The 6 Best Meeting Transcription Apps in 2026

Meeting transcription apps have become a crowded market, and the differences between them aren't always obvious from their marketing pages. Some join your calls as a bot. Some record from your phone. Some only work with specific platforms. The right choice depends on how you actually meet — not just what features the app lists on its website.

We looked at six of the most popular options and compared them on what actually matters: how they record, transcription accuracy, what you get beyond raw text, and what they cost. Wave is our product, so we're biased — but we've tried to be honest about where each tool genuinely excels.

Otter.ai

Otter is one of the most established names in meeting transcription. It connects to your calendar and sends a bot into Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams calls automatically. The real-time transcript appears during the meeting, which is useful for accessibility or following along if audio quality is poor. After the call, you get a summary with action items and the ability to highlight and comment on specific sections.

Otter's free tier includes 300 minutes per month, which is enough to evaluate it seriously. The Pro plan ($16.99/month) removes limits and adds features like custom vocabulary. The team collaboration features — shared workspaces, comments, and meeting libraries — are mature and well-designed.

The trade-off is the bot. Everyone in the meeting sees it join, which can be awkward in client calls or sensitive conversations. And Otter only works with scheduled virtual meetings — if you need to transcribe an in-person conversation or phone call, you'll need another tool.

Fireflies.ai

Fireflies takes a similar bot-based approach to Otter but leans harder into integrations. It connects to Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, Notion, Asana, and dozens of other tools, which makes it popular with sales teams who want call notes pushed directly into deal records. The conversation intelligence features — talk ratios, sentiment analysis, topic tracking — are useful for managers reviewing team performance.

Transcription accuracy is solid, and the AI summaries reliably extract action items and key decisions. Pricing starts with a free tier and scales to $18/month per seat for Pro. The bot ("Fred") joins meetings visibly, same as Otter, with the same trade-offs around participant comfort.

Where Fireflies falls short is outside of virtual meetings. There's no practical way to use it for in-person conversations, phone calls, or spontaneous recordings. It's purpose-built for scheduled video calls.

Fathom

Fathom has carved out a niche by offering a genuinely generous free tier — unlimited recording and AI summaries at no cost for individual users. Unlike Otter and Fireflies, Fathom records locally on your computer rather than sending a bot into the call. Other participants don't see a recording notification (though you should still inform them if your jurisdiction requires it).

The video recording is a nice touch — you get the full visual context, not just audio. CRM integrations are available on paid plans ($24/month). The main limitation is that Fathom is desktop-only and restricted to Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams. No mobile app for recording, no in-person meeting support, no phone call recording.

Rev

Rev stands out by offering both AI and human transcription. The AI option is fast and reasonably accurate. The human transcription service ($1.50/minute) delivers 99%+ accuracy and is the gold standard for legal proceedings, published interviews, and medical documentation. Turnaround is typically 12-24 hours.

Rev isn't a meeting recorder in the traditional sense — you upload audio files rather than recording live. This makes it more of a transcription service than an integrated meeting tool. There are no AI summaries, no speaker identification in the AI tier, and no live recording features. But for pure transcription accuracy, especially with the human option, Rev is hard to beat.

Notta

Notta supports 58 languages, which makes it one of the better options for multilingual teams. It integrates with Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams via bot, and offers a web-based editor for reviewing and annotating transcripts. The AI summaries include action items and topic breakdowns.

Pricing is competitive — the free tier includes 120 minutes per month, and the Pro plan is $13.99/month. Notta's main weakness is that it follows the same bot-based model as Otter and Fireflies, with the same limitations around in-person recording and participant visibility. The summaries and transcription accuracy are good but not notably better than the competition.

Wave

Wave is our product, so take this with appropriate skepticism. Wave gives you four recording methods: a meeting bot for Zoom, Meet, and Teams; a desktop app on Mac and Windows that captures system audio; a built-in VoIP dialer for phone calls; and a mobile app that records from your phone's microphone for in-person conversations. You choose the method that fits the situation.

After recording, Wave generates a transcript with speaker labels and an AI summary with key points and action items. Everything is searchable, so you can find specific moments across hundreds of recordings. Wave is available on iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows, and web, records offline, and is SOC-2 compliant.

The main advantage is versatility — Wave covers virtual meetings, in-person conversations, and phone calls with a dedicated method for each. The main disadvantage is that it's audio-only (no video recording) and CRM integrations are via API rather than native connectors.

How to Choose

The right transcription app depends on your specific workflow:

• If your meetings are all on Zoom and you want a free option, Fathom is the most generous choice.
• If your team needs CRM integration and conversation analytics, Fireflies is purpose-built for that.
• If you need maximum transcription accuracy for legal or medical work, Rev's human transcription is the gold standard.
• If you work in multiple languages, Notta's 58-language support is the broadest.
• If you need real-time transcription and team collaboration, Otter has the most mature feature set.
• If your conversations happen in different places — in-person, over the phone, and on video calls — Wave is the only tool here that covers all of them.