Productivity · Head-to-head
Fireflies.ai vs Shortwave
Fireflies.ai vs Shortwave: Freemium — Pro $10/user/mo, Business $19/user/mo vs Freemium. Side-by-side features, pricing, and which to pick.
The verdict
Pick Fireflies.ai if…
- →you want our editor's pick for this category
- →your primary use case is sales and customer-success teams who need call transcripts and insights logged into their crm without manual entry.
- →you need: support, agents
Pick Shortwave if…
- →your primary use case is gmail users who want an inbox where ai drafts replies, summarizes threads, and handles scheduling and search.
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | Fireflies.ai | Shortwave |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Productivity | Productivity |
| Pricing model | freemium | freemium |
| Headline pricing | Freemium — Pro $10/user/mo, Business $19/user/mo | Freemium |
| Free tier | Limited transcription credits with 800 minutes of storage and basic AI summaries | Basic AI features with limited daily queries |
| AI Score | 8.7/10 | 8.3/10 |
| Best for | Sales and customer-success teams who need call transcripts and insights logged into their CRM without manual entry. | Gmail users who want an inbox where AI drafts replies, summarizes threads, and handles scheduling and search. |
| Editor's pick | ✓ Yes | — |
| Use cases | productivity support agents | productivity |
| Date added | 2026-04-30 | 2025-09-15 |
Pros and cons
Fireflies.ai
Productivity · freemium
Pros
- ✓Joins meetings automatically via calendar integration — no manual recording needed
- ✓Strong CRM integrations with Salesforce and HubSpot for auto-logging meeting notes
- ✓Conversation intelligence features like sentiment analysis and talk-time ratios
- ✓AskFred chatbot lets you search across your entire meeting history in natural language
Cons
- ×Free tier is restrictive — limited credits run out fast for regular users
- ×Transcription accuracy dips with heavy accents or overlapping speakers
- ×Meeting bot joining can feel intrusive to external participants who weren't expecting it
- ×Advanced analytics and CRM sync locked behind Business tier at $19/user/mo
Shortwave
Productivity · freemium
Pros
- ✓Most AI-integrated email client available
- ✓Excellent thread summarization
- ✓Natural language search across your mailbox
- ✓Clean, modern interface
Cons
- ×Gmail-only (no Outlook or other providers)
- ×Free tier is quite limited
- ×Newer product with smaller user base
- ×Some AI features can be slow
Related comparisons
Updated 2026-04-30. Spec data sourced from official product pages and tracked in our public directory at /tools.