How we ranked these note takers
This list is for people leaving Otter.ai. Each tool was placed on five things: what you get free, whether a bot joins the call, what other people in the meeting see, whether your meetings train the vendor's AI models, and what public reviews found. Every price, limit and policy was read on the maker's own pages on October 25, 2026, and carries its link.
Fathom is first because its free plan records and transcribes without a minute cap and its bot announces itself. tl;dv is second for its opt-in consent page and EU-hosted data with no AI training. Granola is third: no bot and no stored audio, but other attendees see nothing unless you turn on its notice. Fireflies has the most languages and no AI training, but its defaults are as eager as Otter's, so it sits fourth.
Why people are leaving Otter.ai in 2026
Otter faces four proposed class actions, consolidated as In re Otter.AI Privacy Litigation in the Northern District of California (No. 5:25-cv-06911). The suits allege that Otter's notetaker joins and records meetings without every participant's consent, that auto-join is on by default and keeps joining after users turn it off, that people without an Otter account are not told, that recordings train Otter's AI, and that voiceprints are collected without written consent under Illinois law. These are allegations: no ruling had been reported as of September 30, 2026. NPR reported the first suit in August 2025.
Otter's own pages explain part of the worry. Its pricing table lists the recording disclaimer email and Microsoft Teams recording permission capture on the Enterprise plan only, and its privacy policy, effective June 16, 2026, says it trains its own models on de-identified audio and transcripts, with no opt-out described.
Otter is still a capable product. Pro costs $16.99 a month, or $8.33 a month billed yearly, for 1,200 minutes and meetings of up to 90 minutes; the free plan gives 300 minutes a month at 30 minutes per conversation. A lower price shown beside Pro on the pricing page is an offer for India-issued cards only. Otter transcribes six languages, announced $320M in growth financing from General Catalyst on October 20, 2026, and is still Zapier's pick for asking questions about your meetings.
Bot or no bot: which kind of note taker you need
A bot is a visible participant: it joins the call, records it on the vendor's servers and can attend when you are not there. Everyone sees it in the participant list, and the host can remove it. Fathom, tl;dv, Fireflies and Notta work this way by default.
A bot-free note taker records on your own computer, from its audio and your microphone. Nothing joins the call, so it works with any app, Slack huddles included, but it only covers meetings you attend, and others see nothing unless the tool posts a notice. Granola, Krisp, Bluedot and Tactiq work this way by default; Fathom (Mac, in beta), tl;dv, Fireflies and Notta add it through their desktop apps.
If you need the recording itself, to replay a moment or cut a clip, choose a tool that keeps audio or video. Granola and Tactiq keep text only, and Fireflies' bot-free mode saves no audio file.
Telling people they are being recorded
Every tool here puts the duty on you: their terms say you are responsible for getting consent. What differs is how much help you get by default.
| Tool | Records by default with | What other attendees see | Trains on your meetings |
|---|
| Fathom | A bot (bot-free on Mac, beta) | The bot and a recording banner | De-identified data, unless you opt out |
| tl;dv | A bot | The bot; an opt-in consent page they can decline | No |
| Granola | No bot | Nothing, unless you turn on its notice | Anonymised data on Basic and Business, unless you opt out |
| Fireflies | A bot that joins all meetings | The bot; the recap in every invitee's inbox | No |
| Bluedot | No bot | A notice each user can switch off; admins can force it | No |
| Krisp | No bot | Nothing described for bot-free mode | Listed as a purpose, with consent |
| Tactiq | No bot | A chat message, always on in the free plan | Not stated |
| Notta | A bot | The bot; nothing in bot-free mode | Not stated |
| Otter.ai | A bot | The bot; notice tools on Enterprise only | De-identified data, no opt-out described |
Laws differ by place. Some US states, California among them, require every party's consent to record a conversation, which Chapman University cited when it banned Read AI in August 2025.
What public comparisons show
No neutral test has run these note takers on the same audio and published error rates. Zapier's roundup, updated in April 2026 after two weeks of real meetings, gives labels rather than scores: Fathom is the best free option, Granola the best for combining your notes with AI notes, tl;dv the best for searching meetings, Krisp the best for audio quality, Fireflies the best for collaboration and Otter the best for asking questions about meetings.
The only same-meeting comparisons come from The Business Dive, a review site with affiliate links; one of its writers, Aron Kantor, also makes a competing app. Its Otter review recorded one meeting alongside Fireflies and Fellow and put Otter at about 85% accuracy, with more errors than Fireflies; its Fireflies review estimated 85 to 95%. Its other reviews estimate Fathom at 85 to 90% and Tactiq at about 85%, and report about 96% for Krisp in a bot-free test call, without publishing the method.
Vendor pages such as Fireflies vs Otter by Fireflies and Fathom vs Otter by tl;dv compare features and prices but run no test.
- Read AI records with a bot, bot-free on Google Meet and from its apps, and searches your email and chat too. It is not ranked: it auto-joins once a calendar is connected, and University of Wisconsin-Madison's IT help page says clicking someone's Read report can create an account whose bot then joins your meetings. Chapman University banned it in August 2025, and its Trustpilot score was 1.3 out of 5 on October 25, 2026.
- ScreenApp is a screen recorder with AI notes rather than a meeting assistant. It describes no way to tell attendees they are being recorded, its free plan is 2 transcriptions, and its terms say fees are non-refundable; its Trustpilot score was 1.3 out of 5, mostly over trials that turned into yearly charges.
- Otter.ai itself can still be the right choice for a sales team that wants unlimited English meeting minutes and CRM sync on the Business plan, at $19.99 a user a month billed yearly.