Alternatives to Otter.ai

AI meeting notes platforms provide four primary deliverables:

• Transcripts create a word-for-word record of the meeting. For example, a one-hour product development meeting generates a searchable document containing every feature discussion, technical requirement, and team decision.

• Action items are pulled directly from the conversation. When someone says "John will update the wireframes by Friday," the AI automatically creates a tracked task with the assignee and deadline.

• Meeting summaries distill hour-long conversations into 2-3 paragraphs. A 45-minute sprint planning meeting becomes a concise overview of sprint goals, resource allocation, and key decisions.

• Topic segmentation breaks discussions into labeled sections. A client call covering multiple projects is automatically divided into sections like "Website Redesign," "Q1 Marketing Campaign," and "Budget Review."

In addition to the quality of these deliverables, we'll want to look at a number of other key factors:

• Free trial: can you test it for free before committing?

• Ease-of-use: does it have a simple, intuitive setup that works for non-technical users?

• In-person meeting support: can it transcribe audio from live recordings or uploaded files, not just virtual calls?

• Security and privacy: how is customer data handled on the platform?

• Integrations: can it connect with your existing stack, like HubSpot, Notion, or Slack?

• Functionality: does it go beyond transcriptions and actually help you take action?

• Languages: can it transcribe and summarize meetings in different languages?

• Desktop and mobile apps: can you access it on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android for on-the-go meetings?

• Recordings: is there support for saving and playing back audio and video recordings of meetings?

Otter.ai quick pros and cons

Otter.ai excels at real-time transcription and meeting capture, with an intuitive interface that makes note-taking nearly effortless. The generous free tier and ability to highlight or comment during meetings makes it a powerful tool for teams looking to document conversations efficiently.

The service struggles with complex audio and can produce verbose, poorly structured transcripts that make finding key points difficult. Calendar integration can be overly aggressive, and the free tier's limitations like 40-minute meeting caps can be frustrating for regular users.

Otter.ai features

Closest Otter.ai competitors

Three Notable Meeting AI Tools to Consider

Fathom - Free tier offers unlimited recordings with 5 AI summaries per month. Produces instant, accurate transcripts and multiple summary formats, though currently limited to live meetings only.

Granola - Desktop app that runs locally and enhances brief notes with AI summaries after meetings end. Works with all meeting platforms without needing a bot, but currently Mac-only.

Circleback - Focused purely on meeting notes without video recording. Produces detailed summaries and action items within minutes, with strong calendar and CRM integrations.

Otter.ai vs. Circleback

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

Comparison table