Recal vs Fireflies
Action items over transcripts
Fireflies.ai is a popular tool for recording meetings and generating notes. Recal is built for a different goal: turning conversations into clear, actionable tasks, especially from Slack, async discussions, and shared recordings.
If your team already has plenty of meeting notes but still struggles with follow-ups, Recal takes a more action-first approach.
The core difference
Fireflies focuses on meetings and transcripts.
Recal focuses on outcomes and next steps.
Fireflies
Meeting notes & transcripts
- Join and record live meetings
- Transcribe conversations
- Create searchable meeting notes
- Automatic meeting documentation
Recal
Tasks, decisions, follow-ups
- Video understanding — sees screen shares & visuals
- Slack-native workflows
- Task extraction as core feature
- Built for async teams
| Recal | Fireflies | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary focus | Tasks, decisions, follow-ups | Meeting notes & transcripts |
| Slack-first workflows | Limited | |
| Async communication | Built-in | Meeting-centric |
| Task extraction | Core feature | Partial |
| Best for | Founders, PMs, async teams | Meeting-heavy teams |
How Recal works
Designed for modern, async teams where not everything happens in meetings.
Summarize conversations
Summarize Slack messages and threads with AI that understands context and nuance.
Analyze recordings
Process shared recordings from Loom, meetings, or any uploaded video/audio.
Extract what matters
Get action items, decisions, and clear next steps — not just another transcript.
What Recal extracts
How Fireflies works
A fair look at what Fireflies does well — and where it stops short.
Fireflies works well for teams that
- ✓Rely heavily on live meetings
- ✓Want automatic meeting documentation
- ✓Need searchable transcripts across calls
- ✓Have lots of calls to reference later
⚠️However, Fireflies is less focused on
- ○Slack-based workflows
- ○Async communication
- ○Turning messages into structured tasks
- ○Action-oriented output
When to choose which
Honest guidance to help you pick the right tool.
Choose Recal if you:
- Work primarily in Slack
- Want tasks extracted from message threads
- Use Loom or async recordings
- Care about follow-ups more than transcripts
- Want fewer meetings, not better ones
Choose Fireflies if you:
- Have many live meetings every day
- Need searchable transcripts
- Want automatic meeting note-taking
- Don't rely heavily on Slack threads
Feature comparison
A detailed look at what each tool offers.
| Feature | Recal | Fireflies |
|---|---|---|
| Video understanding | — | |
| Slack thread summaries | — | |
| Task extraction from messages | Limited | |
| Async-first workflows | — | |
| Meeting recording | Supported | Core |
| Transcripts | Optional | Core |
| Loom / video summaries | Limited | |
| Action-focused output | — |
Pricing philosophy
Fireflies pricing
Optimized around meeting recordings, transcription volume, and seats per team. Great if you have lots of meetings to record.
Recal pricing
Focused on recaps and summaries, task extraction, and actual usage across Slack and async work.
If your team wants to reduce meeting dependency, Recal aligns better with that goal.
See full pricing detailsFrequently asked questions
Is Recal a Fireflies alternative?
Yes — especially for teams that want fewer meetings and better async workflows. Recal is not just a meeting note-taker; it's an action extraction tool that works across Slack, recordings, and more.
Does Recal record meetings like Fireflies?
Recal focuses on analyzing conversations and recordings, not joining every meeting as a bot. You can upload recordings or connect them via Loom links, then get AI-powered summaries and action items.
Can Recal extract tasks from Slack?
Absolutely. Slack thread summarization and task extraction are core to Recal. Just type /recal in any thread to get an instant summary with action items, decisions, and deadlines extracted.
Can I use both Recal and Fireflies?
Yes. Some teams use Fireflies for meeting recording and transcription, then bring key discussions to Recal for task extraction and actionable follow-ups. Use what works best for your workflow.
Learn more about our main product:
Meeting Summary AI
AI-powered meeting summaries with key points and decisions
Stop collecting notes. Start getting things done.
If your biggest problem isn't missing transcripts but missing follow-ups, Recal is built for you.
Learn more about Recal