CallNote vs Fireflies.ai

Fireflies is a broad, low-cost meeting recorder with huge integration reach. CallNote is the Australian, transcript-only tool for professionals who need a defensible client file note without ever recording the call.

CallNote vs Fireflies.ai at a glance

Both tools end with a written record of a call. How they get there is completely different, and for a regulated Australian professional that difference is the whole decision. Fireflies.ai sends a bot into the meeting and records it. CallNote never touches your audio at all.

The core difference: a recording bot vs an existing transcript

Fireflies works by sending a bot, named Fred, into your Zoom, Meet or Teams call. The bot joins as a participant, records the audio and video, and stores the recording by default (Enterprise plans can bring their own storage). That recording is then transcribed and summarised. It is a genuinely capable approach, and Fireflies does it cheaply and at scale.

CallNote does not record anything. It receives the transcript your phone or meeting system already produced, then turns it into a clean, structured file note in about two minutes. You paste a transcript, forward one by email, upload a voice memo, or connect Dialpad so every call transcript flows in. There is no bot, no recording, and no audio stored anywhere. CallNote never transcribes the call itself - it works from a transcript that already exists.

Where Fireflies is genuinely strong

It would be dishonest to pretend Fireflies is weak. It is one of the better-value meeting recorders available, and there are real reasons people choose it.

• Integration breadth. Fireflies connects to a large range of CRMs and apps, plus Zapier, so a transcript or summary can land almost anywhere in your stack automatically.
• Price and free tier. Pricing is low (paid plans start around USD $10-18 per user as of mid-2026, check current pricing) and there is a free plan, so it is easy to trial across a team.
• Language coverage. It transcribes 60+ languages, which a transcript-only tool cannot match on its own - CallNote depends on whatever your source system produces.
• No AI training on your data. Fireflies states it does not train AI on customer data and runs a zero-data-retention policy with its third-party AI providers.

If your job is capturing and searching a high volume of meetings cheaply, those are strong points. CallNote is not trying to win on integration count or price per seat.

Why an Australian broker or adviser often cannot use a recording bot

Recording a client call in Australia is governed by state and territory law, and the rules differ across all eight jurisdictions. A bot that silently joins and records every call is exactly the thing a compliance team worries about. Even where recording is allowed with consent, you then own a stored audio file of a client's private financial situation, sitting on US servers, that you have to secure and account for.

CallNote sidesteps the whole problem because there is no recording to store. It receives a transcript that already exists, generates the note, and you review it before you lodge and lock it. The action is simple: Generate, Review, Lodge and Lock. Once locked, the note is timestamped, SHA-256 sealed, and any change is an append-only amendment in the audit log, so you have a defensible record rather than a freely editable document.

For mortgage brokers specifically, CallNote includes an NCCP loan-suitability note template built around the s130 'not unsuitable' standard with a broker declaration, plus per-state recording-consent scripts for all eight states and territories. That is the compliant client record, not a general meeting summary you have to reshape yourself. If you want to read how that works in practice, see our guide on writing a compliant NCCP file note.

Australian data residency

Fireflies is US-hosted by default. For many businesses that is fine. For an Australian professional holding client financial data, where the information lives is a real question that clients and licensees ask.

CallNote runs in AWS Sydney. Your data is AES-256 encrypted, stays in Australia, and is never used to train AI models. Both tools agree on not training AI on your data - the difference is the jurisdiction your records sit in. If data residency is part of your compliance posture, Australian hosting is not a nice-to-have.

Phone calls, not just video meetings

Fireflies is built around video meeting platforms - its bot joins Zoom, Meet or Teams. A lot of broker and adviser work still happens over the phone, where there is no meeting for a bot to join.

CallNote handles phone calls directly. The Dialpad connector is live today - paste your API key and every Dialpad call transcript becomes a note (Dialpad transcription is on all plans; API access needs Dialpad Pro). You can also upload a voice memo for a mobile or in-person call, and more connectors including Aircall, Zoom and Teams are rolling out. CallNote works on any device, so it is not tied to one operating system or to video calls only.

So which one should you pick?

This is a different-tools-for-different-jobs decision, not a knockout. Choose Fireflies if you want a cheap, integration-heavy recorder that captures and stores a searchable library of meetings across a team, and US hosting plus a recording bot are not a problem for you.

Choose CallNote if you are a call-heavy Australian professional who needs a defensible, compliant file note after client calls, cannot have a bot recording those calls, and wants your data in Australia with the note sealed and audit-logged. You also write your own house-style prompt rather than fitting into a fixed template, and you own everything with no lock-in.

If you want to weigh up other options too, our comparison hub covers the full set, including CallNote vs Otter and CallNote vs tl;dv, which take a similar bot-records-the-meeting approach. You can also start a 14-day free trial with no card and try it on a real transcript.