Chances are you’re here because you’re looking for the best tool to use in conjunction with your video calls and conferences. Whether you need transcriptions, timestamps, or the ability to highlight certain parts of a meeting, your search has likely led you to Otter.ai.
But is there an Otter.ai alternative that’s better for you?
You’re goddamn right there is.
What is Otter.ai?
Before we get onto the Otter.ai alternatives, what exactly is Otter.ai?
Otter.ai is a text-to-speech software that transcribes audio from virtual meetings in real-time. After that, you can add timestamps, highlights and other edits to the transcription, and share it with your colleagues to streamline collaboration and cut down on unnecessary meetings.
The software is widely used by journalists, media teams, and universities, but it is less suited for remote, hybrid or async business teams.
In August 2022 they slashed their number of free transcription minutes to 300, leaving many on the free plan looking for an Otter.ai alternative. In addition to this, their busy interface can be a barrier in terms of ease-of-use, while their pricing is not the best in comparison to what you get.
So if you’re looking for websites like Otter.ai to use as your business’ next video conferencing software, this list will make your job a lot easier. Here are all the Otter.ai competitors that you need to know about.
The 5 Best Otter.ai Alternatives
There are quite a few softwares that are similar to Otter.ai, but which one is the best? Depending on your exact needs, you have a few options, but when it comes to small remote businesses, there is one clear winner.
Drum roll, please…
1. tl;dv
Perfect for async, hybrid or remote teams that utilize Google Meet or Zoom, tl;dv is a free and easy-to-use meeting tool for recordings and transcripts. The free plan offers highly accurate transcriptions in more than twenty languages, with speaker detection and labelling. You can even find precise meeting moments by searching for a keyword in your transcripts. There’s a constant barrage of new updates, and a super-intuitive editing tool. All in all, tl;dv is the best free alternative to Otter.ai on this list (or any list).
Despite not having the trendy catchy “.ai” domain, tl;dv makes good use of AI. Oh, and like most things, it’s included in the free plan… Generate summaries, notes, and automatically detect speakers all using our powerful program that has GPT baked into it.
The Chrome extension or Zoom app empowers you to be more productive by spending less time in meetings. It does this through timestamps which allow relevant team members to sit out the meeting and catch up later, jumping straight to the part that’s important for them. Meetings are searchable from the online tl;dv library. You can easily share a link to the full meeting video, transcript and timestamps – or even create bite-size clips to share.
Choose tl;dv if your team is remote and spread out across the world. The team behind the software are the same, so they know exactly what you need and are on a mission to provide it.
Pros
- Free AI integration for summaries, notes, and automatic speaker detection
- Live transcriptions in 20+ languages for Zoom and Google Meet
- Free and instant transcript translations
- Unlimited free recordings of Zoom and Google Meet calls
- Easy-to-use and intuitive
- Time-stamped highlights and the ability to tag colleagues at specific meeting moments
- Push timestamps and meeting clips directly to Notion, Slack, HubSpot, Salesforce via integrations
- Highlight transcript to create clips out of recorded meetings
- Search your meetings library for keywords in transcripts
Cons
- Not yet available for Microsoft Teams
Otter.ai vs tl;dv
One of the reasons tl;dv excels in the remote-working niche is because of its speaker-recognition transcription tool which boasts powerful accuracy in 20+ major languages. You can even translate a transcript in a matter of seconds. Compare this to Otter.ai’s English-only tool and you’ll realize just how helpful this is. tl;dv strives to ensure your team can make the most of this time-saving tool, no matter where in the world they’re located.
Otter.ai currently has the advantage in terms of integration because it works on Microsoft Teams as well as on Google Meet and Zoom, but tl;dv transcribes in many more languages, allows unlimited free transcriptions (compared to Otter.ai’s 300 minutes per month), and has a simpler and easier-to-use interface. When comparing the free plans, tl;dv is an absolute no-brainer.
Paid Plans
As for the paid plans, tl;dv offers two:
- Pro: $20 per month
- Enterprise: customizable
Meanwhile, Otter.ai has three paid plans:
- Pro: $8.33 per month
- Business: $20 per month
- Enterprise: customizable
Note: Otter.ai’s business plan doesn’t provide as many free recordings and transcriptions as tl;dv’s free plan.
Otter.ai | tl;dv | |
AI | Yes, paid | Yes, free! |
Free Plan | 5 recordings / month | Unlimited recordings & transcripts for free |
Pro Plan Pricing | 19 USD / month | 20 USD / month for advanced features |
Google Meet | Yes | Yes |
Zoom | Yes | Yes |
Records Video | No | Yes |
Automated Transcription | Yes – English only | Yes, 20+ languages for free |
Speaker Recognition | No | Yes |
Timestamps Moments in Real-Time | No | Yes |
CRM Integrations | No | Yes |
Slack Integration | No | Yes |
Search Call Transcripts with Keyword | Yes | Yes |
Tag Colleagues in Transcript | No | Yes |
Create Video Clips from Transcripts | No | Yes |
Viewing Analytics | No | Yes |
Speaking Time Analysis for Sales Reps | No | Coming in 2023 |
‘Keyword’ Alerts in Transcript | No | Coming in 2023 |
2. Dialpad
Dialpad is an interesting Otter.ai alternative because it allows you to combine regular meeting transcriptions with phone calls and messages. The software’s AI can also be programmed to recognize industry-specific jargon which can help out a great deal when transcribing niche meetings.
While more of a unified business communications platform, Dialpad is still similar to Otter.ai in many ways. It can be used instead of Otter.ai if you’re looking mostly for a transcription substitute as it works on almost any platform.
Pros
- Natural language processing with real-time voice recognition
- Works on all devices (Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, browser extensions)
- Standalone video conferencing tool
Cons
- Does not work in every country
- Standard plan has no customer support via phone call
- Maximum of 10 participants on the standard plan
Otter.ai vs Dialpad
Even though Dialpad isn’t one of the most obvious Otter.ai alternatives, it’s still a very suitable replacement for teams that want transcriptions of their work calls, especially ones that include a lot of jargon. It works with a healthy combination of phone calls, video meetings and other communication channels so that your team can keep all the relevant information in one easy-to-find and easy-to-share place.
Paid Plans
Dialpad offers:
- Standard: £12 per month (includes unlimited SMS, calls, and video meetings, as well as online support)
- Pro: £20 per month (includes multiple phone numbers per account and local number support in 70+ countries)
- Enterprise: customizable (includes unlimited uptime and priority support)
3. Rev
One of the most popular Otter.ai alternatives, transcriptions are Rev’s bread and butter. Rev, the self-proclaimed “#1 speech-to-text service in the world”, doesn’t record virtual meeting or call video. Instead, it narrows its focus to transcripts only, and aims to be the best of the best when it comes to this service.
The auto transcription that Rev offers has a 90% accuracy rate and will be with you within 5 minutes. If you want a higher percentage of accuracy – say 99% – Rev offers a human transcription service too. It has an average turnaround of 5 hours but it can vary depending on the length of the audio and the time of day.
Like other Otter.ai alternatives, there are a few overlapping features. With Rev, you can upload existing video or audio files for transcription. The tool also allows for annotations, and file sharing, but Rev offers a lot more in the way of content for their subscribers to learn and grow. They offer training resources like e-books and webinars that help you maximize the tool and improve your business.
Pros
- 90% accuracy with automatically generated transcripts
- 99% accuracy with human transcriptions
- Auto detect speech in 22 different languages
- Video conferencing software integration
- Offers transcripts, captions, and subtitles
Cons
- There is no free version and the free trial has limited features
- No team collaboration
- Limited to transcripts only
Otter.ai vs Rev
When it comes to transcripts, Rev is the top dog. It offers one of the best transcription services you can get, but it comes at a cost. While the pay-as-you-go deal might seem good, it can add up to a lot more than Otter.ai’s service. Not to mention, Otter.ai enables team collaboration and live meeting recordings which Rev leaves out of the package.
In reality, the two softwares are for slightly different use-cases. Rev is a lot more ‘heavy duty – but depending on your needs as a business, that may be crucial. The tool is especially popular among people who work in media and journalism. If, however, your remote team just needs to catch up on meetings in a streamlined manner, then a tool like tl;dv is more appropriate.
Paid Plans
There are several different types of pay-as-you-go plans for Rev:
Human transcription: $1.50 per minute of audio
Automated transcription: $0.25 per minute of audio
English closed captions: $1.50 per minute of audio
Global translated subtitles: $5-12 per minute of audio
Zoom live captions: $20 per host
Whether you opt for Rev or not, let’s hope this doesn’t end up happening to you or your hardest working user researcher.
@tldv.io Ian can make jokes about it. He was let go too. Goodluck to anyone dealing with this. It is frustrating, illogical, and difficult but you will get through it ❤️ #layoff #tech
♬ original sound - tldv.io - AI Meeting Recorder
4. Trint
More of a gem for media teams and video producers, Trint is a software that enables speech-to-text transcriptions from manually uploaded video or audio files. You can follow, verify and edit your transcript using the Trint Editor.
Pros
- Automated Speech Recognition (ASR)
- Real-time transcriptions
- Has a mobile app for iOS
- Edit collaboratively and simultaneously
Cons
- Can’t handle large files or long calls (3+ hours)
- On the pricey side
Otter.ai vs Trint
Trint is a software that has many more customer support options than Otter.ai. While it’s a lot more expensive – I mean, a lot more – Trint is supported by top-of-the-range brands including Nike, Airbnb, and The Washington Post. It supports custom vocabulary, identifies speakers automatically, and lets you tag people in the comments – as well as facilitates three (or more on the higher plans) people to edit a transcript simultaneously.
Paid Plans
There are three paid plans for Trint:
Starter: $48 per month (1-3 users, up to 7 files in 32 languages)
Advanced: $55 per month (1-15 users, unlimited transcriptions, and large-scale collaborative editing)
Enterprise: customizable (real-time live transcriptions and training courses)
5. Gong
A platform dedicated to analyzing client interactions and transcribing calls, Gong detects the length for which someone is speaking and offers recommendations for how to improve sales pitches. It’s an intelligent software that can be used for maximizing profit from sales over online meetings.
It makes sense to choose Gong over other Otter.ai competitors if you’re looking to enhance and improve your client-facing interactions. However, there are some downsides too.
Pros
- Offers a variety of integrations with business apps like Klue and Salesforce
- Analyzes data of client interactions and provides advice for how to improve
Cons
- Exclusively focused on Sales teams
- Difficult onboarding
- Expensive
- Recommendations on how to ‘improve your sales pitch’ can be a bit intrusive
Otter.ai vs Gong
While Otter.ai is noticeably cheaper (and easier to onboard), it comes without the high-level analysis of which Gong specializes in. As one of the biggest Otter alternatives, Gong is tackling multiple problems at once, allowing the simple transcriptions of other video conferencing tools, in addition to the data-backed analysis to promote and encourage a higher percentage of sales.
On the surface, Gong seems like it could make for a decent virtual meeting software, but the fact is that the tool is only really relevant for large Sales teams. Then again, its data analytical tool is largely unrivaled for Sales calls – so if that’s a necessity for you, then Gong is your best bet. Some Sales reps appreciate the ‘sales tips’ offered by the tool based on its call analysis, whereas others find these suggestions distracting.
Paid Plans
All the paid plans for Gong are customizable. Frustratingly, they all require you to reach out to Gong to get a quote. From multiple sources, it appears that their average plan is around $100 per month per user, making it the most expensive on this list.
Otter.ai Alternative: The Verdict
Otter.ai – yea or nay? As with anything, it comes down your specific needs – but for most remote and hybrid businesses, there are way more wallet-friendly and feature-packed tools to transcribe your virtual meetings and online calls.
If your need for perfect transcriptions far outweighs your interest in recorded video and productivity-boosting features, then look to Rev – the transcript king.
Otter.ai might be the right fit for English-speaking educational institutions, some journalists, or teams that exclusively use MS Teams – but if the goal is to empower team collaboration and efficiency, we’d suggest looking at a more comprehensive tool that truly make the most out of your transcripts.
For Zoom or Google Meet user, tl;dv is the champion and there really is no competition. The tool offers free unlimited recordings and transcriptions of top quality in 20+ languages – something you just can’t get elsewhere. No wonder tl;dv is the go-to meeting transcriber for async and multi-national teams.
