{
    "title": "Otter.ai Alternatives 2027: 10 Paid, Free & Open-Source",
    "url": "https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/otter-ai/",
    "summary": "The best Otter.ai alternatives in 2027 are Fireflies.ai (best overall, $10/seat/mo billed yearly), Fathom (best free plan: Unlimited recordings and transcripts) and Meetily (best open source, MIT). Otter.ai itself starts at $8.33/user/mo billed yearly. Zekai checked these prices on vendor pages on 11 Nov 2026; 7 more are compared below, including 4 with a free plan and 2 open source.",
    "tool": {
        "name": "Otter.ai",
        "starting_price": "$8.33/user/mo billed yearly",
        "free_plan": "300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation",
        "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
        "pricing_url": "https://otter.ai/pricing"
    },
    "task": "AI meeting notes",
    "prices_checked": "2026-11-11",
    "date_modified": "2026-11-11",
    "alternatives": [
        {
            "name": "Fireflies.ai",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$10/seat/mo billed yearly",
            "free_plan_limit": "400 mins of storage per team, 20 AI credits",
            "best_for": "Teams wanting a free tier with no minute cap",
            "difference": "Free plan lists unlimited transcription with 400 minutes of storage per team and 20 AI credits, while Otter Basic caps recording at 300 minutes a month per user.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://fireflies.ai/pricing",
            "website": "https://fireflies.ai",
            "zekai_score": 9.3,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/fireflies/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Fathom",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$16/user/mo billed yearly",
            "free_plan_limit": "Unlimited recordings and transcriptions",
            "best_for": "Individuals wanting free unlimited call recording",
            "difference": "Vendor lists unlimited recordings and transcriptions on the free plan, while Otter Basic stops at 300 monthly minutes and 3 lifetime file imports; Premium is $16 per user billed yearly.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://www.fathom.ai/pricing",
            "website": "https://fathom.ai",
            "zekai_score": 8.8,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/fathom/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Granola",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$14/user/mo",
            "free_plan_limit": "Limited meeting history, 30 days",
            "best_for": "Individuals wanting pre-meeting briefs",
            "difference": "Basic is free with a 30-day meeting history; Business at $14 per user monthly adds pre-meeting briefs, follow-up emails and integrations that Basic excludes.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://www.granola.ai/pricing",
            "website": "https://www.granola.ai",
            "zekai_score": 8.6,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/granola-ai/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Read AI",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$15/user/mo billed yearly",
            "free_plan_limit": "5 meeting transcripts per month, 1 hour max",
            "best_for": "Light users wanting meeting reports and metrics",
            "difference": "Free plan allows 5 meeting transcripts and 5 reports a month, a one-hour meeting maximum, and no audio or video uploads; Pro is $15 per user billed annually.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://www.read.ai/pricing",
            "website": "https://www.read.ai",
            "zekai_score": 8.2,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/read-ai/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Avoma",
            "type": "Paid",
            "starting_price": "$19/seat/mo billed yearly",
            "free_plan_limit": "No free plan",
            "best_for": "Sales teams needing conversation intelligence",
            "difference": "No permanent free plan: a 14-day Organization trial, then Startup at $19 per recorder seat billed yearly, with viewers always free and revenue add-ons at $29 each.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://www.avoma.com/pricing",
            "website": "https://www.avoma.com",
            "zekai_score": 7.9,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/avoma/"
        },
        {
            "name": "MeetGeek",
            "type": "Free",
            "starting_price": "Free plan; paid price not published",
            "free_plan_limit": "3 hours of transcription a month",
            "best_for": "Free users wanting stated retention periods",
            "difference": "Free Basic gives 3 hours of transcription a month with 3 months of transcript storage and 1 month of audio storage, plus a 2-hour per-meeting recording limit.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://meetgeek.ai/pricing",
            "website": "https://meetgeek.ai",
            "zekai_score": 7.5,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/meetgeek/"
        },
        {
            "name": "tl;dv",
            "type": "Free",
            "starting_price": "Free plan; paid price not published",
            "best_for": "Users wanting a free start and annual discounts",
            "difference": "The pricing page title says start free and its description advertises 40% off every annual plan; plan limits did not load today, so none are stated here.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-11",
            "pricing_url": "https://tldv.io/app/pricing/",
            "website": "https://tldv.io",
            "zekai_score": 8.8,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/tldv/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Meetily",
            "type": "Open source",
            "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)",
            "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)",
            "licence": "MIT",
            "best_for": "Local-first meeting notes without subscriptions",
            "difference": "Local-first app that transcribes meetings on your own machine and writes summaries with no per-user subscription; installers exist for Windows and macOS, Linux builds from source.",
            "website": "https://meetily.ai",
            "repository": "https://github.com/Zackriya-Solutions/meetily",
            "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/meetily/",
            "zekai_score": 8.4,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/meetily/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Vexa",
            "type": "Open source",
            "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)",
            "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)",
            "licence": "Apache-2.0",
            "best_for": "Developers building transcription into products",
            "difference": "Self-hostable meeting bots join calls and stream real-time transcripts through an API with MCP support, aimed at building into your own product rather than using an app.",
            "website": "https://vexa.ai",
            "repository": "https://github.com/Vexa-ai/vexa",
            "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/vexa/",
            "zekai_score": 7.8,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/vexa/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Muesli",
            "type": "Open source",
            "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)",
            "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)",
            "licence": "MIT",
            "best_for": "Mac users wanting on-device transcription",
            "difference": "macOS app capturing microphone and system audio with on-device speech recognition and pyannote-based speaker labels; requires Apple Silicon and macOS 14.2 or later.",
            "website": "https://muesli.works",
            "repository": "https://github.com/Muesli-HQ/muesli",
            "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/muesli/",
            "zekai_score": 6.8,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/muesli/"
        }
    ],
    "faq": [
        {
            "q": "What is the best alternative to Otter.ai in 2027?",
            "a": "Fireflies.ai is the best overall Otter.ai alternative on this page ($10/seat/mo billed yearly). For no cost, Fathom has a free plan (Unlimited recordings and transcriptions). To self-host, Meetily is open source (MIT)."
        },
        {
            "q": "Is there a free version of Otter.ai?",
            "a": "Yes. Otter.ai has a free plan: 300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation. Paid plans start at $8.33/user/mo billed yearly, checked on 11 Nov 2026."
        },
        {
            "q": "Is there a 100% free alternative to Otter.ai?",
            "a": "Yes. Meetily, Vexa, Muesli are open source and free to self-host. Fireflies.ai, Fathom, Granola, Read AI, MeetGeek, tl;dv have a free plan with limits, shown in the table."
        },
        {
            "q": "What is cheaper than Otter.ai?",
            "a": "Granola starts at $14/user/mo, against $8.33/user/mo billed yearly for Otter.ai, as listed on each vendor's pricing page on 11 Nov 2026."
        },
        {
            "q": "How much do Otter.ai alternatives cost for a team of 5?",
            "a": "If each of 5 people buys the entry paid plan, at the prices Zekai checked on 11 Nov 2026, the monthly cost is Fireflies.ai $50/mo, Granola $70/mo, Read AI $75/mo, against Otter.ai $41.65/mo for Otter.ai. Team and business plans can cost more per seat. The Zekai Cost Finder on this page recalculates for any team size."
        },
        {
            "q": "Which is better, Fireflies.ai or Otter.ai?",
            "a": "Free plan lists unlimited transcription with 400 minutes of storage per team and 20 AI credits, while Otter Basic caps recording at 300 minutes a month per user. Choose Fireflies.ai if you want a free tier without a monthly transcription-minute cap and per-seat annual pricing. Stay with Otter.ai if you rely on Pro's 1,200 monthly minutes and 90-minute conversations with an Otter workspace."
        },
        {
            "q": "Why are people leaving Otter.ai?",
            "a": "The documented reasons are: Otter's free Basic plan limits transcription to 300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation and 3 lifetime file imports (11 Nov 2026); Pro caps conversations at 90 minutes and imports at 10 files a month, with unlimited recording minutes only on Business and Enterprise (11 Nov 2026). Each is sourced in the section above."
        },
        {
            "q": "What is better than Otter.ai?",
            "a": "It depends on the job. Fathom suits free call recording, Fireflies.ai suits teams, and Avoma suits sales conversations. Each has a different limit than Otter."
        }
    ],
    "publisher": "Zekai (zekaiwork.com) — independently reviewed; prices read on vendor pages on the dates shown.",
    "licence": "Free to quote with a link to https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/otter-ai/. Bulk copying or republishing the dataset is not permitted."
}