| Feature | Fireflies.ai | tl;dv |
|---|---|---|
| Free Tier | ||
| CRM Integration | ||
| AI Summaries | ||
| Custom Vocabulary | ||
| Video Clips | ||
| API Access | Business plan | Pro plan |
| Mobile App |
Fireflies.ai and tl;dv are the two tools that come up in almost every conversation about AI meeting assistants for sales teams. Both record meetings, transcribe, summarize, and integrate with CRMs. Both have free tiers. Both claim to be the Gong alternative you’ve been waiting for.
After evaluating both tools side by side and reading through hundreds of user reviews on G2 (Fireflies: 4.8, tl;dv: 4.7), here’s how they actually differ - and which one is right for your specific situation.
The Quick Answer
Pick Fireflies if: You want the best value for a mid-size sales team. CRM sync, conversation intelligence, and unlimited storage for $19/user/month (annual) is hard to beat. Fireflies also supports 10+ conferencing platforms, which matters if your team joins calls on clients’ preferred tools.
Pick tl;dv if: You need deeper coaching and sales analytics. tl;dv’s Business plan ($59/user/month) includes playbook adoption tracking, coaching scorecards, and team performance comparisons that Fireflies doesn’t offer. It’s also the better choice for international teams - 7 interface languages vs. Fireflies’ English only.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | Fireflies.ai | tl;dv | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price (sales tier) | $19/mo annual | $59/mo annual | Fireflies by a mile |
| Free plan | Limited summaries, 800min storage | Unlimited, 90-day storage | tl;dv (more generous) |
| Transcription languages | 100+ | 30+ | Fireflies |
| Interface languages | English only | 7 languages | tl;dv |
| Conferencing platforms | 10+ (Zoom, Meet, Teams, Webex, etc.) | 3 (Zoom, Meet, Teams) | Fireflies |
| CRM sync | $19/mo tier | $59/mo tier | Fireflies (cheaper access) |
| Conversation intelligence | Basic (Business plan) | Advanced (Business plan) | tl;dv |
| Coaching scorecards | No | Yes (Business) | tl;dv |
| Playbook tracking | No | Yes (Business) | tl;dv |
| Video clip sharing | Basic clips | Timestamped clips | tl;dv |
| Crosstalk handling | Good | Slightly better | tl;dv (small edge) |
| G2 rating | 4.8 | 4.7 | Essentially tied |
Pricing: The Biggest Difference
This is where the comparison gets real. Both tools have similar free and entry-level pricing, but the tiers that matter for sales teams are very different.
For a 10-person sales team with CRM sync:
- Fireflies Business: $190/month (annual billing)
- tl;dv Business: $590/month (annual billing)
That’s a $400/month difference - $4,800/year - for the same team size. The question is whether tl;dv’s coaching features are worth 3x the price.
For context, the same team on Gong would pay roughly $1,000-1,300/month. So tl;dv is the middle option: more than Fireflies, less than Gong, with features that sit between the two.
If your sales manager actively coaches reps using call recordings and needs playbook adherence data, the tl;dv premium might be justified. If your primary need is “get meeting data into the CRM so reps stop writing blank deal notes,” Fireflies handles that at a third of the cost.
Transcription Quality
Both tools claim 95%+ transcription accuracy, and independent reviewers confirm this on clean audio. The difference shows up in edge cases:
Fireflies supports more languages (100+ vs 30+) and more conferencing platforms. If your team records calls on Webex or BlueJeans, Fireflies is your only option between these two.
tl;dv handles crosstalk (overlapping speech) slightly better according to comparative reviews and user feedback. On messy sales calls with interruptions, tl;dv’s speaker diarization produces cleaner output. The difference is marginal - not a reason to choose one over the other on its own.
Both tools handle accents well on major languages. Neither is perfect on heavy regional accents in less common languages.
CRM Integration
Both tools integrate with HubSpot and Salesforce. The difference is price:
- Fireflies: CRM sync on Business ($19/user/month annual)
- tl;dv: CRM sync on Business ($59/user/month annual)
If CRM sync is your primary buying reason, this comparison is straightforward. Fireflies gives you the same core capability (meeting summaries pushed to CRM records) at a much lower price point.
Where tl;dv’s CRM integration goes deeper: the Business plan doesn’t just push summaries - it feeds deal-level analytics, objection patterns, and coaching data into your pipeline view. If your sales operations team wants to understand why deals are won or lost at an aggregate level, tl;dv’s CRM data is richer.
The Coaching Gap
This is tl;dv’s strongest differentiator. Features only available on tl;dv Business:
- Playbook adoption tracking: Did your reps follow MEDDIC/BANT/SPIN on this call? The AI scores each call against your defined methodology.
- Coaching scorecards: Automated scoring of call quality with specific improvement suggestions.
- Team performance comparison: Side-by-side analytics showing how top performers differ from the rest of the team.
- Objection tracking: Pattern analysis across all team calls - which objections come up most, how reps handle them.
Fireflies has basic conversation intelligence (talk-time ratios, question frequency, topic tracking) but nothing at this depth. If you’re a sales manager who actively coaches using call data, tl;dv Business is where the value is.
If you’re primarily looking for automated meeting notes and CRM updates - and coaching happens in 1:1s using the recordings - Fireflies covers what you need.
The Free Plans
Both have free tiers, but they’re structured differently:
Fireflies Free: Unlimited transcription (with rate limits), limited AI summaries, 800 minutes of storage. Best for evaluating the product before buying.
tl;dv Free: Unlimited recordings, transcriptions, and video clips. 3-month storage limit (recordings auto-delete after 90 days). Best for solo users who don’t need long-term archives.
tl;dv’s free plan is more generous in what you can do, but the 90-day storage cliff is a real constraint for anyone who needs to reference older calls. Fathom beats both with truly unlimited everything (no storage limits, no summary limits) on their free individual plan.
Who Wins?
For most sales teams: Fireflies.ai.
The $19/user/month Business plan covers the fundamentals - CRM sync, conversation intelligence, unlimited storage, broad platform support - at a price that’s easy to justify. For teams where the primary need is “automate meeting documentation and get data into the CRM,” Fireflies delivers the best value.
For sales orgs that invest in coaching: tl;dv.
If your organization has a culture of structured coaching, defined sales methodologies, and managers who actively review call data to develop reps, tl;dv’s Business plan at $59/user/month is worth the premium. The playbook tracking and coaching scorecards aren’t features you can replicate with Fireflies.
For the budget-conscious: neither.
If you just want good meeting notes and basic CRM sync without paying anything, Fathom’s free plan is the answer. It won’t give you coaching analytics or team-level insights, but it handles the core job at zero cost.
Pricing last verified: March 17, 2026. Some links in this article are affiliate links. How I make money.
Fireflies.ai
Based on our evaluation, Fireflies.ai is the stronger overall choice. See the category-by-category breakdown above for specific use cases where the other tool may be a better fit.