Last month, I had a marathon client call. Two hours, four people, lots of back-and-forth, and a few crucial decisions buried in the chatter. I needed to pull out action items, specific requirements, and who committed to what. Manually scrubbing through the recording? No thanks. That’s where automated meeting transcription services come in. I’ve tried a few, and honestly, most of them are just okay. But a couple stand out for different reasons.
My Experience with Otter.ai
I started with Otter.ai years ago. It was one of the first I paid for, back when its accuracy felt like magic compared to anything else. For simple, clear audio, it’s still pretty good. I’ve used it for internal team syncs, where everyone’s on a decent mic, and it nails about 90-95% of the words. The speaker identification is decent, not perfect, but it usually gets the main speakers right. What I really appreciate about Otter is its search function. You can type a keyword, and it jumps right to that part of the conversation. That’s a huge time-saver when you’re trying to find that one specific detail someone mentioned an hour into a call. I also like the summary feature, which gives you a quick overview, though I always double-check it. It’s not always perfect, but it’s a solid starting point. My concrete love for Otter is its mobile app. I can record in-person meetings directly into it, and it just works. No fuss, no extra hardware.
My gripe with Otter? Its accuracy drops significantly with accents or background noise. If you’re on a call with someone who has a strong accent or if there’s a dog barking in the background, you’ll spend a lot of time correcting the transcript. And the free plan is a joke for anyone serious about using it regularly; it’s too limited. The paid plans start around $10/month for Pro, which gives you more minutes and some advanced features. For what it offers, especially the search and mobile recording, $10/month is fair. But if you need enterprise-grade accuracy or complex integrations, you’ll quickly outgrow it. I think the business plan at $20/month per user is overpriced if you’re just looking for basic transcription. You’re paying for collaboration features I don’t always need as a solo operator.
My Experience with Fireflies.ai
Then there’s Fireflies.ai. This one’s built more for the meeting-heavy crowd. It integrates directly with Google Meet, Zoom, and other platforms, joining as a participant and recording automatically. That’s a convenience I didn’t realize I needed until I had it. No more remembering to hit record or upload files. It just shows up, does its thing, and sends you the transcript afterward. Fireflies also tries to do more than just transcribe. It generates meeting summaries, identifies action items, and even tracks sentiment. Some of these features are hit or miss, but the core transcription is competitive with Otter. I’ve found its speaker identification to be slightly better in multi-person calls, especially when people talk over each other a bit. It handles overlapping speech a little more gracefully, which, yes, is annoying to deal with manually.
My concrete gripe with Fireflies is its interface. It’s not as clean or intuitive as Otter’s. Finding specific settings or managing past meetings can feel clunky. It’s functional, but it’s not a joy to use. And sometimes, it misses joining a meeting entirely, which is frustrating when you’re relying on it. You get a notification, but by then, the meeting’s already started. Fireflies offers a free tier, but again, it’s mostly a trial. Their paid plans start at $10/month for the Pro plan, which is comparable to Otter. For the automatic meeting join and slightly better speaker separation, I’d say $10/month is fair. If you’re constantly in meetings and want a set-it-and-forget-it solution, Fireflies probably wins out.