Notion Meeting Recorder offers seamless integration within the Notion ecosystem, automatically generating summaries and action items directly in your workspace without requiring external bots or plugins. It works well for both virtual and in-person meetings through local audio capture, making it versatile for different meeting formats. However, it requires heavy Notion adoption to be truly effective and adds $10 per user monthly to existing Notion subscriptions, making it costly for teams not already committed to the platform.

Read.ai provides detailed meeting analytics including speaker metrics, sentiment analysis, and engagement tracking that goes beyond basic transcription. It offers strong search capabilities across all meeting transcripts and integrates with popular business tools like Salesforce and HubSpot. The platform is limited to virtual meetings only, can take up to an hour to process recordings, and its extensive metrics dashboard may overwhelm users who simply want meeting notes and action items.

Notion Meeting Recorder suits teams already embedded in the Notion ecosystem who want meeting documentation to flow seamlessly into their existing project management and knowledge base workflows. Read.ai appeals more to managers, sales teams, and organizations focused on meeting performance optimization and detailed conversation analytics. Both tools target different aspects of meeting productivity - Notion emphasizes workflow integration while Read.ai focuses on meeting intelligence and coaching.

While both platforms offer solid transcription and summary features, neither provides robust automation capabilities that help users actually execute on meeting outcomes, and their integration ecosystems remain relatively limited compared to dedicated workflow automation tools. Users may find themselves still manually transferring action items to their preferred task management systems or CRMs. Both tools excel at capturing and analyzing meetings but fall short of truly streamlining the post-meeting workflow that turns discussions into completed tasks.

Comparison table

What users say about Notion Meeting Recorder and Read.ai

Read.ai receives mixed reviews from users, with many expressing significant concerns about the platform. While some acknowledge that Read.ai is a strong tool with decent real-time transcription capabilities and effective meeting notes, others find it vague and inefficient. The platform faces serious user satisfaction issues, as evidenced by its poor 1.6 out of 5 star rating on Trustpilot, with users warning others not to sign up due to unwanted automatic integration into meetings.

Notion Meeting Recorder garners different feedback from users who view it as a more focused but limited solution. Users appreciate it as a clever, lightweight feature that provides a tidy way to record conversations, though they emphasize important limitations. The consensus among reviewers is that while functional for basic recording needs, it should not be considered a comprehensive meeting assistant solution.

One major reason users switch away from Notion Meeting Recorder is the steep learning curve and dependency on the Notion ecosystem. While the tool excels for teams already heavily invested in Notion, it becomes a significant barrier for others. Users report falling into a "build your setup" trap, requiring extensive configuration of Notion pages and databases to maximize the tool's potential. The feature assumes you already manage tasks and notes within Notion, making it less appealing as a standalone solution. As one review noted, "the best experience requires full Notion adoption," which can be overwhelming for teams looking for a simple meeting recording solution.

The additional cost burden also drives users to seek alternatives. Notion's AI Meeting Notes requires a paid add-on of $10 per member per month (or $8 annually), which must be purchased on top of existing Notion plan fees. For teams evaluating their software expenses, this additional cost can be difficult to justify, especially when there are other meeting recording solutions available. The pricing structure means every user who wants to use AI transcription features needs the add-on, which can quickly become expensive for larger teams.

Technical limitations and lack of advanced features compared to dedicated meeting tools also prompt users to switch. Unlike specialized meeting assistants, Notion doesn't provide a bot that joins calls automatically - it relies entirely on your device's audio capture, which can fail if the setup isn't perfect. Additionally, the tool offers limited automation capabilities beyond basic summary generation and lacks the sophisticated meeting analytics that other platforms provide. Users seeking features like detailed speaker metrics, sentiment analysis, or advanced meeting insights find Notion's offering insufficient for their needs.

Users switch away from Read.ai primarily due to technical accuracy and reliability concerns. Many users report that the AI transcript and summaries can be occasionally inaccurate, particularly when dealing with speakers who have accents or speak quickly. Additionally, there are significant processing delays, with recordings and analysis sometimes taking up to an hour to become available after a meeting ends, which can disrupt workflows that depend on immediate access to meeting outcomes.

The platform's overwhelming complexity presents another barrier for many users. The interface contains numerous metrics and analytics features that can be confusing and excessive for users who simply want basic meeting transcription and summaries. This abundance of data points, while potentially valuable for detailed analysis, creates a steep learning curve and can make the platform feel bloated for teams seeking straightforward meeting assistance.

Read.ai's limited flexibility and platform constraints also drive users to seek alternatives. The service only works with digital video calls and cannot accommodate in-person meetings, which restricts its usefulness for hybrid work environments. Furthermore, it lacks a desktop application and has no mobile app for recording, limiting users to web-based access and reducing accessibility. The free plan's restrictions on meeting length (1 hour maximum) and monthly meeting limits (5 measured meetings) can quickly become insufficient for active teams, forcing users to upgrade or look elsewhere for more generous usage allowances.

Using Notion Meeting Recorder

Does Notion Meeting Recorder work for in-person meetings?

Yes, Notion Meeting Recorder works for in-person meetings. It can capture face-to-face discussions using your device's microphone and doesn't require a meeting bot. You can set your phone, laptop, or other device in a conference room to transcribe the conversation. The feature is designed for both online and offline use, though you'll want to ensure your device's microphone can pick up all speakers clearly.

Does Notion Meeting Recorder require a meeting bot to join the meeting?

No, Notion Meeting Recorder does not require a meeting bot to join the meeting. It uses a local recording approach that captures audio directly from your device - both system output and microphone input. This means it can transcribe any virtual meeting playing on your computer or record live meetings via the microphone without needing to insert a bot participant into the call.

What do users say about the quality of Notion Meeting Recorder transcriptions?

Users report that Notion's AI does a good job extracting key points from dense conversations and making them accessible and actionable for teams. Early users appreciate the swift summaries and action-item generation, noting that it lets them focus on the discussion instead of taking notes while ensuring nothing gets forgotten. The overall sentiment in the Notion community is strongly positive about the AI note-taking capabilities, with users highlighting it as a valuable productivity booster.

How does Notion Meeting Recorder help users follow up on action items?

Notion Meeting Recorder automatically generates a summary with action items as soon as the meeting ends. These action items can be converted into checkboxes, assigned to owners, or moved into your task database within Notion with minimal manual effort. Since the notes live directly in Notion, they can be immediately shared or turned into tasks and projects, and can be automatically logged into project databases for follow-up. All content becomes searchable later with Notion's AI.

Does Notion Meeting Recorder integrate with software like Hubspot, Salesforce, or Linear?

Notion Meeting Recorder does not directly integrate with third-party systems like HubSpot, Salesforce, or Linear out-of-the-box. The focus is on keeping everything within Notion rather than exporting to external software. However, you could potentially route Notion pages containing meeting notes to other systems using Notion's API or automation tools like Zapier, but this would require additional setup and isn't a native feature.

Using Read.ai

Does Read.ai work for in-person meetings?

No – it requires joining a video call digitally. Not designed for in-person meetings unless they are on a conferencing app.

Does Read.ai require a meeting bot to join the meeting?

Yes, Read.ai joins Zoom/Teams/Meet calls as a participant called the "Read Assistant" and provides live dashboards with speaker talk time, pace, sentiment scores, and other meeting metrics.

What do users say about the quality of Read.ai transcriptions?

Users generally find the summaries and transcripts to be high-quality and include sentiment markers. However, some users report that the AI transcript and summaries can occasionally be inaccurate, especially when speakers have accents or speak quickly.

How does Read.ai help users follow up on action items?

Read.ai generates smart meeting summaries and action items after calls. It can auto-share meeting summaries to participants and has integrations with platforms like Notion, Salesforce, HubSpot, Jira, and Confluence to sync summaries into workflows. However, it has limited automation capabilities and doesn't execute tasks like sending follow-up emails or updating CRM records beyond exporting summary text.

Does Read.ai integrate with software like Hubspot, Salesforce, or Linear?

Yes, Read.ai integrates with Salesforce and HubSpot, as well as Notion, Jira, and Confluence. These integrations are available on Pro+ plans and allow for auto-syncing of meeting summaries. It also offers Slack integration for sharing meeting reports and Zapier/webhooks for custom workflows.

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