Avoma vs Read.ai for meeting automation

Avoma is an AI meeting assistant that records, transcribes, and summarizes conversations. It generates structured notes with identified topics and action items while supporting agenda templates, live collaboration, and CRM synchronization. Though primarily used by sales and customer success teams for automated call logging, it serves general meeting productivity needs with approximately 95% transcription accuracy even with technical jargon or accents.

The platform operates on a tiered pricing model starting with a free plan limited to about 10 meetings monthly, with paid plans ranging from $19 to $129 per user monthly. Avoma integrates with various tools including Zoom, HubSpot, and Slack, and works for both online and in-person meetings through mobile apps. While offering good transcription quality and responsive support, some users find it overly complex for basic needs, occasionally experience technical delays, and consider higher-tier pricing expensive for smaller teams.

Read.ai is an AI meeting "copilot" that transcribes meetings in real-time while analyzing engagement metrics and sentiment. It generates reports containing key points, action items, and analytics about speaking time and attention scores. Beyond meeting assistance, it provides searchable transcripts across all meetings, summarizes Slack threads and emails, and integrates with platforms like Zoom, Teams, and Meet. The system supports over 20 languages and includes features for syncing with Notion, Confluence, and CRM systems.

The platform offers three pricing tiers: a free plan limited to 5 meeting transcripts monthly, a Pro plan at $19.75/user/month (annual) for unlimited meetings and advanced integrations, and an Enterprise plan at $29.75/user/month with video playback capabilities. While Read.ai works with virtual meetings via cloud or extension without meeting bots, it also supports in-person meetings through its iOS app. There's no dedicated desktop application—users access functionality through web apps and browser extensions.

Comparing Avoma and Read.ai

Avoma

• Avoma functions as an AI meeting assistant that records, transcribes, and summarizes meetings, breaking content into organized topics and actionable insights. While it offers high transcription accuracy and integrates with common tools like Zoom and HubSpot, its integration depth is limited and users still need to manually implement many meeting outcomes.

• The platform includes features for agenda templates, live note collaboration, and CRM synchronization, catering particularly to sales and customer success teams. Though Avoma automates administrative tasks around meetings, it falls short on helping users truly act on meeting content, with transcripts sometimes being dense to navigate and the platform potentially overwhelming for simple use cases.

Read.ai

• Read.ai serves as a meeting "copilot" that transcribes meetings while analyzing engagement metrics and sentiment, providing real-time summaries and post-meeting reports with key points and action items. Despite offering analytics on meeting quality and speaker balance, the tool lacks comprehensive workflow integration and doesn't effectively bridge the gap between capturing meeting content and executing on it.

• The platform supports multiple languages, offers AI search across meeting transcripts, and can summarize Slack threads or emails, integrating with systems like Zoom, Teams, and Meet. However, Read.ai's complex interface creates a steeper learning curve, and its limited free tier restricts accessibility, while its integration capabilities don't fully enable users to transform meeting insights into completed tasks.

Avoma tends to work better for sales teams and organizations needing structured meeting documentation with basic automation. Its stronger free tier and complete mobile support make it more accessible for distributed teams that need reliable transcription without complex analytics. The platform's simplicity compared to Read.ai makes it a better fit for smaller organizations looking to reduce administrative overhead.

Read.ai is more suited to larger enterprises concerned with meeting effectiveness and engagement analytics. Its sentiment analysis and speaker metrics appeal to teams focused on improving meeting quality and collaboration patterns. The platform's more robust enterprise features like video playback and searchable knowledge base make it valuable for organizations that treat meeting content as institutional knowledge, despite its more limited free tier and iOS-only mobile support.

Avoma vs Read.ai: What do users say?

Avoma and Read.ai represent leading AI meeting assistant solutions with distinct strengths. Avoma serves as an all-in-one platform focused on recording, transcribing, and organizing meeting notes into structured topics and action items. Users praise its 95% transcription accuracy even with technical jargon and accents, time-saving capabilities, and strong integration ecosystem with tools like Zoom, HubSpot, and Slack. Some criticisms include it being potentially too complex for basic needs, occasional bugs, and premium pricing at higher tiers. Meanwhile, Read.ai positions itself as a meeting "copilot" that not only handles transcription but also analyzes engagement metrics and sentiment during calls. Its standout features include meeting quality insights, support for 16+ languages with real-time translation, and workflow integrations for Slack and documentation tools. Users have noted limitations in the free tier (only 5 meetings monthly), a sometimes complex UI, and potential privacy concerns when joining others' meetings. Both tools offer mobile capabilities for in-person meetings, local recording options, and extensive integrations, though neither provides dedicated desktop applications.

For more information, check out user reviews on Trustpilot, Microsoft AppSource ratings for Read.ai, Avoma customer feedback on HubSpot Ecosystem, and detailed G2 reviews of Avoma.

FAQs

• Would Avoma work for in-person meetings? What about Read.ai? Yes, both Avoma and Read.ai work for in-person meetings. Avoma has a mobile app that records offline/in-person meetings for later transcription. Similarly, Read.ai has an iOS app that captures in-person/offline meetings with one tap.

• What about meeting bots? Does either of these tools require a meeting bot? Read.ai specifically notes that it does not use meeting bots - it "records virtual meetings via cloud or extension, and offline audio via mobile app."

• What do users say about the quality of transcriptions? For Avoma, users report that transcriptions are approximately 95% accurate even with jargon or accents.

Another alternative: 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