Gong offers powerful AI-driven conversation intelligence specifically designed for sales teams, with robust analytics and coaching features that help improve deal outcomes and team performance. The platform excels at call analysis and provides deep insights into customer interactions, though it comes with a hefty price tag typically requiring annual commitments around $1,400-$1,600 per user plus platform fees. While Gong boasts 250+ integrations, users still face limitations in seamlessly executing follow-up actions directly within their existing workflow tools.

Fireflies.ai provides a more accessible cloud-based meeting transcription service that works across multiple platforms and offers real-time transcription in over 100 languages at competitive pricing starting from $10 per user monthly. The tool effectively automates note-taking and generates summaries for various meeting types, though it occasionally struggles with overlapping speech and accent recognition accuracy. Despite offering 50+ integrations, users often find themselves needing to manually transfer insights and action items to their productivity systems to actually complete post-meeting tasks.

Gong is best suited for sales-focused organizations with substantial budgets that need comprehensive conversation analytics and coaching capabilities, particularly those conducting both virtual and in-person client meetings. The platform works well for enterprise sales teams that can justify the investment through improved deal closure rates and enhanced sales performance tracking.

Fireflies.ai appeals to smaller teams, startups, and general business users who need basic meeting transcription and summary features without the sales-specific focus or enterprise pricing. It's ideal for organizations conducting primarily virtual meetings who want an affordable solution for capturing and organizing meeting content across different departments and use cases.

Comparison table

What users say about Gong and Fireflies.ai

Gong receives high praise from users for its comprehensive sales-focused features and seamless integration capabilities. Users particularly appreciate Gong's sharing features, which allow them to quickly share calls with clients or prospects right after meetings without administrative hassle. The platform excels at capturing summaries, tracking key moments, and keeping CRM systems updated, making it a valuable tool for sales professionals who rely on detailed call analysis.

Fireflies.ai has gained widespread adoption as users consistently rate it as one of the best AI note-takers available for both internal and external meetings. Users report exceptional performance with the platform's auto-join functionality, which requires zero manual setup, and praise its summary accuracy which typically reaches 90-95% in real-world testing across multiple meetings. The tool's reliability and ease of use have made it a go-to solution for professionals seeking automated meeting documentation.

One major reason users switch away from Gong is the significant cost burden, especially for smaller teams and organizations. Gong requires a substantial annual platform fee of around $5,000 for small teams, plus approximately $1,400-$1,600 per user per year. Additional onboarding services can add another $7,500 to the total cost. With no monthly payment options and only custom enterprise pricing available, many users find Gong expensive compared to similar products in the market, making it difficult to justify the investment.

Technical issues and performance problems drive some users to seek alternatives to Gong. Users frequently report experiencing lags and delays in call processing, which can disrupt workflow efficiency and real-time analysis needs. Additionally, transcription accuracy issues occur regularly, potentially affecting the reliability of meeting records and insights. These technical limitations can be particularly frustrating for teams that depend on immediate access to accurate call data for sales coaching and deal analysis.

Privacy and information accessibility concerns also push users away from Gong's platform. The system's privacy features, while designed for data protection, sometimes create unintended obstacles by hiding useful information from calls. For example, phone number redaction and other privacy measures can remove valuable context that sales teams need for follow-up activities and customer relationship management. This balance between privacy compliance and practical usability creates friction for users who need comprehensive access to their conversation data.

Users often switch away from Fireflies.ai due to transcription accuracy issues, particularly in complex meeting scenarios. The platform struggles with overlapping speech and faces challenges with accent variance, requiring users to double-check transcripts for accuracy. Speaker labeling becomes unreliable when multiple participants talk over each other, which can create confusion in meeting notes and reduce the overall utility of the service for teams that rely on precise attribution of comments and decisions.

The limitations of the free tier push many users to seek alternatives that offer more generous usage allowances. Fireflies.ai restricts free users to only 800 minutes of storage and caps meetings at 2 hours maximum, with limited AI summaries available. For growing teams or heavy meeting users, these constraints quickly become prohibitive, forcing them to upgrade to paid plans or migrate to competitors with more flexible free offerings.

Cost considerations become a significant factor for larger organizations, as expenses can accumulate rapidly when scaling across teams. Users report that pricing becomes increasingly expensive as team size grows, particularly when moving to higher-tier plans that include essential features like video recording and analytics. Additionally, the platform's focus on virtual meetings creates limitations for organizations that need comprehensive coverage of both online and in-person interactions, as Fireflies.ai lacks dedicated in-person meeting capture capabilities and doesn't offer a true local recording mode.

Using Gong

Does Gong work for in-person meetings?

Yes, Gong supports capturing in-person (face-to-face) meetings via its mobile app, which is useful for live meetings or field sales.

What do users say about the quality of Gong transcriptions?

Some users report occasional transcription inaccuracies, though Gong provides rich call analytics including transcripts that help improve rep performance.

How does Gong help users follow up on action items?

Gong includes an automation engine with AI-driven workflows that can automatically generate follow-up tasks and trigger deal alerts to streamline sales processes.

Does Gong integrate with software like Hubspot, Salesforce, or Linear?

Yes, Gong has extensive integrations with over 250 tools, including connections with CRM systems like Salesforce and HubSpot, as well as communication and productivity tools.

Using Fireflies.ai

Does Fireflies.ai work for in-person meetings?

No, Fireflies.ai is primarily designed for virtual meetings. While you can upload audio files of offline meetings for transcription, it doesn't have a dedicated in-person mode and is designed to join online calls rather than capture live in-room conversations.

Does Fireflies.ai require a meeting bot to join the meeting?

Not always. While Fireflies.ai typically uses a bot to join meetings, it also offers a Chrome extension that can record Google Meet calls without requiring the bot to join the meeting.

What do users say about the quality of Fireflies.ai transcriptions?

Users report that Fireflies.ai provides highly accurate transcription and speaker identification. However, some users note occasional transcription errors when there's overlapping speech or with names, and accent variance can affect accuracy, requiring double-checking. Speaker labeling isn't perfect when multiple people talk over each other.

How does Fireflies.ai help users follow up on action items?

Fireflies.ai automatically generates action items after each call and segments them from the conversation topics. It can auto-create tasks from these action items and automatically send notes to CRM systems, Slack, and other integrated tools to streamline follow-up workflows.

Does Fireflies.ai integrate with software like Hubspot, Salesforce, or Linear?

Yes, Fireflies.ai integrates with both HubSpot and Salesforce as part of its 50+ integrations. While Linear isn't specifically mentioned, Fireflies.ai supports project management tools like Asana and ClickUp via Zapier, and offers Zapier/API integration for thousands of additional tools, which would likely include Linear.

Another alternative: Circleback

Circleback provides best-in-class AI-powered meeting notes and automations. We support over 100 languages and automatic participant identification in both in-person and online meetings.

• Automatically-identified and assigned action items

• AI-enabled search across all meetings

• Automations with 100+ app integrations

• Industry-leading security with SOC 2 Type II, EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, and HIPAA compliance

• Ability to capture both online and in-person meetings with desktop and mobile apps