Essence:
- Writes and transcribes meetings in real time (Whisper / Parakeet models locally)
- Generates summaries via local Ollama, or Claude / Groq / OpenRouter
- Desktop app (Rust + Tauri, Next.js frontend), Mac / Windows / Linux
- GPU acceleration: Apple Silicon, NVIDIA CUDA, AMD/Intel Vulkan
- Can feed an existing audio file and transcribe it
The key is privacy and no vendor lock-in. All those Otter/Fireflies/Fathom stream your calls to someone else's cloud; here data never leaves your computer. For those with sensitive calls (clients, NDA, medical, legal) — this is the main argument.
License: Community — free, MIT. There is paid PRO (more accurate transcription, templates, team features) and Enterprise.
Popularity: 22k+ stars, 2.2k forks — not an abandoned project, a living active project.
