Fellow vs Fireflies AI: The Complete 2026 Comparison

If your team is comparing AI meeting assistants, you've likely narrowed it down to Fellow and Fireflies. Both promise to transcribe, summarize, and extract action items from your meetings. But when independent reviewers put them head-to-head, one tool consistently outperforms for teams prioritizing accuracy, security, and organization-wide intelligence.

The verdict: Fellow is the stronger choice for teams and organizations. It delivers 95%+ transcription accuracy across 92 languages, offers both bot and botless recording with identical enterprise governance, and never trains on customer data. As Aron Kantor from The Business Dive noted after testing dozens of AI note-takers over 2+ years, "Fellow is one of the best choices for organizations and bigger teams, thanks to its features and high-security standards."

Fireflies remains a capable tool for individuals and small teams who want a versatile, budget-friendly transcription option. But for organizations where meeting data contains sensitive information, Fellow's security-first approach makes the difference.

Fellow vs Fireflies: Quick Comparison

Why organizations choose Fellow over Fireflies

1. Transcription accuracy that doesn't slip

Accuracy is the foundation of any meeting assistant. Fellow consistently delivers 95%+ transcription accuracy across clear and challenging audio environments.

Fireflies claims similar accuracy under ideal conditions, but independent testing tells a different story. As one Capterra reviewer noted:

"There are occasional inaccuracies, especially with overlapping conversations or technical jargon."

A Reddit user who tested Fireflies across 33 meetings in 30 days described the experience as "very close to 90-95% accuracy" but flagged significant issues with speaker labeling when multiple participants spoke simultaneously.

For teams where getting the "who said what" right matters - sales calls, legal discussions, executive meetings - these accuracy gaps create downstream problems. Misattributed action items end up in the wrong hands. CRM data gets polluted. Follow-ups fall through.

Aron Kantor from The Business Dive put it plainly after extensive testing:

"Fellow has one of the most accurate transcriptions I have seen and captures context and nuances."

Ready to see the accuracy difference? Try Fellow free →

2. Bot or botless: Your choice, same governance

Fellow offers something Fireflies cannot match: true botless recording across all major platforms (Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Slack Huddles) with identical enterprise governance for both modes.

Fireflies does offer a botless option, but it's limited to a Chrome extension that only works with Google Meet. For Teams or Zoom users who want to avoid the "Fireflies Notetaker has joined" notification, there's no alternative.

This matters more than it seems. In Bluedot's detailed Fireflies review, the tester noted that Fireflies' default behavior "raised some flags"—the bot not only joined calls but instantly pushed summaries to all attendees. "A clever viral loop, sure—but not one I appreciated in internal calls or when dealing with clients."

Fellow's approach is different. Organizations can set recording policies at the admin level, controlling who can record, what can be recorded, and who accesses the output. Whether you use bot or botless capture, the governance stays consistent.

3. Cross-meeting intelligence with Ask Fellow

Here's where Fellow pulls ahead for organizations: Ask Fellow lets users query across all meetings they have access to, not just a single transcript.

Imagine asking: "What commitments did we make to Acme Corp last quarter?" or "Where are our projects getting blocked?" Fellow surfaces answers from your entire meeting history, with timestamps and context.

Fireflies' AskFred is useful for drilling into individual meetings, but it lacks this organization-wide memory.

For teams managing complex projects, long sales cycles, or cross-functional initiatives, this cross-meeting intelligence transforms how decisions get made.

4. Action items that actually sync

Fellow doesn't just extract action items, it syncs them directly to the project management tools your team already uses: Asana, Monday, Jira, Linear, ClickUp, and more.

Fireflies identifies action items and lets you push them to integrations, but in MeetGeek's pricing analysis, reviewers noted that "action items are labeled clearly yet still require manual steps to get them into your workflow." The integrations exist, but the automation doesn't match Fellow's native sync.

When action items flow automatically from your meeting recap to your task board, accountability improves. When they require copy-pasting or manual entry, they get lost.

5. Enterprise security without compromise

Both Fellow and Fireflies hold SOC 2 Type II certification and claim HIPAA compliance. But Fellow goes further with features that matter for organizations handling sensitive data:

• Transcript redaction: Remove sensitive information before sharing

• Granular permission controls: Admin-level policies for who records, who accesses

• Data residency options: Choose where your data lives

• Audit logging: Track access and changes across your organization

• Never trains on customer data: Explicitly stated in terms of service

For teams in healthcare, finance, legal, or any regulated industry, Fellow's security-first architecture isn't optional, it's essential.

See how Fellow protects your meeting data → Try Fellow free

Quotes from Fireflies users switching to Fellow

The feature comparisons tell part of the story. But the clearest signal comes from teams who've used both tools and made the switch. Here's what they told us:

1. Data privacy concerns

For organizations in regulated industries, Fireflies' data practices raise red flags. One school administrator became concerned about potential violations of student PII and FERPA laws if they continued using Fireflies for official school business, prompting the switch to Fellow.

"Data privacy and control is our top priority, wanting transparency about data brokers, storage methods, transmission security, encryption types, and endpoint visibility."

— IT Help Desk Technician

2. Uninvited meeting joins

Fireflies' auto-join behavior frustrates users who want control over when recording happens.

"[They] expressed frustration with Fireflies automatically joining meetings and the difficulty in turning it off, which contributed to [their] decision to choose Fellow and delete [their] Fireflies account." — Accountant/Business Owner

3. Better interface and context

When teams compare the tools side-by-side, Fellow's experience wins.

"When comparing both tools, [the administrator] found Fellow's interface to be significantly better than Fireflies." — School Administrator

"[They were] surprised to find that Fellow provided better context despite having access to less meeting data than Fireflies." — Director/Manager

4. Granular privacy controls

Fellow's permission system gives organizations confidence to centralize meeting data.

"Fellow provides granular recording and access controls, so orgs can benefit from centralized meeting data and consolidation without worrying about privacy and security." — Director/Manager

5. Pricing that makes sense

At scale, the cost difference becomes significant.

"Fireflies is significantly more expensive than Fellow, with their enterprise plan costing approximately double Fellow's business plan pricing." — Business Owner

6. Full-featured trial

Fireflies' restricted trial limits evaluation; Fellow lets teams test everything.

"Fireflies' free trial only allows approximately three meeting summaries, whereas Fellow provided full access during the trial period, which significantly influenced [the] decision." — School Administrator

7. Hybrid meeting support

For teams mixing virtual and in-person, Fellow covers both.

"Fellow supports hybrid meetings with the ability to identify different speakers in person, while [Fireflies] doesn't support hybrid meetings or have the same privacy controls." — Compliance/Operations Role

Where Fireflies holds its own

Fireflies isn't without strengths. For the right use case, it's a capable tool:

Pricing for individuals: Fireflies' Pro plan at $10/user/month (annual) offers unlimited transcription, which appeals to solo users or very small teams watching every dollar.

100+ languages: Fireflies supports more languages than Fellow (100+ vs 92), though it cannot transcribe multiple languages simultaneously in the same meeting.

AskFred for single meetings: For drilling into one specific call, Fireflies' AI assistant handles questions capably, just don't expect it to search across your entire meeting history.

Pricing Comparison: Fellow vs Fireflies

Fellow's pricing advantage becomes clear at scale. The Team plan at $7/user/month undercuts Fireflies' Pro plan while including features (like video recording on all plans) that Fireflies locks behind higher tiers.

As Claap's pricing analysis noted about Fireflies: "The Free and Pro plans are too constrained for serious sales teams." Fellow's approach: generous free tier, competitive paid plans, removes friction from team adoption.

What independent reviewers say

Credible third-party testing reveals the real differences:

The Business Dive (Aron Kantor): After testing dozens of AI meeting assistants over 2+ years, Kantor concluded that Fellow "is one of the best choices for organizations and bigger teams" and praised its "high-security standards" and transcription accuracy.

Bluedot's Fireflies review: The tester flagged that "speaker labeling still needs polish" with Fireflies, noting attribution issues "in faster-paced or cross-talk-heavy calls."

Capterra (Fireflies reviews): Multiple verified users mentioned "inconsistent recording of meeting sessions" and "transcription errors involving multiple speakers or technical terminology."

Cosmo Edge (Reddit synthesis): Their analysis of user feedback noted that Fireflies' "transcription accuracy drops in noisy environments or with strong accents" and that "speaker identification errors are quite frequent...especially in multi-speaker meetings."

Who should choose Fellow

Fellow is the clear choice for:

• Teams who need consistent accuracy and accountability across meetings

• Organizations in regulated industries (healthcare, finance, legal) requiring SOC 2, HIPAA, and data residency

• Sales teams who want cross-meeting intelligence to track commitments and follow-ups

• Hybrid and remote teams needing governance controls that scale across departments

• Anyone who values botless recording without sacrificing features or security

Who should choose Fireflies

Fireflies makes sense for:

• Solo users and freelancers who want a budget-friendly transcription tool

• Teams comfortable with bot-only recording on platforms other than Google Meet

• Users who don't need cross-meeting AI search or organization-wide intelligence

The bottom line

For teams and organizations, Fellow delivers where it matters: accuracy, security, and intelligence that spans your entire meeting history. Fireflies remains a viable option for individuals and budget-conscious users, but its accuracy gaps, limited botless recording, and lack of cross-meeting search create friction at scale.

As Aron Kantor from The Business Dive summarized:

"If your goal is simply to transcribe a call, other tools will suffice. If your goal is to transform your meeting culture, Fellow is the answer."

Try Fellow free and see the difference →