Daisy
Private meeting notes, dictation, and voice notes for Mac
Privacy-first pick for Mac users who want meeting notes without a cloud middleman. Local transcription, speaker diarization, and MCP server are executed well, and the new prep and review workflows are genuinely useful. Won't fit Windows or teams needing collaboration; no cross-device sync — but if you live in Markdown and value data ownership, it's a strong choice.
Verified 1d ago · liveness 79/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/daisy
- Privacy-conscious professionals who want no cloud exposure of meeting data
- Journalists and researchers recording confidential interviews
- Developers wanting AI-accessible local transcript archives via MCP
- Knowledge workers using Markdown workflows and Obsidian vaults
- Windows or Linux users (Mac-only, Apple Silicon M1+)
- Users needing cloud sync across devices or a web interface
- Enterprise teams requiring role-based access or collaboration
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Skip Daisy if you need Windows/Linux support, cross-device sync, team collaboration, or a web interface — it's a Mac-only, personal, local-first tool.
Cloud summaries require a separate ChatGPT, Codex, or Kimi account; usage may count against their plan limits or incur their own fees.
Daisy is free during beta, making it the most cost-effective privacy-first meeting recorder for solo Mac users. After beta, it shifts to a lifetime purchase, sparing you the recurring fees of subscription rivals like Otter.ai ($16.99/mo) or Fireflies ($18/mo). For a single professional, Daisy's one-time cost likely beats a year of cloud subscriptions—but it lacks the team collaboration those services provide.
In short
Daisy — Private meeting notes, dictation, and voice notes for Mac. Best for Privacy-conscious professionals who want no cloud exposure of meeting data, Journalists and researchers recording confidential interviews, Developers wanting AI-accessible local transcript archives via MCP. Free to use.
What's new in Daisy
Checked 7 days agoAcross the latest 4 updates: 2 feature updates and 2 changelog entries.
Daisy 1.0.7.63 build 107
Fixed dictation reliability when taking screenshots; prompt countdown pauses while speaking; added a pill to indicate recording during dictation.
Daisy 1.0.7.62 build 106
Prompts moved from notifications to a widget; never auto-stops recordings; added discard recording option and live system audio meter.
Daisy 1.0.7.60 build 104
Added 5 new transcription languages (Ukrainian, Polish, Italian, Portuguese, Korean), bringing total to 12.
Daisy 1.0.7.59 build 103
Introduced workload dashboard, meeting prep sheets, evidence-based plan review, and optional sensitive-data protection for cloud summaries.
What people actually say about Daisy — is it worth it?
We ran a structured research pass across product reviews, community discussions, and post-purchase forum threads to surface the patterns vendors won't publish themselves. Below: the recurring strengths, the hidden costs people mention most, and the cohort that consistently regrets adopting this tool.
73 mentions across 5 sources (Hacker News, YouTube, Product Hunt, GitHub, Lemmy) · researched Sep 1, 2026.
- +Fully local and private, no data leaves your Mac
- +Open-source code, allowing transparency and community audits
- +No account required, reducing setup friction
- +Supports 12 languages for transcription
- +Speaker diarization with pyannote, allowing speaker separation
- −Mac-only, excluding Windows and Linux users
- −No web interface or team collaboration features
- −Lack of community feedback makes trust difficult
- −On-device accuracy unverified by users
- −Setup may be technical for non-experts
- • No detailed pricing revealed for post-beta
- • Optional cloud summaries require your own ChatGPT/Codex account
Viability Score
How well maintained and how widely used is Daisy? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this
Last calculated: September 2026
How we score →Key Features
- Local-first meeting recording (mic + Mac audio)
- On-device transcription (12 languages + auto-detect)
- Speaker separation with pyannote
- Push-to-talk dictation into any app
- Voice notes with title and search
- Markdown transcript storage to any folder
- MCP server for AI clients (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Cline, Continue)
- Workload dashboard (7/30/90/365-day views)
- Meeting prep with agenda (text, Markdown, PDF, DOCX)
- Evidence-backed plan review with timestamps
- Optional cloud summaries via ChatGPT/Codex account
- Local privacy layer (pseudonymize people/companies, redact secrets)
- Prompt countdown pauses while speaking (dictation)
- Recording never auto-stops; live system audio meter
- Discard recording option
About Daisy
Daisy is a native macOS app (Apple Silicon, macOS 14+) that captures meetings, dictation, and voice notes entirely on your Mac. It records both your microphone and Mac audio without a bot joining calls, transcribes on-device, and turns what you said into useful, searchable memory. In the 1.0.7 beta line, it added a workload dashboard, meeting preparation and evidence-backed review, plus an optional local privacy layer for cloud summaries. Daisy offers three modes: meetings (with speaker separation, toggle or auto-start), dictation (hold a hotkey, talk, and text is pasted into any app), and voice notes (titled, searchable standalone notes). Transcripts are saved as Markdown files to any folder you choose, including Obsidian vaults. An optional MCP server lets you connect AI clients like Claude Desktop, Cursor, Cline, and Continue to query the local archive without data leaving your Mac. Recent updates simplify dictation: prompts moved to a widget, recording never auto-stops, and a discard option plus live system audio meter were added. Language support expanded to 12 (Ukrainian, Polish, Italian, Portuguese, Korean added), with auto-detect. The workload dashboard shows activity, call time, and AI usage across 7/30/90/365-day windows. Meeting prep lets you attach an agenda; after the summary, Daisy reviews each item with transcript evidence and timestamps. Daisy is free during beta, requires no account, and its code is Apache 2.0 open source. Compared to cloud services like Otter or Fireflies, Daisy offers full data ownership, offline operation, and open-source code — but it's Mac-only and lacks web interface, team features, or cross-device sync.
Behind the Verdict
Daisy is a quiet contender in a loud market. While Otter and Fireflies sell you convenience via the cloud, Daisy sells something else: ownership. Every transcript, every note, every searchable memory stays on your Mac. If that resonates, you're the target buyer. The beta is free, and the code is Apache 2.0 — you can inspect exactly how the data path works. That level of transparency is rare in the AI note-taking space, where accuracy numbers are often invented. Daisy instead shows the boundary: local transcription, your choice of AI for summaries (local model, Apple Intelligence, or your ChatGPT account), and optional cloud exports through webhooks or MCP. The new meeting prep workflow is a differentiator. Add an agenda as text, Markdown, PDF, or DOCX — after the call, Daisy reviews each item with evidence and timestamps. That's not just note-taking; it's accountability. For project leads or anyone who runs recurring reviews, this turns a meeting into a documented actions log. Dictation improvements show attention to real workflow: prompts moved from notifications to a widget, recording never auto-stops, and a discard option added. Small things, but they make daily use less fiddly. So when to pick Daisy? If you're a Mac user who lives in Markdown or Obsidian, values offline capability, or handles confidential material. Journalists, researchers, and developers will find the local archive and MCP access compelling. When to pass? If you need Windows, Linux, or a web interface. If your team needs collaborative editing or role-based sharing, cloud tools are better. And if you don't care about data ownership — if cloud processing is fine — you might find Daisy needlessly restrictive. Compare to Granola: both are Mac-first and attend meetings without bots. Granola has a
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Real-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Daisy actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
Recording a confidential interview in a coffee shop
Outcome: Use the Meetings mode to capture both mic and Mac audio, transcribe on-device in English, and save the Markdown transcript directly to an encrypted folder. No cloud upload, no third-party bot—just a clean, searchable interview file.
After a week of project meetings, wanting to query decisions
Outcome: Start the MCP server in Daisy, connect Claude Desktop, and ask "What action items from Monday's meeting are still open?" Claude pulls evidence from the local transcript archive, keeping all data on your Mac.
Need to prepare for an upcoming client meeting and capture notes
Outcome: Use the meeting prep sheet to attach an agenda PDF, start recording in Google Meet, and after the call ask Daisy to review each agenda item with timestamps and confidence. The notes land in Obsidian automatically.
Use Cases
- Record and transcribe remote meetings without a bot or cloud upload.
- Use push-to-talk dictation to type anywhere on your Mac with local AI.
- Expose meeting transcripts as a live data source to Claude Desktop or Cursor via MCP.
- Import existing Voice Memos and transcribe them offline.
- Keep meeting notes in Markdown format synced to Obsidian or iCloud Drive.
- Correct text typed in the wrong keyboard layout automatically.
- Schedule end-of-day summaries that run when your Mac is idle.
- Ask Daisy to draft a follow-up in your own voice using your Voice Profile.
Models Under the Hood
as of 2026-08-30
Limitations
- Daisy is a macOS-only application that requires a local installation and grants system permissions on first launch.
- On-device transcription relies on models that download automatically on first use, which may be large.
- Cloud summary providers are optional, and using Kimi (Moonshot) processes requests in China, which may be a consideration for sensitive meetings.
- The changelog indicates ongoing development with multiple builds released in quick succession.
as of 2026-08-27
Verification history
We have re-verified Daisy 6 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Plans compared
For each published Daisy tier: who it actually fits, and what it adds vs. the previous tier. Cross-reference the cost calculator above for projected annual outlay.
Beta
$0
Ideal for
Solo Mac users who want to test Daisy's meeting capture, dictation, and local transcription without any cost, and are comfortable with occasional updates as the app stabilizes.
What this tier adds
Free during the beta period with full feature access, including cloud summaries (provider billed separately). No account required.
Post-beta
Lifetime purchase
Ideal for
Mac professionals who've validated Daisy in the beta and want a permanent, subscription-free license for ongoing private meeting notes.
What this tier adds
Shifts from free access to a one-time lifetime purchase, removing the need for recurring payments. Pricing not yet announced.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Daisy's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
Daisy is free during beta, making it the most cost-effective privacy-first meeting recorder for solo Mac users. After beta, it shifts to a lifetime purchase, sparing you the recurring fees of subscription rivals like Otter.ai ($16.99/mo) or Fireflies ($18/mo). For a single professional, Daisy's one-time cost likely beats a year of cloud subscriptions—but it lacks the team collaboration those services provide.
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Daisy — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
Installation is quick—download the DMG and drag to Applications, then grant system permissions on first launch. First recording can be done within 10 minutes. Transcription models download on first use, which may take a few minutes depending on your connection. Full workflow (including MCP setup) can be configured in under an hour.
Switching to or from Daisy
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From Otter.ai: Export your transcripts as Markdown, then configure Daisy to save new recordings into the same Obsidian vault. You can run Daisy in parallel during a transition period.
- →From Rev/Rev.com: Use the Voice Memos import to bring existing audio files, then transcribe them offline with Daisy.
- ↗To Obsidian: Daisy saves transcripts as Markdown directly into your vault, so there's no lock-in—your notes are readable by any Markdown editor.
- ↗To a cloud service like Otter or Fireflies: Export your Daisy transcripts as Markdown and upload them to the cloud service's import function.
Integrations
Resources & Guides
Tutorials & Learning
Official links
Tools that pair well with Daisy
Common stack mates teams adopt alongside Daisy, with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.
Featured Head-to-Head Comparisons
Daisy vs Gem
Gem and Daisy serve completely different markets: Gem is a high-cost recruiting platform for enterprises, while Daisy is a free, privacy-first local transcription tool for Mac users. Choose Gem if you run a recruiting team and need an all-in-one ATS+CRM with AI agents; choose Daisy if you want secure, offline meeting recording and dictation without cloud dependency.
Daisy vs Poke Interaction Co
Choose Daisy if you're a Mac user who values absolute privacy and needs local meeting transcription, dictation, and markdown workflow integration — it's free and open-source. Pick Poke if you want an AI assistant that handles email, calendar, tasks, and health data directly from your messaging apps, and you're okay with a cloud subscription model.
Daisy vs Guesty
Guesty and Daisy serve completely different needs. Guesty is a full-fledged PMS for vacation rental operators, with AI that automates guest messaging and reconciliation. Daisy is a local-first meeting recorder for Mac users who want privacy and on-device AI. Your choice depends entirely on whether you manage properties or need to transcribe meetings without cloud dependency.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Best-of guides
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