Tactiq vs Fireflies for recruiting: captions vs audio capture, phone screens and price

Tactiq and Fireflies.ai both transcribe interviews, but they get the words in different ways. Tactiq is mainly a Chrome extension that reads the meeting platform's live captions, so nothing joins the call and no audio is recorded; it needs captions switched on. Fireflies records the audio itself, with its Notetaker bot or a desktop app for Windows and Mac, and can capture phone calls routed through the computer. As of October 2026 Tactiq Pro is $8 per user per month billed annually and Fireflies Pro is $10. Fireflies names Greenhouse and Lever; Tactiq lists no ATS.

Every vendor fact below comes from Tactiq's and Fireflies' own sites, checked in October 2026 and linked. For setup detail on each, see Tactiq for recruiting and Fireflies.ai for recruiting.

How do Tactiq and Fireflies compare at a glance?

Sources, as of October 2026: Tactiq pricing, Tactiq on Zoom, Tactiq on Google Meet, Tactiq integrations; Fireflies pricing, how Fireflies joins meetings, Fireflies bot-free desktop guide, Fireflies for recruiting, Fireflies integrations.

Why does captions versus audio matter in an interview?

Tactiq's transcript is only as good as the platform's captions, and it only exists if captions are running. Its Google Meet article says Tactiq begins transcribing once captions are active. Its Zoom article says automated captions must be enabled, and that if someone else hosts and captions are off on their account, you select Request Captions or message the host.

Three practical consequences for recruiters:

• Client-hosted interviews. If a hiring manager hosts on Zoom with captions off, Tactiq has nothing to read until they switch them on, mid-interview.
• No audio to check. Tactiq keeps text, not sound. If the captions mishear a candidate's technology, employer or number, there is no recording to replay.
• Lighter footprint. The flip side: no audio file of the candidate is stored, and nothing extra appears in the meeting. Tactiq's pricing FAQ says the transcript is shown only to you, and that you can notify everyone that you are transcribing.

Fireflies' desktop app captures the computer's audio, so it works whether or not captions are on and whoever hosts. Its bot also records audio, and paid plans add video recording, which gives you playback.

Which works with the Zoom desktop app on Windows?

Fireflies, through its desktop app for Windows and Mac. Tactiq's Zoom article says the browser extension only works when you join Zoom in Chrome or Edge, not inside the Zoom desktop app, and points Mac users to the Tactiq Mac app for desktop Zoom, Slack and Microsoft Teams. We found no Windows desktop app on Tactiq's pages. A recruiter on a Windows laptop who joins client interviews from the Zoom app would need to switch to the browser for Tactiq to work.

Which one handles phone screens?

Fireflies. Its desktop guide lists phone calls on iPhone or Android, plus WhatsApp, FaceTime, Aircall, Discord and Slack, among the conversations it captures without a bot when they run through your computer. Tactiq reads captions from meeting platforms, so a phone call has nothing for it to read. For recruiters whose first conversation is usually a call, this row decides it.

Which one gets notes into an ATS?

Fireflies' recruiting page says it sends notes and transcripts to Greenhouse, Lever and others, and its integrations page lists Workable, Breezy HR, Loxo and Gem under applicant tracking systems. Tactiq's integrations page lists workflow integrations with tools such as Google Drive, Notion, Slack, HubSpot and Salesforce, and no ATS. With Tactiq you share or export the transcript and paste the relevant parts into the candidate record. Our guide to AI note takers for Greenhouse covers tools that post there directly.

What does each cost?

Per user per month, from each pricing page as of October 2026:

• Tactiq: Free (10 transcripts and 5 AI credits a month); Pro $8 billed annually or $12 monthly (unlimited transcripts, 10 AI credits, option to disable the transcript notification); Team, for 1 to 20 users, $16.67 or $20 (unlimited AI credits, auto-share with teams); Business, for 20 to 200 users, $29.17 or $40 (advanced data retention, SAML SSO); Enterprise custom.
• Fireflies: Free (unlimited transcription, limited summaries, 400 minutes of storage per team, 20 AI credits); Pro $10 or $18 (8,000 minutes of storage per seat, video recording, downloads); Business $19 or $29 (unlimited storage); Enterprise $39, annual only.

The AI allowances differ more than the seat prices. Tactiq Pro includes 10 AI credits a month and Team is unlimited; Fireflies lists 20 AI credits on Free and Pro and 30 on Business. If you plan to run an AI summary on every interview, count interviews per month against those numbers before choosing a plan.

Which AI features suit interviews?

Tactiq's credits pay for summaries, action items, follow-up emails, in-meeting AI and questions you ask of the transcript. Fireflies' recruiting page lists AI Skills including a candidate debrief, a tracker of questions the candidate asked, and a Candidate Sentiment Analyzer. The first two are useful. Sentiment and culture-fit analysis are poor bases for a hiring decision and can bring AI hiring rules into play; leave them off and rate candidates yourself on a structured scorecard.

How do they compare on data and security?

Both pricing pages list SOC 2 Type II and GDPR compliance; Tactiq's also lists ISO 27001 certification and HIPAA compliance. The differences that matter for candidate data sit in the plans:

• What is stored. Tactiq stores a text transcript built from captions, not audio. Fireflies' bot records the meeting, with video recording listed from Pro; its Enterprise plan adds a transcript and summary only mode, and its bot-free desktop capture saves no audio or video file.
• Retention. Tactiq lists advanced data retention on Business, for 20 to 200 users. Fireflies lists custom data retention and private storage on Enterprise.
• Contracts. Tactiq lists a curated data processing agreement on Enterprise. Ask either vendor for its standard DPA before you put candidate interviews through it.

Smaller teams on Pro plans get neither vendor's retention controls, so set a manual habit: export what the hiring file needs and delete the rest. Our guide to where AI note takers store interview data lists the questions to ask.

Which should you pick?

• Tactiq, best for: recruiters and sourcers who run short video screens in Chrome, host the meetings themselves (so captions are under their control) and want the cheapest text transcript with nothing joining the call.
• Fireflies, best for: recruiters who screen by phone, join client meetings in the Zoom desktop app on Windows, want audio or video playback, or use Greenhouse, Lever, Workable, Breezy HR, Loxo or Gem.
• Neither, if: your deliverable is a client submittal or your ATS is Bullhorn or JobAdder.

We make Interview Signal, one alternative for that last group: a Windows and macOS app with no bot that captures the call's audio directly, including phone screens taken through the computer, and writes a scorecard and submittal, with no ATS integration (you paste the output); everything about Tactiq and Fireflies on this page comes from their own sites, linked and dated. Fireflies is also compared with tl;dv in Fireflies vs tl;dv for recruiting, and other transcription options are in interview transcription software for recruiters.