Fireflies.ai icon

Fireflies.ai

★★★★ 4.4
VS
Proton icon

Proton

★★★★★ 4.5
Feature Fireflies.ai Proton
Pricing Free / from $18/mo Free / from $3.99/mo
Free Plan ✓ Yes ✓ Yes
Rating 4.4 / 5 4.5 / 5
Best For sales-teams, recruiters, managers, customer-success, consultants privacy-advocates, journalists, activists, security-conscious-users
Founded 2016 2014
Transcription
Ai Summary
Crm Sync
Conversation Intelligence
Ask Fred
Topic Tracking
Sentiment Analysis
Encrypted Email
Vpn
Cloud Storage
Calendar
Password Manager
Aliases
Self Destructing Messages

✓ Fireflies.ai Pros

  • Integrates with 40+ tools including CRM
  • Conversation intelligence metrics
  • AskFred AI chatbot for meeting queries
  • Automatic meeting log to CRM

✗ Fireflies.ai Cons

  • Audio quality affects transcription
  • Can feel intrusive to meeting participants
  • Advanced analytics only on higher plans

✓ Proton Pros

  • End-to-end encryption for all services
  • Swiss-based with strong privacy laws
  • Open-source and independently audited
  • Comprehensive privacy suite (mail, VPN, drive, calendar)
  • Free tier available for all services

✗ Proton Cons

  • Free storage is limited (1GB for mail)
  • Less feature-rich than mainstream alternatives
  • Search functionality limited due to encryption

The Verdict

Fireflies.ai is built for sales teams and recruiters, with a focus on transcription and ai-summary. Proton targets privacy advocates and journalists and leads with encrypted-email and vpn.

On pricing, Proton is the clear winner for budget-conscious users — starting at $3.99/mo compared to $18/mo for Fireflies.ai. That $14.01/mo difference adds up quickly for growing teams.

Both offer free plans, so you can test each with your real workflow before committing to a subscription.

This is a genuinely close comparison. If you can, sign up for both free trials (where available) and run a one-week test with your actual team tasks before deciding.

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