Meeting notetakers have quietly become standard equipment. The two names that come up first solve the same problem with different centers of gravity: Otter around the transcript, Fireflies around what happens to the notes afterwards.
At a glance
| Otter.ai | Fireflies.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Center of gravity | Live transcript you can highlight | Notes flowing into CRM and task tools |
| Entry price | Free tier; Pro about $8/month annual | Free tier; Pro about $10/month annual |
| Languages | English-centric | Broader multilingual support |
| Best buyer | Individuals, students, small teams | Sales and customer-facing teams |
The case for Otter
Otter does the core job with the least ceremony: join, transcribe live, highlight the moment the decision was made, get a summary. The free tier is generous enough to test on real meetings, and for English-language work the accuracy is dependable. If your need is “I want to stop typing notes”, Otter is the shortest path.
The case for Fireflies
Fireflies assumes the transcript is not the end product. Calls land automatically in your CRM, action items flow to your task manager, and the whole call archive becomes searchable (“what did this client say about budget in March?”). Multilingual support is broader, which matters for Swiss and European teams switching languages mid-call. The price of the plumbing: a visible bot joins your meetings, and the admin settings deserve a careful first pass.
The privacy point both share
A notetaker records people. In Switzerland and the EU, record only with consent: announce the bot, configure consent prompts, and decide retention before rolling it out to a team, not after. Both tools have the controls; neither sets them for you.
Our recommendation
- You, personally, drowning in meetings: Otter’s free tier today; pay when you hit the limits.
- A sales or support team with a CRM: Fireflies; the integrations are the product.
- Multilingual meetings (French, German, Italian…): test Fireflies first on your real language mix; that trial matters more than any review.