ERIS vs Fireflies: a meeting AI assistant today, or meetings inside one business system with local AI

Upward Technologies (Upward Technologies) — Thu, 12 Nov 2026 23:06:29 +0000

ERIS vs Fireflies: a meeting AI assistant today, or meetings inside one business system with local AI

In the ERIS vs Fireflies choice, Fireflies fits a team that wants an AI meeting assistant now. According to its website in November 2026, Fireflies transcribes, summarises, searches and analyses team conversations from Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and other platforms. ERIS, by Upward Technologies (upwardtech.nl), is a different kind of product. It is one business system, and meeting notes are one part of it next to tasks, documents and CRM. ERIS is built to run with a local AI model, either on the company's own servers or hosted by Upward on its own servers in the Netherlands. ERIS is in development and is not available, not live and not in beta yet. The beta starts in November 2026 with design partners, and the official release is in January 2027.

What Fireflies is good at

Fireflies is built around one job: making meetings searchable and useful after they end. Everything below is how its own website described it in November 2026.

Meeting notes from the tools teams already use. Fireflies says it transcribes, summarises, searches and analyses team conversations. It records meetings on Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and other platforms.
Recording without a bot in the call. Its Chrome extension records, transcribes and summarises Google Meet calls without a bot joining the meeting. The extension runs in Google Chrome, Brave and Microsoft Edge.
Phone calls too. Fireflies transcribes calls from dialers such as Aircall and RingCentral. It also offers an API (a connection other software can use) for processing audio files.
Notes go where people work. It sends notes and alerts into Slack channels. It sends meeting notes and transcripts to applicant tracking systems such as Greenhouse and Lever.
Meeting data in other systems. Through its API, overviews, action items, keywords and topics can be pulled into a CRM, a project tracker or a data warehouse.
Security and compliance information. Fireflies' website lists security and compliance certifications and storage options. Check its website for the current list and what each plan includes.

For a team that wants meeting notes across many call platforms, connected to the tools it already runs, Fireflies is a strong and mature choice. To find out where meeting audio and transcripts are stored and processed, check Fireflies' own terms.

What ERIS does differently

ERIS does not try to be a better standalone note taker. It is built to put meetings inside one system for the whole business, with one AI assistant across all of it.

Meetings are one module, not the whole product. The ERIS beta is planned to include meetings, task manager, project management, document management, document signing and CRM in one app. Team chat and email are in development as part of the main portal. Upward runs meetings, meeting notes, the note taker and the task manager internally today. More modules are added over time, weekly or monthly. Roadmap modules such as finance, HR (human resources), support and legal are not part of the beta.

One data layer and one assistant. ERIS is built with one login, one data layer and one audit trail across its modules. The ERIS Assistant is designed to answer plain-language questions from company data, documents and the internal knowledge base, and to name its source. So a question can draw on a meeting, the tasks that came out of it and the customer record in the CRM, without moving data between separate tools.

A local AI model in both deployment options. ERIS has two deployment options. It can run on the company's own servers, or it can be hosted by Upward on its own servers in the Netherlands for smaller companies without their own hardware. Both always use a local AI model, and no outside AI provider receives client data in either option. In the on-premise option, meeting data never leaves the building.

Answers limited by access, and every action logged. The ERIS Assistant is built to answer each person only from the data that person is allowed to open. Every question and every AI action is logged: who asked, which data was used, what it did and the result. A refused access is logged like every other question.

Instructions inside content stay content. The assistant is built to read instructions inside an email or document as content, never as commands to follow. This lowers the risk of prompt injection (hidden instructions meant to steer an AI). It does not remove that risk.

Feature comparison

The Fireflies column shows what its website stated in November 2026. A blank cell means this comparison does not cover it, not that Fireflies lacks it. The ERIS column shows what ERIS is built to do. ERIS is in development, so nothing in its column is available today.

Capability	Fireflies	ERIS
Meeting transcription and summaries	Yes	Planned (AI meeting note taker, in the beta scope)
Search and questions across meeting conversations	Yes	Planned (through the ERIS Assistant)
Records Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams	Yes	Not stated
Google Meet recording without a bot joining	Yes (Chrome extension)	Not stated
Transcribes calls from phone dialers	Yes	Not stated
API for other software	Yes	Not stated
Sends notes to Slack and applicant tracking systems	Yes	Not stated
Tasks, projects, documents, signing and CRM in the same system	Not a focus (its API pulls meeting data into a CRM or project tracker)	Planned (beta scope)
Local AI model		Planned, in both deployment options
Runs on the company's own servers		Planned
Hosted option		Planned: hosted by Upward on its own servers in the Netherlands
Answers limited to what each person may open		Planned
Log of every AI question, action and refused access		Planned
Security and compliance certifications	Listed on its website	Not claimed
Available today	Yes	No (beta November 2026, release January 2027)

ERIS vs Fireflies: which one should you pick

You need meeting notes this month. Pick Fireflies. ERIS is not available yet, and Fireflies already works with the main call platforms and many other tools.

You need a stated certification. Look at Fireflies. Its website lists security and compliance certifications, so check that the ones you need are covered. ERIS claims no certifications.

Your meeting audio and company data may not go to an outside AI provider, and you want meetings, tasks, documents and CRM in one system. ERIS is built for this case. It suits companies that cannot or will not send their data to outside cloud or AI providers, including the hosted option for companies without their own hardware. Whether a deployment meets the GDPR (the EU data protection rules), the EU AI Act or NIS2 (the EU cybersecurity rules) depends on the use case and is assessed per deployment. ERIS does not make a company compliant.

If you are still comparing AI assistants, look at tools that work across company data rather than meetings alone.

FAQ

What hardware do I need to run ERIS with local AI?

Local AI needs suitable hardware, usually a GPU (graphics processing unit) server. Its speed depends on that hardware, and existing servers are not always enough. Running it on your own premises costs hardware, maintenance and updates. Local AI reads and searches company documents and is not trained on them.

Do I need my own IT team to run ERIS?

Not necessarily. A company without its own IT team or hardware can choose ERIS hosted by Upward on its own servers in the Netherlands, still with a local AI model. A company that runs ERIS on its own premises takes on the hardware, maintenance and updates.

Can ERIS connect to the software we already use?

ERIS is built to bring meetings, tasks, project management, documents, document signing and CRM into one system with one data layer, so less data has to move between separate tools. Upward has not published a list of connections to outside software. If you need ERIS to work with a specific tool, ask Upward when you request beta access.

Request access to the ERIS beta

This article was written with AI assistance.

DEV Community: Upward Technologies (Upward Technologies)

ERIS vs Fireflies: a meeting AI assistant today, or meetings inside one business system with local AI

ERIS vs Fireflies: a meeting AI assistant today, or meetings inside one business system with local AI

What Fireflies is good at

What ERIS does differently

Feature comparison

ERIS vs Fireflies: which one should you pick

FAQ

What hardware do I need to run ERIS with local AI?

Do I need my own IT team to run ERIS?

Can ERIS connect to the software we already use?