Fireflies replacement for Microsoft Teams: which alternative also captures the meeting in the room?

The strongest Fireflies replacement for Microsoft Teams is amaiko — not because it transcribes better, but because it also captures the meeting that never had a meeting link, and writes the result into a persistent corporate memory instead of a transcript archive. EU data residency, €29.91 per user per month billed annually plus €19.99 for the Meeting Notetaker.

What you’ll take away from this article:

• As a transcription engine Fireflies is strong. The search for a replacement almost never starts with transcript quality — it starts with where the servers are, what gets covered, and what happens after the meeting.
• amaiko sends a visible bot into the call too. Same mechanism. Anyone selling you “minutes without a bot” as a differentiator is selling you something else.
• The first real difference is coverage: three capture modes, one of them a paired recorder for the conversation in the room. An online-only notetaker cannot reach the in-person meeting.
• The second comes after the meeting: decisions get read against your CRM, projects, email and earlier decisions instead of being filed as an isolated document.
• Hosting is not an Enterprise upgrade: EU data residency on every plan. With Fireflies it arrives via an Enterprise-only add-on at $39 per seat.
• The price, honestly: €29.91 + €19.99 = €49.90 per user per month billed annually — more than Fireflies, because you are not buying a notetaker but an assistant that also takes minutes.

Why are teams looking for a Fireflies replacement?

Start with what Fireflies does well. Its pricing page shows a genuinely usable free tier with unlimited transcription and 800 minutes of storage per seat, Pro at $10 and Business at $19 per seat per month billed annually. Across Zoom, Meet, Webex and Teams that is a strong offer, and if cheap transcripts are all you need, you are in the right place.

The search for a replacement starts elsewhere. It starts when your data-protection officer asks where the recordings physically sit — with Fireflies, EU data residency requires the Private Storage add-on, available in the Enterprise tier only. It starts when the archive is full and still nobody knows what was promised in the customer meeting back in March. And it starts when the conversations that matter most were never in a calendar at all: the visit to the customer’s office, the half-hour in the meeting room. A notetaker that follows a meeting link was at none of them.

Does amaiko need a recording bot in the call?

Yes — and that is not a weakness we intend to define away. amaiko’s Meeting Notetaker has three ways into a meeting:

• Notetaker bot. Joins the online meeting as a named participant and captures live, on every platform our notetaker infrastructure covers. Visible to everyone. Technically the same mechanism as Fireflies or Read.ai.
• Transcript pickup from the platform. No bot in the call: your team records or transcribes in the meeting platform itself, and amaiko collects the transcript afterwards. This route is weaker — nothing runs live, and somebody has to switch transcription on.
• Paired recorder on site. A Hey Pocket device captures the conversation at the table rather than on the screen. Pairing happens straight from the chat, and the transcript arrives in amaiko like any other meeting.

Responsibility for lawful recording — informing participants, obtaining consent, observing works-council rights — sits with the recording company in all three modes. With the on-site recorder, amaiko does not notify the people present; that part is on you.

An online-only notetaker cannot structurally reproduce the third mode. Not because it is built worse, but because with no meeting link there is no meeting for it to join.

What happens to the knowledge after the meeting?

This is the difference that lasts. Fireflies stores transcripts and lets you search them with AskFred. amaiko writes the result into a persistent corporate memory: what was decided, who owns it, which customer and which project it touches — in the same memory as your email, your documents and your connected business systems, and across quarters and staff changes. The meeting turns into assigned tasks in Microsoft To Do, not walls of text. Why searching and knowing are two different things is set out in AI that doesn’t forget.

This is where an archive tips over: when experience walks out of the building with every resignation, a searchable pile of transcripts is not an answer — losing knowledge costs more than an annual salary. Measured across 200+ daily users, amaiko delivers 57 % shorter onboarding and 35 % less time spent searching, with no separate app and no new interface. Book a demo and see it in your own tenant.

What does a Fireflies replacement with amaiko cost?

Let’s do the arithmetic in the open. amaiko costs €29.91 per user per month billed annually (€37.39 monthly), from two seats, with volume discounts from 50. Meeting minutes are not included in the base plan: the Meeting Notetaker is an add-on at €19.99 and covers all three capture modes. Together, €49.90 billed annually — details on pricing.

Is that more than Fireflies? On the total, yes — but the totals aren’t comparing the same thing. Fireflies is a notetaker; the €49.90 buys an assistant in Teams and Outlook that also takes minutes: morning briefings, email triage, research, documents, a growing agent marketplace. On the meeting line itself, our Notetaker at €19.99 sits level with Fireflies Business ($19) and clearly under Enterprise ($39) — the only tier with EU data residency. In fairness though: €19.99 isn’t sold on its own, the add-on requires the plan. If transcripts are all you want, you are overpaying with us.

On hosting the sign flips: EU data residency and processing inside the EU apply on every amaiko plan, GDPR-compliant and ISO 42001-conformant. No Enterprise jump required — details on the security page.

Fireflies replacements compared: what separates the options?

Criterion	amaiko	Fireflies
Recording in the online call	Visible Notetaker bot, or bot-free transcript pickup	Visible bot in the call
Meeting with no online call	Yes, via a paired on-site recorder	No — no meeting link, no meeting
Hosting / data protection	EU data residency on every plan, GDPR-compliant, ISO 42001-conformant	EU data residency via Enterprise add-on only
Persistent memory	Yes, across meetings, email, documents and systems	No — transcript archive with search (AskFred)
AI features beyond meetings	Growing agent marketplace: email triage, research, documents, briefings	Transcription and summaries
Training effort	No separate app, no new interface	Its own web app plus a bot in every call
Meeting notes as a line item	€19.99 add-on (requires the plan)	The whole product: $10 / 19 / 39 per seat/month
Cost	€49.90/user/month billed annually (€29.91 plan + €19.99 Notetaker)	$10 / 19 / 39 per seat/month, billed annually

Fairness pays: Fireflies covers more meeting platforms and costs considerably less on its lower tiers. amaiko understands more of the meetings it does capture, and covers the room as well as the call. Market overview: Fireflies alternatives.

Want to see meetings — in the call and in the room — become company knowledge? Book your free live demo.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best Fireflies replacement for Microsoft Teams?

amaiko — if you need more than transcripts. It captures online meetings and, via a paired recorder, the conversation in the room as well, then writes the result into a persistent corporate memory instead of a transcript archive. EU data residency, €29.91 per user per month billed annually plus €19.99 for the Meeting Notetaker.

Does amaiko send a recording bot into the call?

Yes. The Notetaker bot joins the online meeting as a named participant and captures live — the same mechanism Fireflies and Read.ai use. amaiko can alternatively pick up a transcript the meeting platform produced itself; that route needs no bot, but it is weaker, because nothing runs live and somebody has to switch transcription on.

Can amaiko take minutes for a meeting with no online call?

Yes, through a paired Hey Pocket recorder. The device captures conversations on site — the meeting at the table, not on the screen — and the transcript arrives in amaiko like any other meeting. This is exactly where an online-only notetaker stops: with no meeting link, there is no meeting for it to join.

Who is responsible for telling participants about the recording?

The customer, in all three capture modes. amaiko supplies the technology; informing participants, obtaining consent and observing works-council rights sit with the recording company. With the on-site recorder, amaiko does not notify the people present.

What does Fireflies cost, and what does amaiko with meeting minutes cost?

Fireflies lists Pro at $10, Business at $19 and Enterprise at $39 per seat per month billed annually. amaiko costs €29.91 per user per month billed annually, plus €19.99 for the Meeting Notetaker — €49.90 together. The totals are not like-for-like: Fireflies is a notetaker, amaiko is an assistant that also takes minutes. On the meeting line alone, our €19.99 Notetaker sits level with Fireflies Business and clearly under Enterprise — but it cannot be bought without the plan.

How does the hosting differ from Fireflies?

With amaiko, EU data residency is not an Enterprise upgrade but the default on every plan, and AI processing stays inside the EU. With Fireflies, EU data residency comes from the Private Storage add-on, which is available on the Enterprise plan only.

Why is a transcript archive not a corporate memory?

An archive answers only when you search it, and every meeting stays an isolated document. amaiko reads a decision against your CRM, projects, email and earlier decisions — and the knowledge stays available long after the person who sat in the meeting has left.

How much training does moving to amaiko take?

None: no separate app, no new interface. amaiko lives in Microsoft Teams and Outlook, where the work already happens. Measured across 200+ daily users, that means 57 % shorter onboarding and 35 % less time spent searching.