If you've heard of Fireflies.ai, you know it tries to solve a real pain: post-meeting notes. It auto-joins your meetings, records everything, and then (hopefully) delivers a meeting summary afterward. In theory, it's an AI meeting assistant meant to simplify your day.
I'll be upfront: I work on Notigo, another AI meeting note taker. So yes, I'm biased—but I've also spent the last year knee-deep in tools like this, comparing features, reading feedback, and obsessing over what actually makes a great AI note taking app. Here's where Fireflies lands, and where it falls short.
1. It's Not Real-Time
Fireflies waits until your meeting wraps up before it generates a transcript or meeting notes. That means if it mishears something or skips an action item, you won't know until the end—when it's too late to correct it.
This is especially frustrating in fast-paced meetings or in-person meetings where note-taking accuracy matters in the moment. Fireflies may be a capable AI summarizer, but it doesn't give you live meeting notes.
Notigo, on the other hand, works in your browser and generates structured AI meeting minutes as the meeting unfolds. You can edit, tweak, and monitor your notes in real time—making it ideal for both remote and in-person meetings.
2. The Bot Can Be Frustrating
Fireflies works by sending its bot, Fred, to auto-join every call. It integrates with your calendar and sneaks into Zoom, Meet, or Teams calls, ready to record.
Sounds convenient, but in practice:
- It sometimes shows up to meetings you didn't want recorded, or stays longer than expected.
- Colleagues might not realize a bot is present, which leads to awkward moments or mistrust.
- As noted by some Reddit users, it can create confusion across work and personal calendars.
If you're managing a team and trying to streamline your meetings, this behavior might feel intrusive. Fireflies requires constant micromanagement.
Notigo avoids this entirely. There's no bot. No auto-joins. You open it when you need it, like a respectful, on-demand AI note taker.
3. Calendar Access Raises Privacy Flags
Fireflies needs full calendar access to do its job. It's marketed as smart scheduling, but giving a tool access to your entire agenda isn't for everyone—especially when it starts auto-joining meetings.
If you're security-conscious or working with sensitive data, this might feel like overkill.
With Notigo, you don't have to connect a calendar. It works purely in-browser—so your meeting scheduling tool stays separate from your AI meeting notes.
4. Post-Meeting Editing Can Be Messy
A lot of Fireflies users appreciate its raw transcripts—but many say they still spend a decent chunk of time cleaning things up afterward. Things like:
- Speaker tags getting mixed up
- Repetitive or robotic summaries
- Transcripts missing emotional nuance or flow
So yes, it works—but you're trading real-time control for after-the-fact labor. It's not ideal for fast-moving projects or toolbox meetings that need quick documentation.
Notigo creates labeled, easy-to-read meeting minutes AI-style, in real time. You can click into the document during the meeting, change a sentence, add structure, or flag an error—all while staying present.
5. It Can Feel... Robotic
This is where user experience matters. Fireflies delivers solid transcripts, and its integrations with CRMs and productivity tools are appreciated. But the actual summaries can feel like AI output: cold, automatic, and devoid of context.
That's fine if all you want is a transcript. But if you're aiming for readable AI meeting notes your team can trust and share, the extra editing becomes another to-do.
Notigo writes like a person would: with headers, speaker tags, summaries that don't feel like a wall of AI text. It also works as a lightweight, free AI note taker, so you're not forced into a paid plan right away.
What Real Users Say
Fireflies is well-known, and it's not without fans. Some praise its transcription accuracy and integrations. But many also report:
- Bot confusion and uninvited joins
- Invasive calendar access
- Hard-to-read transcripts and robotic tone
And if you've ever had a bot join your in-person meeting by mistake... you know the pain.
The Verdict
If you just want a set-it-and-forget-it AI meeting tool that joins your calls and sends you a transcript later, Fireflies is a solid choice.
But if you want something that gives you meeting notes AI-style while you're still in the call, lets you stay in control, avoids intrusive bots, and doesn't ask for full calendar access, Notigo is a better fit.
It's a cleaner, calmer approach to AI note taking, with a free AI note taker tier that lets you try before you commit. And it's one less bot to worry about showing up uninvited.
