Otter.ai is an AI meeting assistant that joins video calls on Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet to record and write down conversations as they happen. The service creates live transcriptions during meetings, figures out who's speaking, and creates automated summaries with action items. You can use the platform through a web browser, mobile apps for iOS and Android, or a Chrome extension.

The transcription service works for both remote and in-person meetings. For online meetings, an AI bot joins the call automatically, while the mobile app can record audio directly from your device for face-to-face conversations. The system supports custom vocabulary to improve accuracy with specific terms and lets you search through transcripts after meetings end. You can export transcripts in multiple formats including text, PDF, and SRT files.

Otter.ai offers a free plan that includes 300 minutes of transcription per month with a 30-minute limit per meeting. Paid plans start at $8.33 per user monthly (when billed annually) for 1,200 minutes, with business and enterprise tiers providing additional minutes and administrative features. The service currently supports transcription in English, French, and Spanish, with data encryption and SOC 2 compliance for security.

Users look for alternatives to Otter.ai because...

• Transcription accuracy gets messy with names, accents, and people talking over each other - Users often complain that Otter.ai has trouble getting proper names right, understanding speakers with accents, or handling situations where multiple people are talking at once. This leads to garbled or incomplete transcripts that need manual fixing, which is especially frustrating in diverse business environments or international calls.

• The free tier is too limiting and the usage caps feel restrictive - The free version only gives you 300 minutes per month with a 30-minute limit per meeting, which many users find way too little for regular business use. This pushes people to upgrade to paid plans pretty quickly, making it tough for individuals or small teams working with tight budgets.

• AI-generated summaries and exports need a lot of cleanup work - While Otter.ai creates automated meeting summaries and action items, users say these outputs often need a lot of manual editing to actually be useful. Plus, exported files like .srt subtitles often have formatting problems that require extra work to fix.

How Circleback can help

People are drawn to Circleback because it tackles several core problems that have frustrated users of AI meeting assistants like Otter.ai for years. While Otter.ai helped pioneer this space, users are finding that Circleback offers a more polished and practical approach to meeting intelligence.

Better transcription that actually works

While Otter.ai users constantly deal with mangled names, missed accents, and chaos when everyone talks at once, Circleback has put serious effort into advanced speech recognition that handles these tricky situations much better. The platform's improved speaker identification and accent recognition means international teams and diverse workplaces get cleaner, more reliable transcripts that need way less cleanup afterward. Users tell us they spend far less time fixing transcription mistakes, which means real time savings instead of just moving manual work from taking notes to editing transcripts.

Usage limits that make sense for real work

Circleback's approach to usage limits feels much more in tune with how people actually run meetings. Instead of forcing users into tight monthly caps that often run out halfway through the month, Circleback provides more reasonable limits that fit typical business workflows. This means teams can actually count on the service for all their important meetings without constantly checking their remaining minutes or getting cut off during crucial calls.

Smarter AI that needs less hand-holding

Most importantly, Circleback's AI summaries and action item extraction are noticeably more sophisticated and aware of context. While Otter.ai users often describe the AI-generated outputs as a "rough first draft" that needs tons of editing, Circleback's summaries tend to be more accurate, better formatted, and ready to act on right away. The platform's export functionality also creates cleaner files across formats, eliminating the frustration of having to reformat .sRT files or clean up messy document exports.

Users especially appreciate that Circleback seems to get meeting context better, telling the difference between casual conversation and important decisions, and creating summaries that capture not just what was said, but what actually matters for follow-up actions.

The platform also offers advanced search capabilities that let users find specific information across all their meetings, making it much easier to track down important decisions or commitments from past conversations.

Circleback provides best-in-class AI meeting notes and automations

Circleback provides best-in-class AI-powered meeting notes and automations. We support over 100 languages and automatic participant identification in both in-person and online meetings.

• Automatically-identified and assigned action items

• AI-enabled search across all meetings

• Automations with 100+ app integrations

• Industry-leading security with SOC 2 Type II, EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, and HIPAA compliance

• Ability to capture both online and in-person meetings with desktop and mobile apps