Best Otter.ai Alternatives in 2026

Why teams look for alternatives

Teams look for Otter.ai alternatives when they would rather no bot joined their calls, or when they need transcription in more languages than the six Otter lists. Others want European hosting, every recording kept on their own machine, or coaching, scheduling and forecasting from the same vendor as their notes.

Otter.ai sends a bot to scheduled meetings, transcribes them live and produces summaries, action items and CRM updates, with desktop, iOS and Android apps and a Chrome extension. Transcription covers English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese (Simplified). The alternatives below differ mainly in how the audio is captured, where it is stored and what happens to the notes afterward.

Choose Granola when you want notes without a bot in the call. Granola captures audio from the device itself, so it works with any meeting app, and it runs on Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android and Apple Watch for in-person meetings. You jot rough notes during the meeting and Granola fills them out from the transcript afterward. Recording starts manually for each meeting. It has a free plan, and paid plans start from $14/mo.

Choose Fireflies.ai when the team works across many languages or many tools. Its notetaker joins Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Webex, transcription covers more than 100 languages in beta alongside its main languages, and integrations reach more than 100 apps, including CRMs, recruiting tools and dialers. A Chrome extension records without the bot joining. Paid plans start from $10/mo billed annually.

Choose Fathom when you want a free plan with unlimited recordings and capture beyond video calls. It records Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Slack Huddles, records in-person conversations through its iOS app, and offers bot-free capture in its Mac desktop app. Fathom became part of Superhuman in September 2026. Paid plans start from $15/mo billed annually.

Choose tl;dv when European data hosting matters. The company is based in Aachen, Germany, and it records with a meeting bot or without one through its desktop app, while its iOS and Android apps record in-person conversations. Custom note templates run sales frameworks such as MEDDIC and SPIN on every call. Paid plans start from $18/mo billed annually.

Choose Avoma when meeting notes are one part of a wider revenue workflow. Alongside recording and AI notes it bundles a scheduler and lead router, conversation intelligence with call scoring and coaching, and revenue intelligence with deal risk alerts and forecasting. It transcribes more than 60 languages and dialects. Plans start from $19/mo billed annually.

Choose Spellar AI when you want a live copilot during the call and control over where the audio goes. It records on the device you are meeting on, with no bot, across a Mac app, iPhone and iPad apps, a web app and a Chrome extension. Server-side transcription is opt-in per meeting, transcription can run on-device, and recordings can be kept on the device only. Plans start from $15/mo billed annually.

Choose Shadow when you work on a Mac and want every meeting saved as local files your AI agents can read. It records system audio and the microphone with no bot, detects meetings and starts recording on its own, and runs transcription on the Mac. Each meeting is saved as plain Markdown that also opens as an Obsidian vault. Paid plans start from $8/mo billed annually.

Choose screenpipe when meetings are only part of what you want captured. It records your screen and audio continuously on your own machine, keeps the history on your own disk, and serves it to AI clients through a local MCP server. Its published recipes draft meeting follow-ups for a person to approve. It has a free plan on one device, and paid plans start from $21/mo billed annually.

The main choice is how a meeting gets captured. Otter.ai, Fathom, Fireflies.ai, Avoma and tl;dv can send a bot to scheduled calls, and each of the last four also offers a way to record without one. Granola, Spellar AI and Shadow record from your own device and never join the call. screenpipe keeps a continuous record of your screen and audio on your own machine, and meetings are one part of it.

Otter.ai

by Otter.ai

Currently reviewing

AI meeting agent that joins Zoom, Teams and Google Meet to transcribe, summarize and sync notes to CRM, plus SDR and Recruiting agents and an MCP server. Free plan, Pro $8.33/user/mo billed annually.

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