7 Best Otter.ai Alternatives for Meeting Transcription (2026)
Markus Maila, CTO & Co-founderOtter.ai is one of the most well-known meeting transcription tools, but it's not the right fit for every team. Whether you need better in-person recording, GDPR-compliant hosting, more affordable team pricing, or stronger multilingual support, there are several alternatives worth considering. We tested the top options and compared them across the features that matter most.
Why people look for Otter.ai alternatives
Otter.ai has built a solid reputation for virtual meeting transcription, but several recurring issues push teams to explore other options.
No in-person meeting support: Otter.ai is designed for virtual meetings on Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. If your team meets in conference rooms, at client sites, or in workshops, Otter doesn't cover these scenarios.
US-only data hosting: All Otter.ai data is processed and stored in the United States. For European organizations subject to GDPR, or companies with strict data residency requirements, this can be a dealbreaker.
Pricing at scale: Otter's Business plan costs $20/user/month (billed annually). For a 20-person team, that's $400/month, and many features that teams expect (like advanced search and integrations) are locked behind the Business or Enterprise tiers.
Limited language support: While Otter supports English well, its multilingual capabilities are limited compared to tools that support 50+ languages. International teams often find the transcription quality drops for non-English meetings.
Bot visibility: Otter joins meetings as a visible participant, which some teams and clients find unprofessional or intrusive.
1. Menutes: best for in-person meetings and GDPR compliance
Menutes is built specifically for teams that meet in person. It records audio from any device microphone and produces structured meeting minutes with decisions, action items, and speaker identification. All data is processed on EU infrastructure.
Key advantages over Otter.ai:
In-person meeting recording is a core feature, not an afterthought. Open Menutes on your phone or laptop, press record, and get full transcription with speaker labels, even in challenging room acoustics.
EU data hosting with native GDPR compliance. Your meeting data never leaves European servers, unlike Otter's US-only infrastructure.
50+ languages supported for both transcription and AI summaries. Otter is primarily English-focused.
No bot joins your meetings. Menutes captures system audio directly, so participants don't see an extra attendee in the call.
Pricing: Free plan includes 5 hours/month with 30-day history. Premium is €9/month, Team plans are €9/user/month. For a 20-person team, that's €180/month versus Otter's $400/month.
Best for: Teams that hold in-person meetings, European organizations needing GDPR compliance, multilingual teams, and budget-conscious organizations.
2. Fireflies.ai: best for CRM integration and sales workflows
Fireflies.ai is a meeting intelligence platform that excels at integrating meeting data with your existing sales and project management tools. Its bot (Fred) joins virtual meetings automatically and pushes notes to Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, and dozens of other tools.
Key advantages over Otter.ai:
Native CRM integrations allow meeting notes, action items, and conversation highlights to sync directly to Salesforce, HubSpot, and other CRMs without manual effort.
Conversation intelligence features track topics, sentiment, and talk-time ratios, useful for sales teams coaching reps on call performance.
AskFred AI lets you query your entire meeting history using natural language (e.g., "What did the client say about pricing in last week's call?").
Limitations: No in-person meeting support. US-based data hosting. Pricing starts at $18/user/month (Pro), scaling to $29/user/month (Business). Can be expensive for large teams.
Best for: Sales teams that need CRM push, organizations with heavy virtual meeting workflows, teams that want a searchable meeting database.
3. tl;dv: best free plan for virtual meeting recording
tl;dv offers one of the most generous free plans in the meeting transcription space. It records Zoom and Google Meet calls, provides AI summaries, and lets you create shareable video clips from key meeting moments.
Key advantages over Otter.ai:
More generous free tier with unlimited recordings (Otter limits free users to 600 minutes/month of transcription).
Video highlight clips let you clip and share specific meeting moments, useful for sharing customer feedback or key decisions with stakeholders who weren't in the meeting.
Multi-language support covering 30+ languages, compared to Otter's English-centric approach.
Limitations: No in-person meeting support. The free plan has some restrictions on AI features. Data is processed outside the EU. Video clip focus means it's less suited for teams that want text-only documentation.
Best for: Teams on tight budgets that primarily use Zoom or Google Meet, organizations that value video clips over text summaries.
4. Fathom: best for Zoom-only teams wanting a free option
Fathom provides free, unlimited AI meeting summaries for Zoom calls. It's tightly integrated with Zoom and focuses on delivering clean, actionable summaries without the complexity of enterprise features.
Key advantages over Otter.ai:
Completely free for individual Zoom users with unlimited recordings and AI summaries. Otter's free tier is significantly more limited.
Clean, distraction-free summaries that focus on action items and key points without overwhelming detail.
Zoom-native integration means it works seamlessly within the Zoom interface without needing a separate app.
Limitations: Primarily Zoom-only (limited Google Meet and Teams support). No in-person meeting recording. The free plan is for individual use; team features require a paid plan at $32/user/month. US-based data hosting.
Best for: Individual Zoom users who want free meeting summaries, small teams that exclusively use Zoom.
5. Fellow: best for meeting management and agenda workflows
Fellow takes a different approach by focusing on the entire meeting lifecycle: agenda creation, collaborative note-taking, and action item tracking. It's less about transcription and more about meeting process improvement.
Key advantages over Otter.ai:
Agenda builder and templates help teams prepare for meetings, not just document them afterward.
Action item tracking with assignments and due dates, integrated into the meeting workflow.
One-on-one meeting templates designed for manager-direct report conversations with private notes and talking points.
Limitations: AI transcription is a supplementary feature, not the core product. No in-person recording. Primarily English. The focus on meeting management may be unnecessary for teams that just need transcription.
Best for: Teams that want to improve meeting preparation and follow-through, managers running regular one-on-ones, organizations where meeting culture is the problem rather than documentation.
6. Read AI: best for meeting engagement analytics
Read AI adds an analytics layer to meeting transcription, providing engagement scores, sentiment analysis, and meeting quality metrics alongside standard transcription and summaries.
Key advantages over Otter.ai:
Engagement scoring tracks how attentive participants are during each meeting segment, giving managers data on meeting effectiveness.
Sentiment analysis attempts to gauge the emotional tone of meetings, useful for customer-facing calls.
Meeting quality reports help teams identify which meetings are productive and which are time-wasters.
Limitations: No in-person meeting support. US-based data hosting. Engagement metrics are approximations, not precise measurements. Pricing starts at $19.75/user/month (Pro). The analytics focus may be overkill for teams that just need transcription.
Best for: Teams focused on improving meeting culture, organizations that want data-driven insights about meeting quality.
7. Jamie: best for private, on-device processing
Jamie is a meeting transcription tool that emphasizes privacy by processing audio locally on your device rather than sending it to cloud servers. It works across all meeting platforms without joining as a bot.
Key advantages over Otter.ai:
On-device processing means your meeting audio doesn't leave your computer, addressing privacy concerns that some teams have with cloud-based transcription.
Platform-agnostic: works with any meeting tool (Zoom, Teams, Meet, or any other app that produces audio) without requiring integrations.
No bot joining your meetings, similar to Menutes' approach of capturing system audio directly.
Limitations: Local processing means you need sufficient computing power on your device. Language support is more limited than cloud-based tools. Pricing starts at €24/month for the Pro plan. Limited team collaboration features compared to cloud-based alternatives.
Best for: Privacy-conscious individuals and teams, organizations with strict data handling policies, freelancers who use multiple meeting platforms.
Comparison table: Otter.ai alternatives at a glance
Here's how all seven alternatives compare on the features that matter most when switching from Otter.ai.
| Tool | In-person | Languages | Data hosting | Free plan | Paid from | Bot-free |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Menutes | Yes | 50+ | EU | 5 hrs/month | €9/month | Yes |
| Fireflies.ai | No | 69+ | US | Limited | $18/user/mo | No |
| tl;dv | No | 30+ | US | Unlimited | $25/user/mo | No |
| Fathom | No | 25+ | US | Unlimited (Zoom) | $32/user/mo | Yes |
| Fellow | No | English | US/Canada | 10 users | $7/user/mo | N/A |
| Read AI | No | 30+ | US | Limited | $19.75/user/mo | No |
| Jamie | No | 15+ | On-device | Limited | €24/month | Yes |
Which Otter.ai alternative should you choose?
The right alternative depends on what's missing from your Otter.ai experience.
If you need in-person meeting recording: Menutes is the only tool on this list that handles in-person meetings natively. No other alternative fills this gap.
If you need GDPR-compliant EU hosting: Menutes hosts all data on EU infrastructure. Every other tool on this list processes data in the US or locally on-device.
If you need CRM integration for sales: Fireflies.ai has the deepest CRM integrations with native Salesforce and HubSpot sync.
If you want the best free plan: tl;dv (unlimited recordings) or Fathom (unlimited Zoom) offer the most generous free tiers.
If you want meeting process improvement: Fellow focuses on agendas and action item workflows rather than just transcription.
If you want meeting analytics: Read AI adds engagement scoring and sentiment analysis.
If privacy is your top concern: Jamie processes audio on-device without cloud uploads.
For most teams looking for a well-rounded Otter.ai alternative with broad meeting coverage (in-person + virtual), strong multilingual support, GDPR compliance, and affordable pricing, Menutes is the strongest overall option.
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