The typical searcher started on Otter's free plan, then met the 30-minute limit per conversation, the six supported languages, or the question of what happens to recorded client calls. They move to another meeting recorder with a broader free tier, to a per-minute or per-hour transcription service, or to a speech API they build around.
Niels AbrahamsenAnalyst, Security & Infrastructure
Tomasz Wierzbicki
Elena MarchettiVendors can pay for visibility on this site; it never changes what we say about a product. How that works.
Otter's Basic plan gives 300 transcription minutes a month, ends each conversation at 30 minutes and allows 3 file imports in total. Pro raises that to 1,200 minutes, 90 minutes a conversation and 10 imports a month. A weekly two-hour workshop or a batch of interview recordings meets those walls quickly.
Every Otter plan lists the same six transcription languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese. A team that records in Dutch, Italian, Polish or Arabic has no upgrade path inside Otter, because the limit is the same on Enterprise as on the free plan.
Otter's privacy policy says it stores data on Amazon Web Services in the United States and uses de-identified audio recordings and transcriptions to train its own AI. For client calls, legal matters or anything under a confidentiality clause, that sentence is the thing to take to your data protection officer before renewing.
| Alternative | Country | Pricing | Our rank | Switch if |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| tl;dv | Germany | Free tier; per seat per month, published | #5 | you want the same meeting-bot workflow with more languages on the free plan |
| Happy Scribe | Ireland | Monthly plans with included minutes, published; top-ups at 0.20 euros a minute; free plan limited to meeting recording and a 10-minute trial | #2 | you transcribe in many languages and would rather pay per minute than per seat |
| Sonix | United States | Pay per hour of audio, published; optional per-seat subscription | #7 | you transcribe in bursts and a monthly seat fee never pays back |
| Trint | United Kingdom | Per seat per month, published; enterprise quoted | #6 | storage region and a no-training commitment matter more than the lowest price |
| Amberscript | Netherlands | Monthly plans from 19 euros with capped hours, or pay-as-you-go credit at 10 euros an audio hour, published; human transcription from 1.85 euros a minute | #1 | recordings must stay on EU servers and you need Dutch or other European languages |
| Rev | United States | Human transcription $1.99 a minute, published; AI transcription on subscription plans, with a free plan of 45 minutes a month | #10 | a person must check the transcript because it will be relied on formally |
| Descript | United States | Free plan with 60 media minutes a month; per seat per month with included media hours, published | #8 | the transcript is a step toward publishing a cut podcast or video |
| Verbit | United States | Quoted per organisation, per minute of media | #11 | you need captioning or transcripts with accessibility or legal obligations attached |
| Speechmatics | United Kingdom | Per hour of audio, published; self-hosted container quoted | #3 | audio must stay inside your own infrastructure and you have developers |
| Gladia | France | Per hour of audio from $0.61 pay-as-you-go, published; one-time 50 euros of credit for testing | #4 | you are building transcription into your own tool and want EU residency |
| Deepgram | United States | Pay per minute of audio, published; self-hosted deployment quoted | #12 | you want the lowest published per-minute rate and will write the integration yourself |
Germany · Free tier; per seat per month, published
The nearest like-for-like swap: a meeting recorder that joins Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. Its free plan lists unlimited recordings and transcriptions in 30+ languages, against Otter's six. Paid plans are priced per user per month in euros. It is built around live meetings, not archives of audio files.
Switch from Otter.ai if you want the same meeting-bot workflow with more languages on the free plan.
Ireland · Monthly plans with included minutes, published; top-ups at 0.20 euros a minute; free plan limited to meeting recording and a 10-minute trial
Sells minutes, not seats: Basic includes 120 minutes a month and Pro 600, with extra credit at 0.20 euros a minute. It lists 150+ transcription languages and a free plan with a 45-minute recording limit. It is a transcript editor first, so it is weaker on calendar-driven meeting workflows.
Switch from Otter.ai if you transcribe in many languages and would rather pay per minute than per seat.
United States · Pay per hour of audio, published; optional per-seat subscription
Pay-as-you-go at $10 an hour with no subscription, or plans from $25 a month with 5 hours. It lists 54+ languages and an in-browser editor, and new accounts get a 30-minute trial. Unlike Otter there is no permanent free plan, and it is aimed at files more than live meetings.
Switch from Otter.ai if you transcribe in bursts and a monthly seat fee never pays back.
United Kingdom · Per seat per month, published; enterprise quoted
An editorial transcription platform for newsrooms, production companies and law firms, with 40+ transcription languages and translation into 70+. Its site says it does not train on user transcripts and offers storage in the EU or the US. We could not confirm its plan prices, which sit behind a login.
Switch from Otter.ai if storage region and a no-training commitment matter more than the lowest price.
Netherlands · Monthly plans from 19 euros with capped hours, or pay-as-you-go credit at 10 euros an audio hour, published; human transcription from 1.85 euros a minute
Dutch company whose site states GDPR-compliant storage on EU servers and 90+ languages. Plans run 19 euros a month for 5 hours, or 10 euros an hour as pay-as-you-go credit. A human transcript starts at 1.85 euros a minute. It has no free plan to rival Otter's.
Switch from Otter.ai if recordings must stay on EU servers and you need Dutch or other European languages.
United States · Human transcription $1.99 a minute, published; AI transcription on subscription plans, with a free plan of 45 minutes a month
Pairs a subscription AI tier with human transcription at $1.99 a minute. The free plan is 45 AI minutes a month, English only. Pro lists 37+ languages. It is a transcription service for evidence and records, not a meeting-notes assistant with a calendar bot.
Switch from Otter.ai if a person must check the transcript because it will be relied on formally.
United States · Free plan with 60 media minutes a month; per seat per month with included media hours, published
An audio and video editor in which you edit the recording by editing its transcript. The free plan allows 60 media minutes a month, and paid plans are measured in media hours, 10 to 40 a month on the three self-serve tiers. It does not summarise meetings the way Otter does.
Switch from Otter.ai if the transcript is a step toward publishing a cut podcast or video.
United States · Quoted per organisation, per minute of media
Sells to courts, law firms, media and universities, with human review and products such as live captioning. It publishes no prices: the site sends you to a demo or sales contact. Its headquarters address is in New York. Nothing here suits an individual who wanted Otter's free tier.
Switch from Otter.ai if you need captioning or transcripts with accessibility or legal obligations attached.
United Kingdom · Per hour of audio, published; self-hosted container quoted
A speech-to-text API, not an application. Its pricing page lists a general model at $0.12 an hour covering 56 languages, and $100 of starting credit. It runs in the cloud, on premises or on device, which answers the storage question entirely. Someone has to build the interface.
Switch from Otter.ai if audio must stay inside your own infrastructure and you have developers.
France · Per hour of audio from $0.61 pay-as-you-go, published; one-time 50 euros of credit for testing
A speech API with EU data residency described on its site, 100+ languages and pay-as-you-go pricing from $0.61 an hour for asynchronous files. New users receive 50 euros of credit. There is no end-user app, so it replaces Otter only inside a product you build.
Switch from Otter.ai if you are building transcription into your own tool and want EU residency.
United States · Pay per minute of audio, published; self-hosted deployment quoted
A speech API billed per minute, with $200 of free credit on pay-as-you-go. Its pricing page lists Nova-3 monolingual transcription at $0.0048 a minute. It targets developers and voice products, and there is no meeting recorder, editor or shared library to log into.
Switch from Otter.ai if you want the lowest published per-minute rate and will write the integration yourself.
Otter remains a sound choice when your meetings are in one of its six languages, they fit within 90 minutes (Pro) or 4 hours (Business), and the privacy terms are acceptable to the people being recorded. The free plan gives 300 minutes a month with calendar integration for Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet, and annual Pro is $8.33 a user a month. Few alternatives match that for casual English meetings.
Transcripts and recordings live in your Otter account. Decide which meetings are worth keeping, export those, and delete the rest under the account's deletion process. Confirm what the deletion terms in Otter's privacy policy mean for the data it has already used for training before you assume nothing remains.
Most replacements, tl;dv among them, also work by joining calls as a participant. Moving does not change the consent obligation to everyone on the call. If the reason for leaving is privacy, compare storage region, training terms and retention on each vendor's own pages.
Otter limits each conversation by plan: 30 minutes on Basic, 90 minutes on Pro and 4 hours on Business and Enterprise.
Basic also stops at 300 transcription minutes a month. The limits are listed on Otter's pricing page, so a longer session needs a higher plan or another tool.
Among the vendors checked, Happy Scribe lists 150+ transcription languages, Gladia 100+, Amberscript 90+ and Sonix 54+. Otter lists six. Language lists describe coverage, not accuracy, so test your own recordings in each language before committing.
Its privacy policy says it trains its proprietary AI on de-identified audio recordings and transcriptions. It also says data is stored on Amazon Web Services in the United States.
Trint states on its site that it does not train on user transcripts, and Gladia says data opt-out applies on every paid plan.
tl;dv lists a free plan with unlimited recordings and transcriptions in 30+ languages. Happy Scribe's free plan has a 10-minute trial and a 45-minute recording limit.
Rev's free plan is 45 AI minutes a month, English only. Descript's free plan is 60 media minutes a month.
Amberscript states GDPR-compliant storage on EU servers. Trint offers storage in either the EU or the US. Gladia describes EU data residency, listed for enterprise customers. Speechmatics can run on premises or on device, so the audio never has to leave your own systems.
Per-hour pricing beats a seat when volume is low. Sonix charges $10 an hour pay-as-you-go and Amberscript 10 euros an hour. Speech APIs such as Speechmatics at $0.12 an hour and Deepgram at $0.0048 a minute are cheaper still, but need developer time to use.
