User reviews of Fireflies.ai indicate it is considered a solid transcription tool with over 95% accuracy that automatically joins and transcribes virtual meetings. Reviews highlight that it has good customer support through live chat and email, though phone support is not available. Users find it easier to use compared to other similar platforms and appreciate its functionality for breaking down meeting content and providing updates for missed meetings.

Otter.ai receives mixed reviews from users, with some describing it as an easy-to-use recording and transcription service while others report significant issues with multi-speaker transcript accuracy. The service appears to have useful tools but produces messy transcripts that still require manual editing. User feedback suggests the product has bugs affecting core features, lacks transparent pricing, and provides inadequate customer support, with some users strongly advising against its use for complex meeting scenarios.

For more detailed information about these platforms, readers can explore these sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Fireflies.ai excels at simplicity and comprehensive language support, making it accessible for global teams and small businesses. The tool provides quick setup with its bot-based approach and delivers structured summaries with action items shortly after meetings end. However, users report that summaries can be overly generic and transcription accuracy suffers with accents or technical terminology, while the free plan significantly limits advanced features.

Otter.ai stands out for its real-time transcription capabilities and live collaboration features, allowing participants to highlight and comment during meetings. The platform offers a generous free tier and captures detailed meeting information including visual content from screens. Unfortunately, transcripts tend to be verbose and poorly structured, making it difficult to extract key insights quickly, and the tool can create calendar management issues if not properly configured.

Fireflies.ai suits sales teams, international organizations, and project managers who need structured follow-ups and work across multiple languages. Otter.ai works better for educators, researchers, and teams that prioritize live collaboration and detailed documentation over concise summaries. Both tools provide basic integrations with popular platforms, but neither offers the depth of workflow automation needed to transform meeting insights into actionable business processes.

While both platforms handle transcription adequately, they fall short in delivering truly intelligent meeting assistance that goes beyond basic note-taking. Users often find themselves manually processing the output to create meaningful follow-up actions. The integration ecosystems, though present, lack the sophistication to automatically route insights to the right people and systems without significant manual intervention.

Why users switch away from Fireflies.ai or Otter.ai

Users switch away from Fireflies.ai due to limitations in transcription accuracy, particularly when dealing with heavy accents, technical jargon, or complex audio situations. Several G2 reviewers noted issues with misidentified speakers and missed slang, which can compromise the reliability of meeting records and summaries.

The AI-generated summaries often lack the nuance and conciseness that users require for effective follow-up actions. Fireflies tends to produce high-level summaries that lose the original phrasing or tone of discussions, making it difficult for users to capture the specific context and details needed for their work processes.

Feature limitations on the free plan create barriers for users who need advanced functionality. Video recording is only available on higher-tier plans, and the free tier restricts monthly meeting credits and summaries. Additionally, some users find the interface cluttered and experience issues with excessive email notifications, which can disrupt workflow efficiency.

Users switch away from Otter.ai due to transcription accuracy issues, particularly with complex audio situations. Reviews indicate mistakes in transcription and speaker identification, which can compromise the reliability of meeting records and notes.

The verbose and unstructured nature of Otter.ai's transcripts creates usability problems. Users report that transcripts lack structure, making it difficult to quickly locate key takeaways from meetings, which reduces the tool's effectiveness for post-meeting reference and action item extraction.

Language support limitations drive users to seek alternatives. Otter.ai primarily supports English with limited Spanish and French capabilities, while competing solutions like Fireflies.ai offer transcription in 100+ languages, making Otter.ai inadequate for multilingual teams and international business environments.

FAQs

Would Fireflies.ai work for in-person meetings? What about Otter.ai?

Yes, both tools work for in-person meetings. Fireflies.ai has a mobile app that can record in-person meetings and voice notes. Otter.ai can also transcribe live in-person conversations via its app.

Does either of these tools require a meeting bot to join the meeting?

Yes, both tools use meeting bots. Fireflies.ai sends an AI meeting assistant called "Fred" that joins as a bot participant in virtual meetings. Otter.ai also uses an assistant that can join meetings in real time on platforms like Zoom and Teams.

What do users say about the quality of transcriptions?

For Fireflies.ai, users generally report good transcription quality, even noting it works well with other languages like Dutch. However, accuracy can decrease with heavy accents, technical jargon, or when identifying speakers with slang.

For Otter.ai, users find it effective for capturing meeting information, but accuracy can suffer with complex audio. Some reviews mention mistakes in transcription and speaker identification. Users also note that transcripts can be overly verbose and lack structure.

Do these tools help a user follow up with action items from the meeting? How so?

Yes, both tools assist with follow-ups. Fireflies.ai delivers summaries and bullet-point action items within minutes after a call, and can auto-log notes to CRM systems and create tasks in tools like Asana.

Otter.ai's "OtterPilot" feature auto-generates summaries, follow-up emails, and CRM updates to help with post-meeting actions.

Do these tools integrate with software like HubSpot, Salesforce, or Linear?

Yes, both offer integrations with these types of platforms. Fireflies.ai has native integrations with HubSpot and Salesforce, plus dozens of other integrations available through Zapier.

Otter.ai integrates with platforms like HubSpot and pushes notes to various systems via its OtterPilot feature.

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