Otter.ai excels at straightforward transcription with its user-friendly interface and real-time meeting participation through automated assistants. It offers generous free tier limits and provides helpful AI-generated summaries, making it a solid time-saver for basic note-taking needs. However, users frequently complain about verbose, poorly structured transcripts that require significant manual cleanup, and transcription accuracy can falter with complex audio or multiple speakers.

Read.ai positions itself as a more comprehensive meeting intelligence platform, offering engagement analytics, sentiment analysis, and speaker balance metrics beyond basic transcription. It supports over 20 languages with real-time translation capabilities and provides more sophisticated meeting insights than typical transcription tools. The main drawbacks include a restrictive free tier (only 5 meetings monthly), a complex interface that can overwhelm users, and higher pricing that may deter smaller teams.

Otter.ai works best for individual professionals, students, and small teams who need reliable, straightforward meeting transcription without advanced analytics. Its simplicity and generous free tier make it particularly suitable for users who primarily want searchable meeting records and basic summaries. Read.ai targets larger organizations and data-driven teams that want detailed meeting performance insights and multi-language support for global collaboration.

Both tools offer basic integrations with popular platforms like Zoom, Slack, and Notion, but neither provides deep workflow automation or sophisticated task management capabilities that would truly transform meeting outputs into actionable work. Users often find themselves manually processing the generated summaries and action items, limiting the tools' ability to meaningfully streamline post-meeting workflows. The integration ecosystems, while present, tend to focus more on data syncing rather than enabling comprehensive meeting-to-execution pipelines.

Comparison table

What users say about Otter.ai and Read.ai

Users have generally positive feedback about Otter.ai, particularly praising its accessibility and core functionality. Reviews highlight that Otter.ai offers an intuitive interface that is easy to navigate and use, even for non-tech-savvy users, making it accessible to a broad range of users. The AI Meeting Assistant feature is frequently mentioned as a standout capability that enhances the overall user experience.

Read.ai receives much more mixed reviews from users, with both impressive features and significant concerns being reported. Users appreciate advanced capabilities like Read's ability to capture multiple languages in the same call automatically, which sets it apart in multilingual meeting environments. However, the platform faces serious user satisfaction issues, as evidenced by its rating of 1 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot, with users reporting problems such as the app automatically joining meetings even when users only intended to access shared notes.

Users often abandon Otter.ai due to poor transcript quality and structure issues that undermine the core value proposition of the service. Transcripts frequently come out overly verbose and lack proper organization, making it difficult for users to quickly locate key takeaways from their meetings. The transcription accuracy suffers particularly when dealing with complex audio environments, leading to mistakes in both the actual transcription content and speaker identification. This creates additional work for users who must manually review and correct transcripts, defeating the purpose of using an automated solution.

Another major pain point driving users away is the problematic meeting management and unwanted interruptions caused by Otter.ai's assistant feature. The AI assistant can spam users' calendars with unnecessary invites and has been known to join meetings where it wasn't intended to participate. These configuration issues create embarrassing situations in professional settings and require constant monitoring to prevent the assistant from appearing in sensitive or irrelevant meetings, adding a layer of complexity that many users find unacceptable.

The restrictive limitations of Otter.ai's free tier also push users toward alternative solutions. The free version caps Zoom meetings at just 40 minutes, which is insufficient for most business meetings that typically run longer. Combined with the monthly transcription minute limits, users quickly hit barriers that force them to either upgrade to paid plans or seek more generous alternatives. When users compare these restrictions to competitors offering more robust free tiers or better pricing structures, many decide to switch rather than pay for premium features that should be standard in a professional transcription service.

Users often switch away from Read.ai due to its restrictive free tier limitations. Unlike competitors that offer more generous free plans, Read.ai only provides 5 meeting transcripts per month with basic summaries and analytics. This constraint forces users to upgrade to paid plans quickly, which can be frustrating for individuals or small teams who want to test the platform thoroughly before committing to a subscription.

The platform's complex user interface presents another barrier that drives users to seek alternatives. With numerous features including notes, analytics, search, and live coaching metrics, many users find the interface cluttered and confusing. Some reviews specifically mention that the learning curve is higher than expected and that the tool doesn't deliver the time-saving benefits they anticipated, leading them to look for simpler, more intuitive solutions.

Privacy concerns also prompt users to abandon Read.ai, particularly around consent and meeting participation boundaries. Users have raised warnings about the potential awkwardness of joining others' meetings with Read.ai without explicit consent, creating uncomfortable situations in professional settings. Additionally, the high pricing structure for full functionality, especially at the Enterprise level, can deter small teams who find more cost-effective alternatives that meet their basic transcription and summary needs without the premium analytics features.

Using Otter.ai

Does Otter.ai work for in-person meetings?

Yes, Otter.ai can transcribe live in-person conversations via its app.

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

Yes, Otter.ai uses an assistant that can join meetings in real time when integrating with platforms like Zoom and Teams.

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

Users have mixed feedback about transcription quality. While many find it extremely easy to use and appreciate having real-time transcripts, accuracy can suffer with complex audio. Some reviews note mistakes in transcription or speaker identification. Additionally, transcripts can be overly verbose and lack structure, making it hard to quickly find key takeaways.

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

Otter.ai's "OtterPilot" feature auto-generates follow-up emails and CRM updates to help with action item follow-up.

Does Otter.ai integrate with software like HubSpot, Salesforce, or Linear?

Yes, Otter.ai integrates with HubSpot via OtterPilot, which can push notes to HubSpot along with other platforms like Zoom, Slack, and Notion.

Using Read.ai

Does Read.ai work for in-person meetings?

Yes. Read.ai has an iOS app that can capture in-person or offline meetings with one tap.

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

No. Read.ai can record virtual meetings via cloud or extension without using meeting bots, and can also record offline audio via its mobile app.

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

Read.ai generates reports after meetings that include key points and action items, along with metrics like who spoke how much, sentiment analysis, and attention scores.

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

Yes. Read.ai offers robust integrations including HubSpot, Salesforce, Confluence, Jira, Notion, and Slack.

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