Akkadu: Akkadu is an AI-powered platform that delivers real-time live captions, subtitles, and remote simultaneous interpretation in 90+ languages for events, meetings, and video content. Shadow: A bot-free, Mac-based AI meeting assistant that transcribes and summarizes calls locally without joining as a participant. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Akkadu when adding multilingual live captions and subtitles to conferences, webinars, and hybrid events matters most, and Shadow when privacy-conscious teams that prefer on-device transcription matters most. Trial each on a few real meetings before you commit — the better fit usually shows fast.
Akkadu is an AI-powered platform that delivers real-time live captions, subtitles, and remote simultaneous interpretation in 90+ languages for events, meetings, and video content.
A bot-free, Mac-based AI meeting assistant that transcribes and summarizes calls locally without joining as a participant.
Akkadu, built by Akkadu Technology, is a platform for breaking down language barriers in live and recorded settings. It listens to a speaker's audio and produces real-time AI live captions and subtitles in more than 90 languages, and can deliver an AI voice translation that voices a speaker's words in another language. Beyond automated transcription and translation, Akkadu also offers remote simultaneous interpretation (RSI), connecting human interpreters to events, plus human live captioning for higher-accuracy needs. It is available as a desktop and web-based application and is designed to work alongside common video conferencing tools such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and Google Meet, as well as on-site and hybrid events. The company states it does not store voice data and gives users control to delete transcripts. Akkadu targets event organizers, conferences, corporate meetings, universities, content creators, and language service providers who need multilingual accessibility. It is offered on a pay-as-you-go hourly model with a free limited demo tier.
Best suited for
Shadow is a bot-free AI meeting assistant for macOS that captures meetings by listening to your computer's audio in the background rather than joining the call as a visible participant. Because transcription runs locally on the Mac, the audio does not need to leave the device for that core processing step, which the company positions as a privacy advantage. Shadow can automatically detect when a meeting starts, transcribe the conversation with speaker identification, and turn the discussion into structured notes, summaries, and follow-up items. It also captures on-screen content alongside the spoken audio, so material shared during a call (slides, dashboards, or shared windows) can be reflected in the output. The tool works across common conferencing platforms including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Webex, Slack, and Discord. Users can configure customizable prompts (described as Skills) to generate notes, summaries, or drafted emails, and connect outputs to other tools via webhooks. It is aimed at professionals and teams who want meeting capture without adding another bot to the call. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Akkadu is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Shadow is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Akkadu | Shadow |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Real-time AI live captions and subtitles in 90+ languages | Bot-free capture that records system audio without joining the meeting as a participant |
| Standout feature | AI voice translation that voices a speaker into another language | On-device (local) transcription on macOS |
| Team usage | Remote simultaneous interpretation (RSI) with human interpreters | Speaker identification during transcription |
| Integrations | Human live captioning option for higher accuracy | Captures on-screen content in addition to spoken audio |
| Languages & capture | Works with Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and Google Meet plus on-site/hybrid events | Customizable prompts/Skills to generate notes, summaries, and emails |
| Best-fit workflow | Custom glossaries and accent recognition to improve accuracy | Webhook integration to connect outputs to other tools |
Akkadu
Choose Akkadu if you need adding multilingual live captions and subtitles to conferences, webinars, and hybrid events — strengths include covers 90+ languages across captions, subtitles, interpretation, and voice translation.
Shadow
Choose Shadow if you need capturing notes and summaries across multiple conferencing platforms without a bot joining — strengths include does not add a visible bot to meetings.
Akkadu
Shadow
It depends on your workflow. Akkadu is strong for adding multilingual live captions and subtitles to conferences, webinars, and hybrid events, while Shadow is strong for capturing notes and summaries across multiple conferencing platforms without a bot joining. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Akkadu is a free tier with paid upgrades and Shadow is a free tier with paid upgrades. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
Yes. Many teams run more than one meeting assistant when the workflows are complementary.
More head-to-head comparisons involving Akkadu and Shadow.
Akkadu: Akkadu is an AI-powered platform that delivers real-time live captions, subtitles, and remote simultaneous interpretation in 90+ languages for events, meetings, and video content. Alice Recorder: Privacy-focused iOS and web recorder that transcribes meetings and interviews in 100+ languages with AI summarization. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
Akkadu: Akkadu is an AI-powered platform that delivers real-time live captions, subtitles, and remote simultaneous interpretation in 90+ languages for events, meetings, and video content. Allego: Conversation intelligence within a broader sales enablement platform that records, transcribes, and analyzes sales calls for coaching and deal insights. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
Akkadu: Akkadu is an AI-powered platform that delivers real-time live captions, subtitles, and remote simultaneous interpretation in 90+ languages for events, meetings, and video content. Allo: Mobile-first AI business phone system that records and transcribes sales calls, writes follow-ups, and syncs everything to your CRM automatically. We compare them on cost, capture approach, and day-to-day fit so you can choose faster.
Akkadu: Akkadu is an AI-powered platform that delivers real-time live captions, subtitles, and remote simultaneous interpretation in 90+ languages for events, meetings, and video content. Aloware: Sales engagement and contact platform with a power dialer plus AI conversation intelligence that records, transcribes, and analyzes calls for coaching. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
Akkadu: Akkadu is an AI-powered platform that delivers real-time live captions, subtitles, and remote simultaneous interpretation in 90+ languages for events, meetings, and video content. Alter: macOS-native AI meeting assistant that records and transcribes calls locally with built-in Whisper and Parakeet models, no bots required. The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.
Akkadu: Akkadu is an AI-powered platform that delivers real-time live captions, subtitles, and remote simultaneous interpretation in 90+ languages for events, meetings, and video content. Amber Notes: EU-focused AI meeting notetaker by Dutch company Amberscript, with EU-only data hosting, multilingual transcription and an Ask Amber chat. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
Akkadu: Akkadu is an AI-powered platform that delivers real-time live captions, subtitles, and remote simultaneous interpretation in 90+ languages for events, meetings, and video content. Amberscript: Audio and video to text service offering automatic and human-verified transcripts and subtitles. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
Akkadu: Akkadu is an AI-powered platform that delivers real-time live captions, subtitles, and remote simultaneous interpretation in 90+ languages for events, meetings, and video content. Amical: Amical is an open-source, local-first AI dictation and voice-notes app that transcribes speech to text on your own machine using Whisper and open-source LLMs. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
Akkadu: Akkadu is an AI-powered platform that delivers real-time live captions, subtitles, and remote simultaneous interpretation in 90+ languages for events, meetings, and video content. AmpUp: AI sales coaching platform with a native notetaker that records and transcribes calls, then delivers prep briefs, debriefs, and practice scenarios. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
Akkadu: Akkadu is an AI-powered platform that delivers real-time live captions, subtitles, and remote simultaneous interpretation in 90+ languages for events, meetings, and video content. AmplifAI: AmplifAI is an AI-powered contact center platform that transcribes and analyzes customer conversations across voice, chat, and messaging to automate quality assurance, coaching, and CX intelligence. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
Akkadu: Akkadu is an AI-powered platform that delivers real-time live captions, subtitles, and remote simultaneous interpretation in 90+ languages for events, meetings, and video content. Anarlog: Open-source, local-first AI meeting notepad (formerly Hyprnote) by Fastrepl that records and summarizes private meetings on your own device with no bot. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
Akkadu: Akkadu is an AI-powered platform that delivers real-time live captions, subtitles, and remote simultaneous interpretation in 90+ languages for events, meetings, and video content. Aqua Voice: Aqua Voice is an AI-powered, system-wide voice dictation app that turns speech into refined text in real time across the apps you already use on Mac and iPhone. We compare them on cost, capture approach, and day-to-day fit so you can choose faster.