--- title: "Caven vs Fireflies.ai: AI Notes for Regulated Teams" description: "Caven vs Fireflies.ai: meeting bot or bot-free capture, US or EU processing and own-cloud hosting, compared for legal, finance and advisory teams." url: https://caven.io/compare/fireflies language: en publisher: "Caven BV" --- # Caven vs Fireflies.ai: The Fireflies.ai alternative built for confidential work Some tools optimise for fast notes or broad cloud convenience. Caven is built for a harder problem: confidential meeting intelligence for regulated professional teams. ## TL;DR for Busy Teams Fireflies.ai is a US meeting assistant built around its “Fireflies.ai Notetaker” bot, popular with sales teams; its desktop app can also record without a bot, but then saves no audio and labels speakers generically. Meeting data is processed in the United States; Enterprise customers can store it in their own or an EU bucket, but processing stays in the US. Caven never sends a bot, processes in the EU or in your own cloud or on-premise, pseudonymizes names before AI processing and files outputs into legal and finance systems. Fireflies suits general sales and team calls; Caven is built for confidential client and deal meetings. ## Comparing Fireflies.ai against Caven’s feature list | Requirement | Caven | Fireflies.ai | | --- | --- | --- | | Recording: No bot in the call | Yes | Optional (desktop app) | | Recording: Any meeting platform | Yes | Yes | | Recording: In-person meetings | Yes | Yes | | Recording: Phone calls, own number | Beta | Via phone systems (Aircall, RingCentral…) | | Data & hosting: Processed in the EU | Yes | No (EU storage on Enterprise) | | Data & hosting: Runs in your own cloud | Yes | Storage only (Enterprise) | | Data & hosting: On-premise | Yes | Not publicly offered | | Data & hosting: No AI training on your data | Yes | Yes (by default) | | Data & hosting: Pseudonymization before AI | Yes | Not publicly offered | | Fit for regulated work: NetDocuments | Yes | Not publicly offered | | Fit for regulated work: Custom contract terms & DPA | Yes | No custom terms offered | | Fit for regulated work: Advance notice with opt-out | Yes | Yes | | Fit for regulated work: Certifications | ISO 27001 | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 42001 | | Fit for regulated work: Built for legal & finance | Yes | No | Fireflies.ai column based on Fireflies.ai’s public documentation as of October 2026. “Partial” means the capability exists in some form or only in some setups; “Not publicly offered” means the vendor’s public pages do not mention it. Plans and features change, so check the vendor’s site for current details. ## What Caven is built for - **Bot-free by design:** A core requirement for sensitive client and deal conversations. Nobody joins the call but the people you invited. - **Controlled custody:** Keep recordings and AI processing in Caven’s EU cloud, in your own cloud, or fully on-premise. - **Filed where your work lives:** Summaries and transcripts go straight into iManage, NetDocuments or SharePoint, next to the matter or deal, instead of staying trapped in a note app. Pseudonymization and encrypted recordings keep exposure low along the way. ## Which platform is right for you? Many teams compare AI meeting tools on summary quality alone. For legal, finance, M&A, private banking and compliance workflows, the better questions are: can the tool work without a meeting bot, can you control where recordings and transcripts live, and can outputs flow into your professional systems? If your priority is lightweight personal note-taking for non-sensitive internal meetings, a general tool may be enough. If you handle regulated client work, deal work, committee work or confidential advisory, the bar is much higher. Caven’s advantage is not one isolated feature: it is the combination of bot-free capture, controlled custody, pseudonymization-aware design, encrypted recordings and embedded workflows for regulated teams. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is Caven a good Fireflies.ai alternative? Yes, if you need recordings without a bot in the call, processing in the EU, or hosting in your own cloud or on-premise. Fireflies remains a strong choice for sales teams that are comfortable with a bot and US processing. ### Can Fireflies.ai record without a bot? Yes, with its desktop app for Mac and Windows. According to Fireflies’ own guide, that mode does not save audio or video files and shows speakers as generic labels; features such as Sales Assist still need the bot in the call. ### Where does Fireflies.ai process meeting data? In the United States, on AWS and Google Cloud, by default. Enterprise customers can keep stored data in a private bucket, including in the EU, but Fireflies says the data is still processed in the US. ### Where does Caven process recordings? In the EU. Caven can also run in your own AWS, Azure or Google Cloud account, or fully on-premise on your own servers (Enterprise). Recordings are encrypted and never used to train AI models. ### Can Caven file meeting notes into our document management system? Yes. Caven sends summaries and transcripts to iManage and NetDocuments, as well as SharePoint, OneDrive and Google Drive, so every meeting ends up next to the matter or deal it belongs to. ### Does Caven join meetings as a bot? No. Caven records from your desktop for Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, Webex and any other platform, and from your phone for in-person meetings. With your calendar connected, it can notify attendees in advance with an option to object. ## Further reading - [Caven vs Fireflies.ai: Which Meeting Recorder Is Right for You?](https://caven.io/blog/caven-vs-fireflies-ai.md) - [Caven vs Granola, Fireflies, Jamie and Leexi for Regulated Teams](https://caven.io/blog/caven-vs-granola-fireflies-jamie-leexi.md) ## Next steps - [Book a demo](https://caven.io/book-a-demo) - [Start a 14-day free trial or the free plan](https://caven.io/pricing) - [Download the desktop app](https://caven.io/download)