# Read AI Alternatives 2027: 11 Paid, Free & Open-Source

Source: https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/read-ai/
Prices checked: 2026-11-13 (Zekai Price Ledger)

The best Read AI alternatives in 2027 are Otter.ai (best overall, $8.33/user/mo billed yearly), Fathom (best free plan) and Meetily (best open source, MIT). Read AI itself starts at $15/user/mo billed yearly. Zekai checked these prices on vendor pages on 13 Nov 2026; 8 more are compared below, including 5 with a free plan and 2 open source.

| Tool | Type | Starting price | Free plan limit | Licence | Best for | Price checked | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read AI (the tool being replaced) | — | $15/user/mo billed yearly | 5 meeting transcripts a month, 1-hour meetings | — | — | 2026-11-13 | [pricing](https://www.read.ai/pricing) |
| Otter.ai | Free plan + paid | $8.33/user/mo billed yearly | 300 transcription minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation | — | Live transcripts for individuals and teams | 2026-11-13 | [site](https://otter.ai/) [pricing](https://otter.ai/pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/otter-ai/) |
| Fireflies.ai | Free plan + paid | $10/user/mo billed yearly | Unlimited transcription, 400 minutes storage per team, 20 AI credits | — | Meeting bot across many calling apps | 2026-11-13 | [site](https://fireflies.ai/) [pricing](https://fireflies.ai/pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/fireflies/) |
| Fathom | Free plan + paid | $16/user/mo billed yearly | Unlimited recordings and transcriptions, instant AI summaries | — | Free unlimited call recording and summaries | 2026-11-13 | [site](https://fathom.ai/) [pricing](https://www.fathom.ai/pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/fathom/) |
| Granola | Free plan + paid | $14/user/mo | 30 days of note history, Slack integration only, Auto chat model | — | Bot-free notes alongside your own typing | 2026-11-13 | [site](https://www.granola.ai/) [pricing](https://www.granola.ai/pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/granola-ai/) |
| tl;dv | Free plan + paid | $18/user/mo billed yearly | Unlimited recordings and transcription, AI notes on 10 meetings | — | Free video recorder with AI notes | 2026-11-13 | [site](https://tldv.io/) [pricing](https://tldv.io/pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/tldv/) |
| Avoma | Paid | $19/user/mo billed yearly | No free plan | — | Meeting notes with revenue-team workflows | 2026-11-13 | [site](https://www.avoma.com/) [pricing](https://www.avoma.com/pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/avoma/) |
| MeetGeek | Free plan + paid | $9.99/user/mo billed yearly | 3 hours of transcription a month, 3 months transcript storage | — | Meeting analytics with bot or bot-free capture | 2026-11-13 | [site](https://meetgeek.ai/) [pricing](https://meetgeek.ai/pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/meetgeek/) |
| Tactiq | Free plan + paid | $8/user/mo billed yearly | 10 transcripts a month, 5 AI credits a month | — | Browser transcripts for Meet, Zoom, Teams | 2026-11-13 | [site](https://tactiq.io/) [pricing](https://tactiq.io/pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/tactiq/) |
| Meetily | Open source | Free (self-hosted) | No limit (self-hosted) | MIT | Local Whisper transcription with Ollama summaries |  | [code](https://github.com/Zackriya-Solutions/meetily) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/meetily/) |
| Muesli | Open source | Free (self-hosted) | No limit (self-hosted) | MIT | Bot-free local notes on Apple Silicon Macs |  | [code](https://github.com/Muesli-HQ/muesli) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/muesli/) |
| Vexa | Open source | Free (self-hosted) | No limit (self-hosted) | Apache-2.0 | Self-hosted meeting bots with transcript API |  | [code](https://github.com/Vexa-ai/vexa) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/vexa/) |

## How each alternative compares with Read AI

- **Otter.ai** (Free plan + paid, $8.33/user/mo billed yearly, checked 2026-11-13): Otter Pro is $8.33 billed yearly against Read AI Pro's $15, with 1,200 transcription minutes a month and 90-minute meetings; Read AI Pro lists unlimited transcripts and 4-hour meetings. Switch if you transcribe under 20 hours a month per person and want to pay about half of Read AI Pro yearly. Stay with Read AI if you need meetings over 90 minutes, unlimited transcripts per seat, or video highlights on Enterprise.
- **Fireflies.ai** (Free plan + paid, $10/user/mo billed yearly, checked 2026-11-13): Fireflies Pro lists unlimited transcription at $10 billed yearly but caps storage at 8,000 minutes per seat and recordings at 2 hours; Read AI Pro includes unlimited storage and 4-hour meetings. Switch if you want a cheaper yearly Pro seat with video recording and API access on the free tier. Stay with Read AI if you want unlimited storage on paid plans rather than an 8,000-minute per-seat storage cap.
- **Fathom** (Free plan + paid, $16/user/mo billed yearly, checked 2026-11-13): Fathom's free plan lists unlimited recordings and transcriptions, against Read AI Free's 5 transcripts a month, and its Team plan adds HIPAA compliance with a standard BAA from $15 yearly. Switch if you want unlimited free recording, or HIPAA-ready team controls without Read AI's Enterprise+ tier. Stay with Read AI if you want email and messaging summaries and enterprise search across tools, not only call recordings.
- **Granola** (Free plan + paid, $14/user/mo, checked 2026-11-13): Granola captures device audio with no bot and Business is $14 monthly-only; its free Basic plan keeps 30 days of history, versus Read AI Free's 5 transcripts a month. Switch if you join calls where a bot is unwelcome and want unlimited notes for $14 a month. Stay with Read AI if you want automatic joining of Zoom, Teams and Meet plus coaching and engagement metrics.
- **tl;dv** (Free plan + paid, $18/user/mo billed yearly, checked 2026-11-13): tl;dv's free plan lists unlimited video recordings and transcription in 100+ languages with AI notes on 10 meetings; Pro is $18 billed yearly and Read AI Pro is $15. Switch if you want unlimited free video recordings and a 5,000+ integration catalogue on a paid plan. Stay with Read AI if you want a lower $15 yearly Pro price with unlimited meeting reports and storage.
- **Avoma** (Paid, $19/user/mo billed yearly, checked 2026-11-13): Avoma charges only for recorder seats with unlimited free view-only users, and sells Conversation Intelligence and Revenue Intelligence add-ons at $29 per seat yearly; Read AI licenses every user. Switch if few people record calls, everyone else only reads notes, and you want scheduling and CRM-linked revenue add-ons. Stay with Read AI if you want a permanent free plan and a $15 yearly Pro seat for every user.
- **MeetGeek** (Free plan + paid, $9.99/user/mo billed yearly, checked 2026-11-13): MeetGeek Pro lists 20 hours of transcription a month for $9.99 billed yearly, with $0.50 per extra hour; Read AI Pro lists unlimited transcripts at $15 billed yearly. Switch if you want a sub-$10 yearly seat with Zapier, Make and n8n and can stay within 20 hours monthly. Stay with Read AI if you do not want to meter transcription hours or pay overage charges.
- **Tactiq** (Free plan + paid, $8/user/mo billed yearly, checked 2026-11-13): Tactiq's Free plan caps transcripts at 10 a month and 5 AI credits; Pro at $8 billed yearly unlocks unlimited transcripts, and Team at $16.67 adds unlimited AI credits. Switch if you mostly need browser transcripts from Meet, Zoom or Teams at the lowest yearly paid price. Stay with Read AI if you want coaching, metrics and unlimited reports on the same seat instead of 10 AI credits.
- **Meetily** (Open source, Free (self-hosted)): Meetily is MIT-licensed and transcribes locally with Whisper or Parakeet; Read AI is a hosted service with Windows, Mac, Android and iOS apps and CRM integrations. Switch if you want transcripts processed on your own machine with no seat fee and your own LLM choice. Stay with Read AI if you need Salesforce or HubSpot sync, enterprise search and hosted reports without maintaining software.
- **Muesli** (Open source, Free (self-hosted)): Muesli is MIT-licensed, bot-free and Apple Silicon-only (macOS 14.2 or later); Read AI offers Windows, Mac, Android and iOS apps and joins calls as an assistant. Switch if your team uses Apple Silicon Macs and wants bot-free local notes at no cost. Stay with Read AI if you have Windows or mobile users, or need shared workspaces and admin controls.
- **Vexa** (Open source, Free (self-hosted)): Vexa is Apache-2.0 and exposes meeting bots for Google Meet, Teams and Zoom through an API you host; Read AI is a finished product with reports and coaching. Switch if you want to self-host meeting bots and a transcript API for your own application. Stay with Read AI if you want ready-made meeting reports and scoring, not Docker infrastructure to run.

## Open-source options in detail

- **Meetily** (https://github.com/Zackriya-Solutions/meetily): Licence: MIT; Last release: 2026-09-12
- **Muesli** (https://github.com/Muesli-HQ/muesli): Licence: MIT; Last release: 2026-11-08
- **Vexa** (https://github.com/Vexa-ai/vexa): Licence: Apache-2.0; Last release: 2026-10-09

## Questions

### What is the best alternative to Read AI in 2027?
Otter.ai is the best overall Read AI alternative on this page ($8.33/user/mo billed yearly). For no cost, Fathom has a free plan (Unlimited recordings and transcriptions, instant AI summaries). To self-host, Meetily is open source (MIT).

### Is there a free version of Read AI?
Yes. Read AI has a free plan: 5 meeting transcripts a month, 1-hour meetings. Paid plans start at $15/user/mo billed yearly, checked on 13 Nov 2026.

### Is there a 100% free alternative to Read AI?
Yes. Meetily, Muesli, Vexa are open source and free to self-host. Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Fathom, Granola, tl;dv, MeetGeek, Tactiq have a free plan with limits, shown in the table.

### What is cheaper than Read AI?
Tactiq starts at $8/user/mo billed yearly, against $15/user/mo billed yearly for Read AI, as listed on each vendor's pricing page on 13 Nov 2026.

### How much do Read AI alternatives cost for a team of 5?
If each of 5 people buys the entry paid plan, at the prices Zekai checked on 13 Nov 2026, the monthly cost is Tactiq $40/mo, Otter.ai $41.65/mo, MeetGeek $49.95/mo, against Read AI $75/mo for Read AI. Team and business plans can cost more per seat. The Zekai Cost Finder on this page recalculates for any team size.

### Which is better, Otter.ai or Read AI?
Otter Pro is $8.33 billed yearly against Read AI Pro's $15, with 1,200 transcription minutes a month and 90-minute meetings; Read AI Pro lists unlimited transcripts and 4-hour meetings. Choose Otter.ai if you transcribe under 20 hours a month per person and want to pay about half of Read AI Pro yearly. Stay with Read AI if you need meetings over 90 minutes, unlimited transcripts per seat, or video highlights on Enterprise.

### Why are people leaving Read AI?
The documented reasons are: Read AI Free is capped at 5 meeting transcripts a month and 1-hour meetings, with audio and video file uploads not included (13 Nov 2026); Audio and video playback and video highlights are not in Pro; they start on Enterprise at $22.50 per user billed yearly or $29.75 billed monthly, and HIPAA and SAML start on Enterprise+ (13 Nov 2026). Each is sourced in the section above.

### What are the best Read AI alternatives?
Otter.ai and Fireflies.ai are the closest paid rivals, Fathom has the strongest free plan, and Meetily or Vexa are open-source options.

## Related on Zekai

- [Otter.ai alternatives](https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/otter-ai/)
- [Fathom alternatives](https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/fathom/)
- [Granola alternatives](https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/granola-ai/)
- [tl;dv alternatives](https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/tldv/)
- [Fireflies.ai alternatives](https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/fireflies-ai/)
- [Krisp alternatives](https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/krisp/)
- [AI for Lead Generation & Sales Prospecting](https://zekaiwork.com/professions/ai-lead-generation-sales-automation/)

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Live table, team cost finder and price alerts: https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/read-ai/