’s notes are more detailed and need less transcript archaeology than the short recaps common in meeting tools. It automatically creates action items, assigns each one to an owner when the conversation makes the owner clear, and gathers work from every meeting in a workspace-wide view where it can be filtered and marked done. Custom insights extract the fields a team cares about, while Assistant searches meetings and connected email with citations. | | People, companies, and context | Available with limits — Meeting channels and cross-meeting search. The meeting library is searchable and collaborative, but the product is less centered on a unified relationship timeline combining meetings, email, calendar, people, and companies. | Broad support — A shared company memory, not isolated meeting pages. Person and company pages combine rolling summaries, relationship timelines, emails, meetings, attendees, and upcoming events. Search and Assistant work across that context, so a conversation stays useful to the next person and the next team. | | Automatic sharing and workspace defaults | Broad support — Enterprise rules can auto-route, share, and enforce privacy. Enterprise admins can match meeting title, host, participants, or internal/external type, then route to a channel, share with users or teams, or enforce privacy. This is genuinely strong automation. The default recap visibility is broader than many buyers expect—teammates plus anyone holding the link—so configure the workspace default deliberately. | Broad support — Conditional automatic sharing with workspace safeguards. Automations can share matching meetings with specific people, teams, or the whole workspace based on titles, participants, invitee emails or domains, tags, and combined conditions. Admins can set or enforce default sharing access while members retain explicit controls for private or sensitive conversations. | | Automations | Broad support — Meeting rules, AI apps, CRM workflows, and automatic task handoff. Fireflies can automatically create and assign tasks, then route them to Linear, Asana, Monday.com, Planner, Salesforce, and other systems with meeting filters on eligible plans. It also supports specialized AI apps. The experience spans several feature systems rather than one simple general condition/action canvas. | Broad support — One automation layer for every function. Run actions when meetings match conditions, extract the fields each team cares about, share notes, and route the result into the system where work happens. Sales can update the CRM; product and research can collect themes; engineering can open assigned issues in Linear or another tracker; recruiting and customer teams can route structured follow-up. Automations also post to Slack, call webhooks, and re-run against older meetings. | | Integrations | Broad support — 100+ integrations plus Zapier and API. Breadth is a major advantage across CRM, collaboration, storage, dialers, and productivity tools. Verify the plan required for each connector and direction of sync. | Broad support — Search other apps, then do the work there. Circleback Assistant can look up context and take actions in tools such as Linear, Notion, Asana, HubSpot, PostHog, Attio, Ashby, and Intercom. Automations can create Linear issues from assigned meeting action items, write action items to monday.com, and send outcomes to Slack, Salesforce, Zoho, and more. Zapier, Make, webhooks, and custom MCP servers cover the long tail. | | API, MCP, CLI, and data portability | Broad support — GraphQL API, webhooks, and a rich remote MCP server. Fireflies exposes transcripts and core meeting data through GraphQL plus webhooks for custom integrations. Its OAuth or API-key remote MCP server can retrieve full transcripts, summaries, action items, active meetings, analytics, soundbites, channels, and user data; it can also share, rename, organize, and clip meetings. Some advanced search and fetch tools remain experimental. Super Summary and Custom Apps data are still absent from the documented GraphQL API, and content passed into an external AI follows that provider’s retention terms. | Broad support — The same complete meeting data for people and AI agents. Circleback is built for people and AI agents. The complete meeting record a person can access—its full speaker-labeled transcript, recording, notes, action items, metadata, attendees, and related people and companies—is also available programmatically through the public API, MCP, and CLI. The API also supports action-item updates. MCP and CLI are read-only and add search and retrieval across meetings, transcripts, action items, calendars, email, people, companies, and tags. Use the stack from ChatGPT or Claude, build internal tools, or receive meeting payloads by webhook. | | Security, privacy, and admin | Broad support — Business and Enterprise governance. Enterprise adds SSO/SCIM, Rules Engine governance, custom retention, and private storage. Its Super Admin role can access every workspace meeting, including “Only Me” content—useful for compliance, but a material privacy-policy decision. Fireflies says meeting content is never used for internal or external model training. | Broad support — Industry-leading security, privacy, and governance. Customer data is encrypted at rest and in transit and never used to train models. Circleback is SOC 2 Type II, certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, supports GDPR obligations, and is HIPAA-compliant with BAAs available. The security portal includes compliance materials and an external infrastructure pentest report. Available controls include single sign-on (SAML or OIDC) and SCIM provisioning, configurable data retention and recording storage, enforced workspace and sharing settings, teams and roles, domain and API key access controls, centralized billing, usage reporting, and free viewer seats. | | Languages | Broad support — 100+ languages advertised. Fireflies advertises broad transcription coverage. Real-world speaker separation and accuracy still depend on capture mode, room acoustics, accents, and vocabulary. | Broad support — 100+ transcription languages. Users can choose from more than 100 meeting languages and separately control the output language used for generated notes. | Ratings describe documented breadth rather than overall product quality: - **Broad support:** Broad native support across the product or relevant paid plans. - **Available with limits:** Documented support with meaningful scope, mode, or plan limits. - **Narrow or indirect:** Narrow, indirect, beta, or substantially plan-gated support. - **Not documented:** No current first-party documentation for a native option. ## Detailed analysis ### Capture options **Both products document broad support for capture options, with different scope and plan limits.** **Fireflies.ai:** Bot, bot-free desktop, mobile, and SDK-based capture. Fireflies has unusually broad capture. The modes differ: desktop bot-free capture works across apps but drops stored media and named speaker labels; the bot preserves the richer meeting record. Evidence: [Fireflies bot-free desktop recording](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/6666374717-how-to-record-meetings-without-a-bot-on-the-fireflies-desktop-app), [Fireflies desktop app](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/1208704416-getting-started-with-the-fireflies-desktop-app). **Circleback:** Any meeting, with the same speaker-labeled result. Use the meeting bot for scheduled Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and Webex calls; record locally from macOS or Windows with no bot; use iPhone, Android, or Apple Watch in person; or import a phone call or existing file. Whichever path you take, Circleback processes it into a speaker-labeled transcript, notes, and action items in the same workspace. Evidence: [Circleback product guide](https://circleback.ai/llms.txt), [Circleback recording guide](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/11090138-getting-started-with-recording). ### Desktop and mobile **Both products document broad support for desktop and mobile, with different scope and plan limits.** **Fireflies.ai:** Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android. Desktop supports system-audio recording and live assistance. Mobile supports in-person recording, reviewing meetings, search, sharing, and tasks. Evidence: [Fireflies desktop app](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/1208704416-getting-started-with-the-fireflies-desktop-app), [Fireflies mobile app](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/8937818258-learn-about-fireflies-mobile-app). **Circleback:** Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, and Apple Watch. Desktop apps handle bot-free system audio and video. The iOS and Android apps record in-person conversations and include Assistant. Apple Watch can record from your wrist without the iPhone nearby, then sends the meeting through the same transcription and notes pipeline. Evidence: [Circleback recording guide](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/11090138-getting-started-with-recording), [Circleback mobile and Apple Watch apps](https://circleback.ai/mobile). ### In-person capture and speaker labels **Both products document broad support for in-person capture and speaker labels, with different scope and plan limits.** **Fireflies.ai:** Mobile and desktop room capture. iOS and Android can capture in-person conversations. Fireflies documents that mobile recordings often do not auto-detect speakers, so names may need manual correction. Bot-free desktop can also hear room/system audio, with its own media and generic-label caveats. Evidence: [Fireflies mobile app](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/8937818258-learn-about-fireflies-mobile-app), [Fireflies speaker labels](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/4994477228-how-to-edit-speaker-labels-or-names-in-a-transcript). **Circleback:** Phone, desktop, or Watch—with speaker labels. Record an in-person meeting from iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, or Apple Watch. Circleback separates and labels the speakers instead of returning one undifferentiated wall of text. Imported phone recordings get the same treatment. Evidence: [Circleback product guide](https://circleback.ai/llms.txt), [Circleback mobile and Apple Watch apps](https://circleback.ai/mobile). ### Recordings, playback, and clips **Circleback has broader documented support for recordings, playback, and clips.** **Fireflies.ai:** Bot mode saves AV; bot-free desktop saves neither. This is the key evaluation detail: bot meetings can preserve audio/video and named speakers, while desktop bot-free mode produces notes/transcript without recording files and uses Speaker 1/Speaker 2 labels. Evidence: [Fireflies bot-free desktop recording](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/6666374717-how-to-record-meetings-without-a-bot-on-the-fireflies-desktop-app). **Circleback:** A recording when you want one; notes-only when you do not. Every capture route can keep the source recording with the meeting. Play it beside the transcript, download it, link to a moment, or make a clip. If you only want notes and the speaker-labeled transcript, turn recording storage off. Evidence: [Circleback recording guide](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/11090138-getting-started-with-recording), [Circleback optional recording storage](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/10581965-configure-whether-meeting-recordings-are-saved). ### Notes, action items, and search **Both products document broad support for notes, action items, and search, with different scope and plan limits.** **Fireflies.ai:** Notes, search, and a workspace-wide assigned task feed. Fireflies offers strong meeting search and multiple AI surfaces. It automatically creates and assigns meeting tasks, lets teams manage all accessible tasks in one feed, and can turn action items into trackable work in several project tools. Usage credits and plan gates still apply to advanced AI apps and assistant capabilities. Evidence: [Fireflies pricing guide](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/3734844560-learn-about-the-fireflies-pricing-plans), [Fireflies AI credits](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/9606045468-fireflies-billing-terms), [Fireflies Tasks Feed](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/1574234155-learn-about-the-tasks-feed). **Circleback:** Detailed standalone notes, assigned action items, and cited search. Our editorial judgment is that Circleback’s notes are more detailed and need less transcript archaeology than the short recaps common in meeting tools. It automatically creates action items, assigns each one to an owner when the conversation makes the owner clear, and gathers work from every meeting in a workspace-wide view where it can be filtered and marked done. Custom insights extract the fields a team cares about, while Assistant searches meetings and connected email with citations. Evidence: [Circleback product guide](https://circleback.ai/llms.txt), [Circleback action items in Linear](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/13622158-integrate-with-linear), [Circleback CLI documentation](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/14677613-circleback-cli). ### People, companies, and context **Circleback has broader documented support for people, companies, and context.** **Fireflies.ai:** Meeting channels and cross-meeting search. The meeting library is searchable and collaborative, but the product is less centered on a unified relationship timeline combining meetings, email, calendar, people, and companies. Evidence: [Fireflies pricing guide](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/3734844560-learn-about-the-fireflies-pricing-plans). **Circleback:** A shared company memory, not isolated meeting pages. Person and company pages combine rolling summaries, relationship timelines, emails, meetings, attendees, and upcoming events. Search and Assistant work across that context, so a conversation stays useful to the next person and the next team. Evidence: [Circleback product guide](https://circleback.ai/llms.txt). ### Automatic sharing and workspace defaults **Both products document broad support for automatic sharing and workspace defaults, with different scope and plan limits.** **Fireflies.ai:** Enterprise rules can auto-route, share, and enforce privacy. Enterprise admins can match meeting title, host, participants, or internal/external type, then route to a channel, share with users or teams, or enforce privacy. This is genuinely strong automation. The default recap visibility is broader than many buyers expect—teammates plus anyone holding the link—so configure the workspace default deliberately. Evidence: [Fireflies Rules Engine](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/4608292950-learn-about-the-rules-engine-feature), [Fireflies recap privacy defaults](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/5319481450-how-to-configure-privacy-settings-for-your-meeting-recaps). **Circleback:** Conditional automatic sharing with workspace safeguards. Automations can share matching meetings with specific people, teams, or the whole workspace based on titles, participants, invitee emails or domains, tags, and combined conditions. Admins can set or enforce default sharing access while members retain explicit controls for private or sensitive conversations. Evidence: [Circleback automatic sharing](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/10460582-automatically-share-meetings-with-your-workspace), [Circleback enforced workspace settings](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/11095989-default-and-enforced-workspace-settings). ### Automations **Both products document broad support for automations, with different scope and plan limits.** **Fireflies.ai:** Meeting rules, AI apps, CRM workflows, and automatic task handoff. Fireflies can automatically create and assign tasks, then route them to Linear, Asana, Monday.com, Planner, Salesforce, and other systems with meeting filters on eligible plans. It also supports specialized AI apps. The experience spans several feature systems rather than one simple general condition/action canvas. Evidence: [Fireflies Rules Engine](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/4608292950-learn-about-the-rules-engine-feature), [Fireflies pricing guide](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/3734844560-learn-about-the-fireflies-pricing-plans), [Fireflies Tasks Feed](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/1574234155-learn-about-the-tasks-feed), [Fireflies Linear integration](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/8360629677-how-to-integrate-linear-with-fireflies). **Circleback:** One automation layer for every function. Run actions when meetings match conditions, extract the fields each team cares about, share notes, and route the result into the system where work happens. Sales can update the CRM; product and research can collect themes; engineering can open assigned issues in Linear or another tracker; recruiting and customer teams can route structured follow-up. Automations also post to Slack, call webhooks, and re-run against older meetings. Evidence: [Circleback product guide](https://circleback.ai/llms.txt). ### Integrations **Both products document broad support for integrations, with different scope and plan limits.** **Fireflies.ai:** 100+ integrations plus Zapier and API. Breadth is a major advantage across CRM, collaboration, storage, dialers, and productivity tools. Verify the plan required for each connector and direction of sync. Evidence: [Fireflies integration directory](https://fireflies.ai/integrations), [Fireflies Linear integration](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/8360629677-how-to-integrate-linear-with-fireflies). **Circleback:** Search other apps, then do the work there. Circleback Assistant can look up context and take actions in tools such as Linear, Notion, Asana, HubSpot, PostHog, Attio, Ashby, and Intercom. Automations can create Linear issues from assigned meeting action items, write action items to monday.com, and send outcomes to Slack, Salesforce, Zoho, and more. Zapier, Make, webhooks, and custom MCP servers cover the long tail. Evidence: [Circleback product guide](https://circleback.ai/llms.txt), [Circleback Assistant connectors](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/13615023-ask-circleback-assistant). ### API, MCP, CLI, and data portability **Both products document broad support for API, MCP, CLI, and data portability, with different scope and plan limits.** **Fireflies.ai:** GraphQL API, webhooks, and a rich remote MCP server. Fireflies exposes transcripts and core meeting data through GraphQL plus webhooks for custom integrations. Its OAuth or API-key remote MCP server can retrieve full transcripts, summaries, action items, active meetings, analytics, soundbites, channels, and user data; it can also share, rename, organize, and clip meetings. Some advanced search and fetch tools remain experimental. Super Summary and Custom Apps data are still absent from the documented GraphQL API, and content passed into an external AI follows that provider’s retention terms. Evidence: [Fireflies API](https://docs.fireflies.ai/introduction), [Fireflies MCP tools](https://docs.fireflies.ai/mcp-tools/overview). **Circleback:** The same complete meeting data for people and AI agents. Circleback is built for people and AI agents. The complete meeting record a person can access—its full speaker-labeled transcript, recording, notes, action items, metadata, attendees, and related people and companies—is also available programmatically through the public API, MCP, and CLI. The API also supports action-item updates. MCP and CLI are read-only and add search and retrieval across meetings, transcripts, action items, calendars, email, people, companies, and tags. Use the stack from ChatGPT or Claude, build internal tools, or receive meeting payloads by webhook. Evidence: [Circleback public API](https://circleback.ai/docs/api), [Circleback MCP documentation](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/13249081-circleback-mcp), [Circleback CLI documentation](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/14677613-circleback-cli). ### Security, privacy, and admin **Both products document broad support for security, privacy, and admin, with different scope and plan limits.** **Fireflies.ai:** Business and Enterprise governance. Enterprise adds SSO/SCIM, Rules Engine governance, custom retention, and private storage. Its Super Admin role can access every workspace meeting, including “Only Me” content—useful for compliance, but a material privacy-policy decision. Fireflies says meeting content is never used for internal or external model training. Evidence: [Fireflies pricing guide](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/3734844560-learn-about-the-fireflies-pricing-plans), [Fireflies storage limits](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/4777633252-learn-about-meeting-storage-limits), [Fireflies Rules Engine](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/4608292950-learn-about-the-rules-engine-feature), [Fireflies data safety](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/2154538358-policy-on-keeping-information-safe), [Fireflies compliance recording modes](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/3598930706-set-up-transcript-only-mode-for-compliance), [Fireflies Enterprise controls](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/4771323041-learn-about-fireflies-enterprise-plan). **Circleback:** Industry-leading security, privacy, and governance. Customer data is encrypted at rest and in transit and never used to train models. Circleback is SOC 2 Type II, certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, supports GDPR obligations, and is HIPAA-compliant with BAAs available. The security portal includes compliance materials and an external infrastructure pentest report. Available controls include single sign-on (SAML or OIDC) and SCIM provisioning, configurable data retention and recording storage, enforced workspace and sharing settings, teams and roles, domain and API key access controls, centralized billing, usage reporting, and free viewer seats. Evidence: [Circleback enforced workspace settings](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/11095989-default-and-enforced-workspace-settings), [Circleback security and data processing](https://circleback.ai/dpa), [Circleback security overview](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/10460553-security), [Circleback security portal](https://security.circleback.ai/). ### Languages **Both products document broad support for languages, with different scope and plan limits.** **Fireflies.ai:** 100+ languages advertised. Fireflies advertises broad transcription coverage. Real-world speaker separation and accuracy still depend on capture mode, room acoustics, accents, and vocabulary. Evidence: [Fireflies pricing guide](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/3734844560-learn-about-the-fireflies-pricing-plans). **Circleback:** 100+ transcription languages. Users can choose from more than 100 meeting languages and separately control the output language used for generated notes. Evidence: [Circleback product guide](https://circleback.ai/llms.txt). ## Where each one fits **Fireflies.ai:** Pick Fireflies for live assistance, Sales Assist, a team-wide assigned-task feed, lots of native integrations, and low plan prices, especially if a bot is fine. **Circleback:** Pick Circleback for optional recordings and speaker labels in every capture mode, plus company context, conditional sharing, a complete meeting API, MCP, and CLI. **Worth knowing:** Fireflies has more live-facing AI and a strong team task feed. Circleback’s clearer advantage is consistent speaker labels and media choices across capture modes, deeper company context, and a CLI alongside API and MCP. ## Frequently asked questions ### Which is better: Fireflies.ai or Circleback? Fireflies has broad live assistance. Circleback gives every capture mode the same durable record and deeper company workflows. ### Which is less expensive, Fireflies.ai or Circleback? Fireflies.ai: Free; Pro from $10/user/month annually. Circleback: Free; Pro from $15/user/month annually; Business from $25/user/month annually; Enterprise $35/user/month, billed annually. Compare the paid seats, included usage, recording access, and admin features you actually need. ### Can Fireflies.ai and Circleback record without a bot? Fireflies.ai: Bot, bot-free desktop, mobile, and SDK-based capture. Circleback: Any meeting, with the same speaker-labeled result. The useful check is whether your required capture mode keeps video, a recording, and speaker names. ### Which is better for a whole company? First ask who gets each note automatically; otherwise useful context stays with the recorder. Then compare permissions, retention, and enforced defaults. Fireflies: Enterprise rules can auto-route, share, and enforce privacy. Circleback: Conditional automatic sharing with workspace safeguards. ### Can I access and move the full meeting data? Circleback is built for people and AI agents: the complete meeting record available in the product is also available through API, MCP, and CLI. Fireflies: GraphQL API, webhooks, and a rich remote MCP server. Compare transcript, export, plan, and retention limits. ### How was this comparison researched? We use first-party pricing pages, product pages, help docs, and release notes for both products. The sources are linked below. ## Methodology Circleback reviews first-party pricing pages, product pages, help docs, and release notes. Prices and capabilities move, so check the linked sources when a detail is important to your decision. Every feature dimension links to the exact first-party documents used for that claim. Ratings describe documented breadth, not an overall score or winner. This page is a disclosed Circleback-authored direct comparison. There are no paid placements or affiliate rankings. ## First-party sources ### Fireflies.ai sources - [Fireflies pricing guide](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/3734844560-learn-about-the-fireflies-pricing-plans): July 2026 prices and plan structure. - [Fireflies unlimited free transcripts](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/8632872350-how-to-get-unlimited-meeting-transcripts-on-fireflies-ai-s-free-plan): Auto-join and Share-all requirements for unlimited free transcription. - [Fireflies storage limits](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/4777633252-learn-about-meeting-storage-limits): Current storage limits by plan; its Free figure conflicts with an older Free-plan article. - [Fireflies bot-free desktop recording](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/6666374717-how-to-record-meetings-without-a-bot-on-the-fireflies-desktop-app): No AV files, generic speakers, and Sales Assist limitation. - [Fireflies desktop app](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/1208704416-getting-started-with-the-fireflies-desktop-app): Capture modes, Live Assist, and bot versus botless behavior. - [Fireflies mobile app](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/8937818258-learn-about-fireflies-mobile-app): iOS/Android in-person recording, search, sharing, and tasks. - [Fireflies speaker labels](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/4994477228-how-to-edit-speaker-labels-or-names-in-a-transcript): Manual corrections and the mobile-recording speaker-detection caveat. - [Fireflies API](https://docs.fireflies.ai/introduction): GraphQL authentication, user/admin scope, available meeting data, and current Super Summary/Custom Apps gaps. - [Fireflies MCP tools](https://docs.fireflies.ai/mcp-tools/overview): Remote MCP authentication, full meeting-data access, read/write tools, and experimental-tool status. - [Fireflies AI credits](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/9606045468-fireflies-billing-terms): Workspace-pooled credit allowances, non-seat scaling, and add-on behavior. - [Fireflies Tasks Feed](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/1574234155-learn-about-the-tasks-feed): Automatic task generation and assignment, all-team task views, completion, reassignment, and project-tool handoff. - [Fireflies Linear integration](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/8360629677-how-to-integrate-linear-with-fireflies): Automatic issue creation, project and status routing, assigned-task filtering, and meeting-rule conditions. - [Fireflies integration directory](https://fireflies.ai/integrations): Current first-party directory advertising 100+ integrations across CRM, project, collaboration, storage, and other categories. - [Fireflies Rules Engine](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/4608292950-learn-about-the-rules-engine-feature): Enterprise conditions and actions for routing, automatic sharing, privacy enforcement, and deletion. - [Fireflies recap privacy defaults](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/5319481450-how-to-configure-privacy-settings-for-your-meeting-recaps): Default teammates-and-link visibility, narrower audience choices, and retroactive privacy changes. - [Fireflies data safety](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/2154538358-policy-on-keeping-information-safe): No-training and third-party zero-retention commitments plus governance controls. - [Fireflies compliance recording modes](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/3598930706-set-up-transcript-only-mode-for-compliance): Full-record, text-only, summary-only, and summary-plus-audio retention modes. - [Fireflies Enterprise controls](https://guide.fireflies.ai/articles/4771323041-learn-about-fireflies-enterprise-plan): SSO, SCIM, private storage, retention, and Super Admin access behavior. ### Circleback sources - [Circleback product guide](https://circleback.ai/llms.txt): Capture modes, apps, search, automations, integrations, recordings, MCP, CLI, webhooks, and security resources. - [Circleback pricing](https://circleback.ai/pricing): Current plan prices, included features, Business controls, Enterprise options, and free viewer seats. - [Circleback recording guide](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/11090138-getting-started-with-recording): Desktop, mobile, bot, and import capture paths for online and in-person conversations. - [Circleback optional recording storage](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/10581965-configure-whether-meeting-recordings-are-saved): Keep notes, action items, transcript, and insights while disabling stored audio and video. - [Circleback mobile and Apple Watch apps](https://circleback.ai/mobile): iOS, Android, and Apple Watch capture for in-person meetings and conversations. - [Circleback public API](https://circleback.ai/docs/api): Programmatic access to the complete meeting record available in Circleback, including notes, action items, transcripts, recordings, people, and companies. - [Circleback MCP documentation](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/13249081-circleback-mcp): Read-only access from ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, Codex, and other MCP clients to meetings, transcripts, action items, people, companies, calendar, email, and tags. - [Circleback CLI documentation](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/14677613-circleback-cli): Command-line and JSON access to meetings, speaker-labeled transcripts, action items, calendars, email, people, companies, and cross-meeting action-item search. - [Circleback Assistant connectors](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/13615023-ask-circleback-assistant): Search and take action in connected work apps from Circleback Assistant. - [Circleback automatic sharing](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/10460582-automatically-share-meetings-with-your-workspace): Conditional sharing by meeting title, participants, invitee emails or domains, and tags to people, teams, or the workspace. - [Circleback enforced workspace settings](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/11095989-default-and-enforced-workspace-settings): Admin-controlled defaults for sharing access, recording storage, joining preferences, and other meeting settings. - [Circleback security and data processing](https://circleback.ai/dpa): Retention responsibilities, subprocessors, and United States primary processing operations. - [Circleback security overview](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/10460553-security): Encryption at rest and in transit, SOC 2 Type II, no-training commitment, GDPR support, HIPAA compliance and BAA availability, EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework certification, and an external infrastructure pentest. - [Circleback security portal](https://security.circleback.ai/): Compliance materials, security controls, subprocessors, and an external infrastructure pentest report. - [Circleback action items in Linear](https://support.circleback.ai/en/articles/13622158-integrate-with-linear): Automatically create Linear issues from meeting action items and preserve the matched assignee.