AudioPen: AudioPen records spoken voice notes, transcribes them, and rewrites the rambling speech into clear, structured text in a style you choose. OpenOats: Open-source macOS meeting note-taker that transcribes calls locally and surfaces relevant talking points from your own notes in real time. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist AudioPen when capturing and refining personal ideas, journal entries, or brainstorms by voice matters most, and OpenOats when privately transcribing meetings on a mac without sending audio to the cloud matters most. Try them side by side on real calls before deciding — needs vary by team.
AudioPen records spoken voice notes, transcribes them, and rewrites the rambling speech into clear, structured text in a style you choose.
Open-source macOS meeting note-taker that transcribes calls locally and surfaces relevant talking points from your own notes in real time.
AudioPen is a voice-to-text tool that captures spoken thoughts and turns them into polished written notes. You record your voice (or upload an audio file), and AudioPen transcribes the speech, then rewrites it into clear, structured text by fixing grammar, cutting filler words, and organizing rambling input into coherent prose. Rather than producing a verbatim transcript, it reshapes what you said into finished writing in a style you select or train over time, with preset and custom styles available. It supports multiple languages and can transcribe speech in one language while writing the output in another. A SuperSummaries feature combines several notes into a single cohesive summary, and existing notes can be reformatted for different purposes such as emails or to-do lists. Built by independent developer Louis Pereira, it runs across iOS, iPad, Apple Watch, Android, Mac, and a Chrome extension, with Zapier and webhook integrations for sending notes elsewhere. It is aimed at people who think out loud and want to convert informal speech into professional written content.
Best suited for
OpenOats is an open-source macOS meeting note-taker, created by Yazin Akkawi (the project was previously named OpenGranola before being renamed), that sits alongside your calls and both transcribes the conversation and helps you contribute to it. It captures both sides of a meeting and transcribes audio locally on Apple Silicon so audio never leaves the device, while in real time it searches your own markdown or plain-text knowledge base to surface relevant talking points and things worth saying during the discussion. The application window is hidden from screen sharing by default, which lets it stay private during video calls, and transcripts and session logs are auto-saved locally. OpenOats supports both fully local operation through Ollama and cloud providers such as OpenRouter and Voyage AI, so users can choose between complete offline privacy and hosted models. It is written primarily in Swift, distributed under the MIT license, and actively maintained with very frequent releases. The project documents itself at openoats.com and targets users who want a privacy-respecting, self-hostable alternative to cloud meeting copilots, combining live transcription with a retrieval layer over personal notes rather than only producing an after-the-fact summary. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
AudioPen is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); OpenOats is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | AudioPen | OpenOats |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Records voice notes and transcribes speech to text | Real-time local transcription of both sides of a conversation on Apple Silicon |
| Standout feature | Rewrites rambling speech into clear, structured prose with grammar fixes and filler removal | Live retrieval of relevant talking points from your own notes during meetings |
| Team usage | Audio file upload for transcribing and rewriting existing recordings | Window hidden from screen sharing by default for privacy on calls |
| Integrations | Preset and custom writing styles that adapt to your voice over time | Auto-saved transcripts and session logs to local files |
| Languages & capture | Multi-language support, including speaking in one language and writing output in another | Works fully local via Ollama or with cloud models (OpenRouter, Voyage AI) |
| Best-fit workflow | SuperSummaries to combine multiple notes, plus Zapier and webhook integrations | MIT-licensed, self-hostable Swift application |
AudioPen
Choose AudioPen if you need capturing and refining personal ideas, journal entries, or brainstorms by voice — strengths include fast, low-friction way to turn spoken thoughts into clean, usable writing.
OpenOats
Choose OpenOats if you need getting live, context-aware prompts from your own notes during sales or customer calls — strengths include local on-device transcription keeps meeting audio private.
AudioPen
OpenOats
It depends on your workflow. AudioPen is strong for capturing and refining personal ideas, journal entries, or brainstorms by voice, while OpenOats is strong for getting live, context-aware prompts from your own notes during sales or customer calls. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
AudioPen is a free tier with paid upgrades and OpenOats 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 AudioPen and OpenOats.
AudioPen: AudioPen records spoken voice notes, transcribes them, and rewrites the rambling speech into clear, structured text in a style you choose. AudiosTranscribe: French-focused, bot-free meeting transcription tool with European inference, summaries, action plans, and automatic audio deletion. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
AudioPen: AudioPen records spoken voice notes, transcribes them, and rewrites the rambling speech into clear, structured text in a style you choose. Audiosum: AI transcription platform with Arabic dialect support that transcribes and summarizes meetings, lectures and videos. We compare them on cost, capture approach, and day-to-day fit so you can choose faster.
AudioPen: AudioPen records spoken voice notes, transcribes them, and rewrites the rambling speech into clear, structured text in a style you choose. Aurelius: Research repository and insights platform for tagging interview data, surfacing themes, and keeping qualitative insights discoverable over time. The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.
AudioPen: AudioPen records spoken voice notes, transcribes them, and rewrites the rambling speech into clear, structured text in a style you choose. Auris AI: Southeast Asia–built AI platform for transcribing audio and video, generating subtitles, and producing meeting and lecture notes across regional languages. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
AudioPen: AudioPen records spoken voice notes, transcribes them, and rewrites the rambling speech into clear, structured text in a style you choose. AutoMemo: Japanese transcription AI from Sourcenext that records meetings via web app, smartphone app, or dedicated voice recorders, then transcribes, summarizes, and shares. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
AudioPen: AudioPen records spoken voice notes, transcribes them, and rewrites the rambling speech into clear, structured text in a style you choose. Ava: AI live captioning and transcription app for accessibility, providing real-time captions for conversations and video meetings. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
AudioPen: AudioPen records spoken voice notes, transcribes them, and rewrites the rambling speech into clear, structured text in a style you choose. Aviso AI: End-to-end AI revenue platform whose conversation intelligence records and analyzes sales calls and meetings for B2B revenue teams. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
AudioPen: AudioPen records spoken voice notes, transcribes them, and rewrites the rambling speech into clear, structured text in a style you choose. Avoma: Avoma is an all-in-one AI meeting assistant with conversation and revenue intelligence that automates note-taking, transcription, scheduling, and sales-call coaching. The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.
AudioPen: AudioPen records spoken voice notes, transcribes them, and rewrites the rambling speech into clear, structured text in a style you choose. BB Recorder: A 100% local, no-bot meeting recorder for Mac and iOS that records, transcribes, and summarizes entirely on-device, built by the BuildBetter team. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
AudioPen: AudioPen records spoken voice notes, transcribes them, and rewrites the rambling speech into clear, structured text in a style you choose. BOYA Notra: BOYA Notra is a credit-card-sized AI voice recorder and companion app that captures in-person, phone, and Bluetooth-call audio and turns it into transcripts, summaries, to-dos, and mind maps in 140+ languages. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
AudioPen: AudioPen records spoken voice notes, transcribes them, and rewrites the rambling speech into clear, structured text in a style you choose. Backtrack: An AI meeting intelligence tool for trade shows and hosted buyer events that captures 1:1 conversations and turns them into CRM-ready notes and insights. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
AudioPen: AudioPen records spoken voice notes, transcribes them, and rewrites the rambling speech into clear, structured text in a style you choose. Balto: Real-time AI guidance and agent-assist platform that coaches contact-center and sales agents live during calls. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.