Fireflies.ai vs tl;dv: Pricing, Free Plans and Which to Pick
The cheapest full featured team note taker against the EU hosted video recorder, compared on published plans and limits.
By , research by the BestBots team · Updated Oct 19, 2026
Fact checked against each company's published pricing, documentation and verified user ratings. How we score
Fireflies is the better pick for most teams: Pro costs $10 a seat on annual billing against tl;dv's $18, and it transcribes 100+ languages to tl;dv's 30+. tl;dv wins for European companies that need data hosted in the EU and for anyone who wants a free plan that keeps unlimited video recordings.
Side by side
| Spec | Fireflies.ai | tl;dv |
|---|---|---|
| BestBots Score | 4.6 | 4.3 |
| Starting price | $18 per seat per month | $29 per seat per month |
| Pricing model | per seat | per seat |
| Free trial | None listed | Free trial on Business |
| Free plan limit | Unlimited transcription with auto join, 400 minutes of storage per team, limited AI summaries | Unlimited recordings; AI notes on 10 meetings; data kept up to 3 months |
| Paid from | $18 per seat per month, or $10 billed annually | $29 per seat per month, or $18 billed annually |
| Platforms | Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, desktop app, mobile app, Chrome extension | Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, iOS and Android apps |
| Languages | 100+ languages | 30+ languages |
| CRM sync | Salesforce, HubSpot and Pipedrive; app and CRM integrations from Pro | CRM integrations and field mapping from Pro |
| Storage | 400 minutes per team free, 8,000 minutes per seat on Pro, unlimited on Business | Unlimited recording storage on every plan |
The short answer
Choose Fireflies if price per seat, languages, integrations or conversation analytics drive the decision.
Choose tl;dv if your data must stay in the EU, you want a free archive of every meeting on video, or your sales team wants playbook monitoring.
Pricing
| Plan | Fireflies.ai | tl;dv |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Unlimited transcription with auto join, limited summaries, 400 minutes storage per team, 20 AI credits | Unlimited recordings and storage, AI notes on 10 meetings, 5 Ask AI queries, 3 month retention |
| Pro | $18 monthly, $10 annual | $29 monthly, $18 annual |
| Business | $29 monthly, $19 annual | $39 monthly, $29 annual |
| Enterprise | $39 a seat, annual only | Custom |
Prices from fireflies.ai/pricing and tldv.io/app/pricing in October 2026. tl;dv shows the same figures in euros to European visitors.
Team of 10, Pro, annual. Fireflies $1,200 a year; tl;dv $2,160.
Team of 10, Business, annual. Fireflies $2,280; tl;dv $3,480.
Free forever team. tl;dv keeps every recording. Fireflies fills its 400 minutes in under 7 hours of meetings.
Models and features
| Feature | Fireflies.ai | tl;dv |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Zoom, Meet, Teams and 10+ more; desktop, mobile, Chrome extension | Zoom, Meet, Teams; iOS and Android |
| Video recording | Pro and up | Every plan, including Free |
| Languages | 100+ | 30+ |
| AI assistant | AskFred, metered by AI credits | Ask AI, 5 queries on Free |
| Analytics | Business: sentiment, talk time, topic trackers, team insights | Business: multi meeting insights, scheduled AI reports, playbook monitoring |
| Integrations | All integrations on paid plans; Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive | 5,000+ apps via Zapier, CRM field mapping on Pro |
| API | Every plan, rate limited | Pro: API, webhooks, MCP |
| Recording limit | 2 hours Free and Pro, 3 Business, 4 Enterprise | 3 hours per recording; 40 to 120 web recordings a week |
| Bot free option | Chrome extension recording | Advertised on homepage |
Head to head scenarios
Budget team of 10
Winner: Fireflies. $1,200 a year on Pro annual against $2,160, with video, CRM integrations and 100+ languages included.
European company with data residency rules
Winner: tl;dv. Hosted and stored in the EU, ISO 27001 data centers, GDPR and EU AI Act compliance listed, and privately hosted AI on Enterprise.
Free archive of customer calls for a product team
Winner: tl;dv. Unlimited free video recordings and storage you can clip and share.
Multilingual sales team
Winner: Fireflies. 100+ languages and multi language mode on Business.
Sales coaching on a playbook
Winner: tl;dv. Business adds playbook monitoring and objection handling insights without usage fees. Fireflies' conversation intelligence is broader but less playbook focused.
Long workshops
Winner: tl;dv on paid plans. 3 hours per recording against Fireflies' 2 hours on Pro. Fireflies Business matches at 3 hours.
Privacy
Fireflies. SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and HIPAA (Enterprise) listed; states zero data retention and that data is never used for AI training; private storage, custom retention and a transcript and summary only mode on Enterprise.
tl;dv. EU hosting, ISO 27001 data centers, AES-256 encryption, GDPR, SOC 2 and EU AI Act compliance listed; says it never trains AI on recordings and processes meetings with Anthropic in anonymized, randomized batches.
Edge: tl;dv for EU residency, Fireflies for US healthcare (HIPAA on Enterprise).
Ratings
Both hold 4.7 on G2: Fireflies from 755 reviews, tl;dv from 546. On Trustpilot, Fireflies scores 4.5 from 860 reviews; tl;dv 2.1 from only 10, with complaints about account access and slow support.
Setup and rollout
Both tools take a few minutes to set up: sign in with Google or Microsoft, connect your calendar and choose which meetings the recorder should join.
Fireflies. Pick auto join for all calendar meetings, only those you own, or invite only. On the free plan, unlimited transcription only applies with auto join on. Admins on Business get team analytics and user groups; Enterprise adds a rules engine, SSO and SCIM.
tl;dv. Connect the calendar, choose recording rules and connect your CRM on Pro to map notes into fields. Watch the weekly web recording caps (40 on Free, 80 on Pro, 120 on Business) if your team records a lot of ad hoc browser meetings.
For either tool, export recordings before you cancel a paid plan, tell participants that meetings are recorded, and if you are switching from one to the other, turn off the old tool's auto join first so two bots do not show up in the same call.
Verdict
tl;dv takes four of the six scenarios, but they are specialist needs: EU hosting, free unlimited video, playbook coaching and longer recordings on Pro. Fireflies takes the two that matter to most teams, price and languages, and it is cheaper at every tier, so it is our pick for most buyers. If you are in Europe or want every call on video for free, choose tl;dv. Otherwise, choose Fireflies. More detail: Fireflies review, tl;dv review and Fireflies pricing.
Frequently asked questions
Is Fireflies better than tl;dv?
For most teams, yes, because it costs less ($10 a seat annual vs $18) and supports 100+ languages. tl;dv is better for European companies that need EU data hosting and for teams that want a free, unlimited video archive.
Which free plan is better, Fireflies or tl;dv?
tl;dv's. It keeps unlimited video recordings and storage for free, while Fireflies stores just 400 minutes per team. Fireflies' free plan has limited AI summaries; tl;dv's writes AI notes for 10 meetings.
Which is cheaper for a team?
Fireflies. Ten Pro seats cost $1,200 a year on annual billing against $2,160 for ten tl;dv Pro seats. On monthly billing the gap is $18 against $29 a seat.
Is tl;dv more private than Fireflies?
tl;dv hosts and stores data in the EU, lists GDPR, SOC 2 and EU AI Act compliance, and says it never uses recordings to train AI. Fireflies lists SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, HIPAA (Enterprise) and zero data retention, saying data is never used for AI training. Choose tl;dv if EU residency is required.
Which is better for sales coaching?
Close call. tl;dv Business ($29 annual) adds playbook monitoring and objection insights. Fireflies Business ($19 annual) adds conversation intelligence with sentiment, talk time and topic trackers. Fireflies is cheaper; tl;dv is more focused on playbooks.
What are the recording limits?
Fireflies caps recordings at 2 hours on Free and Pro, 3 hours on Business and 4 on Enterprise. tl;dv caps each recording at 3 hours and limits web recordings to 40, 80 or 120 a week by plan.