TL;DR - Quick Answer
What is Meetily? A self-hosted, privacy-first AI meeting assistant built with Rust that runs entirely on your device. Unlike Otter.ai, Fireflies, or Granola, your sensitive conversations never leave your infrastructure. Features local AI live transcription and local LLM processing. Open-source core with enterprise options for organizations needing centralized management.
Why it matters: Defense teams, Legal teams, healthcare organizations, and financial services need AI meeting notes but can't send privileged communications to third-party servers. Meetily solves this with 100% local processing.
Follow and support our Launch: November 5, 2025 on Product Hunt | Follow the launch →
GitHub: Support us on GitHub →
The Problem: AI Meeting Tools vs. Privacy Requirements
Six months ago, I was preparing for a legal call about a sensitive acquisition. Our legal counsel said:
"We need AI meeting notes, but we cannot use any cloud-based tool. Attorney-client privilege requires complete data control."
I checked every major AI meeting assistant:
- Otter.ai → Sends all audio to their servers ❌
- Fireflies → Cloud-only processing ❌
- Grain → Your data trains their AI ❌
- Fathom → No self-hosted option ❌
The reality: Every major AI meeting tool requires uploading your conversations to their infrastructure. For privileged communications, HIPAA-regulated healthcare, or financial services compliance, that's not just uncomfortable—it's a dealbreaker.
What we Learned Building This
1. Self-Hosted Doesn't Mean Complicated
The Myth: Self-hosted tools have terrible setup experiences.
The Reality: Modern tooling makes self-hosting simple.
Meetily Individual Installation:
For MacOS
# Install both frontend + backend
brew tap zackriya-solutions/meetily
brew install --cask meetily
open -a meetily
For Windows, Direct Download
Download meetily_x64-setup.exe
Installation Steps:Run installer
Launch the app and run transcription
For Linux
Build from source: See docs/BUILDING.md and docs/building_in_linux.md
That's it. The app handles everything—model downloads, configuration, setup.
2. Local AI is Production-Ready in 2025
The Myth: Local AI can't match cloud quality.
The Reality:
- Whisper Large v3 rivals cloud transcription services
- Modern LLMs (Llama 3.1, Mistral) are surprisingly capable
- M-series Macs, modern GPUs make local inference fast
- Privacy benefit >> marginal quality difference
Real-world performance:
- Transcription: Real-time on M1 Mac with Whisper Base
- Summarization: 30-45 seconds with Gemma3 12B
- Meeting notes: Generated before you close Zoom
3. Privacy Commands Premium Pricing
The Myth: Self-hosted = race to the bottom on price.
The Reality: Companies pay MORE for privacy and control.
Why?
- Eliminates months of vendor security reviews
- Legal department pre-approves it
- IT controls the infrastructure
- Compliance teams love it
- Executives trust it
Our pricing:
- Cloud alternatives: $10-30/month per user
- Meetily Individual: $99 one-time (lifetime)
- Meetily Organization: $499/year for small teams
- Meetily Enterprise: Custom (typical: $10K-50K/year)
Companies pay 2-5x more because privacy is worth it.
4. Open-Source Builds Instant Trust
When you open-source the core:
- Security teams can audit every line
- Eliminates weeks of security questionnaires
- Community contributes features
- Builds credibility fast
- Creates network effects
Our approach:
- Core application: MIT License (fully open)
- Enterprise features: Commercial license
- Everyone can verify privacy claims
- No "trust us" required
5. Rust Was the Right Choice
Why Rust for an AI meeting assistant?
Memory safety: No memory leaks with long-running audio streams
Performance: Handles real-time audio processing efficiently
Cross-platform: Single codebase for macOS, Windows, Linux
Concurrency: Async I/O for audio capture + AI processing
Dependencies: Cargo makes managing ML libraries straightforward
Trade-off: Steeper learning curve, but the engineering quality is worth it.
Why we Built Meetily: A Self-Hosted Alternative
After realizing this gap, we spent six months building Meetily. A privacy-first AI meeting assistant that runs entirely on your infrastructure.
What Makes Meetily Different
Core Philosophy: Your meetings, your infrastructure, your control. We bring our advanced Ai solutions to you. not your data to us.
Built With:
- Rust for performance, security, and memory safety
- Local ASR (Whisper/ local model based automatic speech recognition)
- Local LLM processing for summaries and insights
- Zero cloud dependency for the individual variant
Three Deployment Options:
-
Meetily Individual/Lite (The Privacy Maximalist)
- Runs 100% locally on your device
- Captures system audio and microphone streams
- Local AI transcription (Whisper models)
- Local LLM for summaries
- Zero data leaves your device
- Perfect for: Solo practitioners, consultants, privacy advocates
-
Meetily Organization (Team Collaboration)
- Client-server architecture
- Centralized admin management dashboard
- User management and permissions
- AI processing still happens locally on client devices
- Server only manages users and settings
- Perfect for: Mid-sized teams, professional services firms
-
Meetily Enterprise (Full Infrastructure)
- Complete client-server deployment
- Centralized AI processing on your servers
- Enterprise SSO/SAML integration
- Advanced compliance features
- Dedicated support
- Perfect for: Large organizations, enterprises, regulated industries
The Technical Architecture: Privacy by Design
How Meetily Individual Works (100% Local)
┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ YOUR DEVICE ONLY - Nothing Leaves │
│ │
│ ┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ │
│ │ Meetily │───│ Whisper │ │
│ │ Rust App │ │ ASR Model │ │
│ └──────────────┘ └──────────────┘ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ ▼ │
│ │ ┌──────────────┐ │
│ │ │ Local LLM │ │
│ │ │ Processing │ │
│ └────────────└──────────────┘ │
│ │
│ Audio Capture: System + Mic Streams │
│ Storage: Local SQLite Database │
│ Encryption: At-rest on your drive │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘
✅ Zero cloud calls
✅ Zero data transmission
✅ Zero third-party dependencies
Key Technical Choices
1. Rust for Core Application
- Memory safety without garbage collection
- Performance comparable to C/C++
- Zero-cost abstractions
- Perfect for local audio processing
- Cross-platform (macOS, Windows, Linux)
2. Local ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition)
- State-of-the-art transcription accuracy
- Runs locally on CPU or GPU
- Supports 99 languages
- Multiple model sizes (tiny, base, small, medium, large)
- No internet required
3. Local LLM Processing
- Integration with Ollama, llama.cpp
- Support for Llama, Mistral, and other open models
- Customizable prompts for summaries
- Action item extraction
- Meeting insights generation
4. SQLite for Local Storage
- Zero-configuration database
- Full-text search built-in
- Encryption at rest
- Portable (single file database)
- Battle-tested reliability
Early Results: Validating the Market
We've been in private beta for two months. Here's what we're seeing:
Design partners Profile
-
43 partners across three categories:
- Law firms (18): Corporate law, IP law, litigation
- Healthcare (15): Private practices, mental health professionals
- Finance (10): Wealth management, private equity
Key Metrics
- 80% retention after trial period
- Net Promoter Score (NPS): 72 (Considered "Excellent")
- Time to deployment: Under 2 weeks average (For enterprise)
- Support tickets: 90% resolved by documentation
- Security incidents: Zero (can't breach what you don't have!)
User Feedback Themes
What users love:
- "Finally, an AI meeting tool legal and IT will approve"
- "Setup took 10 minutes, works flawlessly"
- "Transcription quality matches Otter.ai"
- "No more 'can I record this call?' anxiety"
- "Open-source means we trust it"
Feature requests:
- Mobile apps (iOS/Android) - Coming Q1 2025
- Calendar integration - In progress
- Slack/Teams notifications - Q4 2024
- Custom AI prompt templates - Beta testing now
- Speaker diarization - On roadmap
Product Roadmap: What's Next
Q4 2024 (Next 3 Months)
- [ ] Mobile apps (iOS and Android)
- [ ] Multi-language UI (10 languages)
- [ ] Custom AI prompt templates
- [ ] Improved speaker diarization
- [ ] Calendar integration (Google, Outlook, Apple)
Q1 2025 (Following Quarter)
- [ ] Video recording (optional, local only)
- [ ] Advanced search (semantic, vector search)
- [ ] Action item tracking across meetings
- [ ] Integration with note-taking apps (Obsidian, Notion)
- [ ] API webhooks for custom integrations
Q2 2025 (Mid-Year)
- [ ] Real-time collaboration features
- [ ] Meeting analytics dashboard
- [ ] Custom LLM fine-tuning support
- [ ] Kubernetes deployment guides
- [ ] Plugin marketplace (community extensions)
Long-Term Vision
- Privacy-first ecosystem for all meeting intelligence
- Community-driven feature development
- Best-in-class local AI performance
- Gold standard for data sovereignty
Open Source & Contributing
The core of Meetily is MIT licensed and available on GitHub.
How to Contribute
We welcome contributions in:
- Platform integrations: Add support for new meeting platforms
- AI model support: Integrate new ASR or LLM models
- UI/UX improvements: Make the interface even better
- Documentation: Help others get started
- Translations: Make Meetily accessible worldwide
- Bug fixes: Help us maintain quality
Getting Started:
- Check our Contributing Guide
- Browse Good First Issues
- Join our Discord Community
- Read the Development Docs
Recognition:
- Contributors featured in release notes
- Swag for significant contributions
- Direct line to founders
- Community recognition program
Try Meetily Today
Option 1: Download Individual Version (Free Trial)
macOS, Windows, or Linux:
- Visit meetily.zackriya.com
- Install in under 5 minutes
- Use the free version
- Local AI processing—100% private
Option 2: Clone from GitHub (Open Source)
For developers:
- Repository: https://github.com/Zackriya-Solutions/meeting-minutes
- Documentation: https://github.com/Zackriya-Solutions/meeting-minutes
- License: MIT (core), Commercial (enterprise features)
Option 3: Enterprise Demo
For organizations:
- Schedule demo: https://meetily.zackriya.com/demo
- Custom deployment planning
- Security review support
- Pricing consultation
We're Launching on Product Hunt!
November 5, 2025 Launch
We're going live on Product Hunt and would love your support!
What you'll get for early support:
- 🎁 First 100 supporters: Lifetime premium features
- 🎯 Custom integrations priority access
- 💬 Direct line to founders
- 🏆 Early adopter badge
- 📊 Priority feature requests
How to support:
- Follow the launch: Product Hunt Page
- Set reminder: November 5, 2025
- Share feedback: Your input shapes the product
- Star on GitHub: https://meetily.zackriya.com
Why your support matters:
Product Hunt visibility = reaching more teams who need privacy-first AI. Every upvote helps legal teams, healthcare professionals, and enterprises find the solution they've been searching for.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
General Questions
Q: What is Meetily?
A: Meetily is a self-hosted, privacy-first AI meeting assistant that transcribes and summarizes your meetings entirely on your device or infrastructure. Unlike cloud-based tools like Otter.ai or Fireflies, your conversations never leave your control.
Q: How is Meetily different from Otter.ai, Fireflies, or Fathom?
A: All major AI meeting assistants send your audio to their servers for processing. Meetily processes everything locally on your device (Individual version) or your private servers (Organization/Enterprise versions). Your data never touches third-party infrastructure.
Q: Is Meetily really free and open-source?
A: The core Meetily application is MIT licensed and fully open-source. You can review, modify, and self-host it completely free. We offer premium features and enterprise support for organizations that need them.
Q: What platforms does Meetily work with?
A: Meetily works with any video conferencing platform including Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and others. It captures system audio and microphone streams, so it's platform-agnostic.
Q: Do I need internet to use Meetily?
A: For the Individual version, no! Once you've downloaded the AI models, Meetily works completely offline. The Organization and Enterprise versions may require network access for server communication, but all AI processing happens locally.
Privacy & Security
Q: How does Meetily ensure my meetings are private?
A: Meetily Individual runs 100% on your device. Audio never leaves your computer. All AI processing (transcription and summarization) happens locally using Whisper and local LLMs. Your meetings are stored in an encrypted local database.
Q: Can Meetily or anyone else access my meeting data?
A: No. With Meetily Individual, data never leaves your device. With Organization/Enterprise, data stays on your infrastructure. Meetily (the company) has no access to your meetings, transcripts, or summaries.
Q: Is Meetily HIPAA compliant?
A: When self-hosted, YOU control HIPAA compliance. Meetily Individual keeps all data local, which helps satisfy HIPAA's data control requirements. We provide documentation on securing deployments for healthcare use cases. Enterprise customers can get a Business Associate Agreement (BAA).
Q: Is Meetily SOC2 compliant?
A: Our managed infrastructure (for customers who prefer not to self-host) is SOC2 Type II certified. Self-hosted deployments allow you to manage compliance according to your organization's requirements.
Q: What about GDPR compliance?
A: Meetily Individual is GDPR-friendly because data stays on your device in your jurisdiction. For EU customers, you control data residency completely. We provide GDPR documentation for enterprise deployments.
Q: How is meeting data encrypted?
A: Meeting data is encrypted at rest using AES-256 encryption. The encryption key is managed by you, not Meetily. For Individual version, data is stored in your local encrypted database. Enterprise deployments can integrate with your existing key management systems.
Technical Questions
Q: What are the system requirements?
A: Minimum for Individual:
- CPU: Intel i5 / AMD Ryzen 5 or Apple Silicon
- RAM: 8GB (16GB recommended)
- Storage: 2GB for app + models
- OS: macOS 11+, Windows 10+, Ubuntu 22.04+
Better performance with:
- Modern GPU (NVIDIA, AMD, or Apple Silicon)
- 16GB+ RAM
- SSD storage
Q: How accurate is the transcription?
A: We use Whisper models which achieve 95%+ accuracy on clear audio. Accuracy depends on audio quality, accents, and background noise. In our tests, it matches or exceeds Otter.ai's accuracy.
Q: What languages does Meetily support?
A: Whisper supports 99 languages for transcription. The UI is currently available in English, with Spanish, French, German, Japanese, and others coming in Q4 2024. Summary AI works best in English currently.
Q: Can I use my own AI models?
A: Yes! Meetily supports multiple ASR models (Whisper variants) and LLMs (Llama, Mistral, custom models via Ollama or llama.cpp). You can even fine-tune models for your specific use case.
Q: Does Meetily work on mobile devices?
A: Mobile apps (iOS and Android) are coming in Q1 2025. Currently, Meetily works on desktop (macOS, Windows, Linux).
Q: How does Meetily capture meeting audio?
A: Meetily uses virtual audio device technology to capture system audio (from your meeting platform) and your microphone input. It works with any video conferencing tool—no special integrations needed.
Q: Can I import recordings from Zoom or Google Meet?
A: Yes! You can import existing audio/video recordings and Meetily will transcribe and process them locally.
Q: What happens if I lose internet during a meeting?
A: Meetily Individual continues working completely offline. All processing happens locally, so internet connectivity doesn't affect functionality.
Deployment & Scaling
Q: How do I install Meetily?
A: Installation takes under 5 minutes:
- macOS:
brew install meetily - Windows:
winget install meetilyor download installer - Linux:
curl -sSL meetily.io/install.sh | bash
First launch downloads AI models (~500MB-2GB depending on quality tier).
Q: Can I deploy Meetily for my entire team?
A: Yes! That's what Meetily Organization is for. It provides centralized user management while keeping AI processing local on each team member's device.
Q: What's the difference between Individual, Organization, and Enterprise?
A:
- Individual: Single user, 100% local, perfect for solo professionals ($99 one-time)
- Organization: Team deployment, centralized admin, local AI processing ($1999/year for small teams up to 100 users - Early bird offer valid till Dec 2025)
- Enterprise: Full server deployment with centralized AI processing, SSO, compliance features (Custom pricing, typically $10K-50K/year)
Q: Can Meetily handle 50+ concurrent meetings?
A: Yes, with Enterprise deployment. Individual users each process locally (unlimited scale). Enterprise deployments can handle hundreds of concurrent meetings with proper server infrastructure.
Q: Do you offer managed hosting?
A: Yes! For teams that prefer managed infrastructure, we offer Meetily Cloud—deployed in your region with the same privacy guarantees. Data stays in your geographic region and tenant.
Q: Can I run Meetily in my private cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure)?
A: Absolutely! Enterprise customers can deploy Meetily in their preferred cloud environment. We provide Terraform templates and deployment guides.
Pricing & Licensing
Q: How much does Meetily cost?
A:
- Individual: $99 one-time payment (lifetime license)
- Organization: Starting at $1999/year for small teams (20-100 users - Early bird pricing valid till Dec 2025)
- Enterprise: Custom pricing based on deployment size
- Open Source: Free forever (MIT License)
Q: Is there a free trial?
A: Yes! 14-day free trial for all versions. No credit card required.
Q: What's included in the "lifetime" license?
A: Lifetime license includes all core features and updates forever. Major version upgrades (v1 → v2) may require an upgrade fee, but that's years away.
Q: Do you offer educational or nonprofit discounts?
A: Yes! 50% discount for students, teachers, and registered nonprofits. Email us with proof of eligibility.
Support & Community
Q: What kind of support do you provide?
A:
- Individual users: Community support (Discord, GitHub)
- Organization: Email support (48-hour response time)
- Enterprise: Dedicated support, SLA, direct engineer access
Q: Is there documentation?
A: Comprehensive documentation at https://github.com/Zackriya-Solutions/meeting-minutes including setup guides, troubleshooting, API reference, and best practices.
Q: Can I contribute to Meetily?
A: Yes! We welcome contributions. Check our Contributing Guide and join our Discord Community.
Q: Where can I report bugs or request features?
A:
- Bugs: GitHub Issues
- Feature requests: GitHub Discussions
- General questions: Discord Community.
Comparison Questions
Q: Meetily vs. Otter.ai?
A: Otter.ai is cloud-only and trains AI on user data. Meetily is self-hosted with local processing. Choose Otter if you want convenience. Choose Meetily if you need privacy, compliance, or data control.
Q: Meetily vs. Fireflies?
A: Same as Otter—Fireflies sends all data to their servers. Meetily keeps everything local. Fireflies has more integrations currently. Meetily prioritizes privacy and security.
Q: Can Meetily be used for podcast transcription?
A: Absolutely! Import your podcast audio files and Meetily will transcribe them locally. Perfect for podcast producers who want transcript accuracy without sending files to third-party services.
Q: Does Meetily work for academic research interviews?
A: Yes! Researchers love Meetily because interview transcripts stay completely private and compliant with IRB requirements. No third-party data processing.
Getting Started
Q: How do I get started today?
A:
- Download from https://meetily.zackriya.com
- Install (takes 3-5 minutes)
- Launch app and download AI models
- Start your next meeting
- Meetily transcribes!
Q: Do I need technical skills to use Meetily?
A: Not for Individual version! If you can install regular software, you can use Meetily. It's designed for non-technical users. Organization/Enterprise deployments may benefit from IT support.
Q: Where can I learn more?
A:
- Website: https://meetily.zackriya.com
- GitHub: https://github.com/Zackriya-Solutions/meeting-minutes
- Discord: Discord Community
Q: When is the Product Hunt launch?
A: November 5, 2025! Follow the launch here →
Discussion: Let's Talk Privacy, AI, and Self-Hosting
I'd love to hear from the Dev.to community:
1. Would you self-host an AI meeting assistant?
What would make you choose local processing over cloud convenience?
2. What features are missing?
What would make Meetily essential for your workflow?
3. Privacy vs. convenience—where do you draw the line?
In what scenarios is self-hosting worth the effort?
4. Open-source business models—what works?
Thoughts on open-source core + commercial enterprise features?
5. What industries need this most?
Beyond legal/healthcare/finance—who else has strict privacy requirements?
Drop your thoughts in the comments! Your feedback shapes the roadmap. 👇
🚀 Launching November 5, 2025 on Product Hunt
Follow our launch and be an early supporter →
Tags & Keywords
ai #privacy #selfhosted #opensource #rust #whisper #llm #meetings #productivity #security #hipaa #gdpr #compliance #devtools #aisearch #perplexity #chatgpt #claude
Keywords: self-hosted meeting assistant, privacy-first AI, local AI transcription, Whisper self-hosted, meeting notes privacy, HIPAA compliant meeting software, Otter.ai alternative, Fireflies alternative, on-premise meeting AI, self-hosted transcription, local LLM processing, Rust AI application, privacy meeting software, legal tech tools, healthcare meeting software
About the Author
I'm Sujith, founder of Meetily. After years working in privacy-focused Ai tech, I saw the gap between AI capabilities and privacy requirements. Built Meetily to solve this for legal, healthcare, and enterprise teams.
Want to support Meetily?
- ⭐ Star us on GitHub
- 🚀 Support our Product Hunt launch (Nov 5)
- 💬 Join the conversation in comments
- 🔄 Share with teams that need privacy-first AI
Building a privacy-respecting future for AI, one meeting at a time. 🛡️
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