Ava: AI live captioning and transcription app for accessibility, providing real-time captions for conversations and video meetings. Cockatoo: AI transcription and note-taking service that records and transcribes meetings and lectures, then turns them into structured notes and summaries. The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Ava when real-time captioning for deaf and hard-of-hearing participants matters most, and Cockatoo when turning lecture and podcast recordings into summaries and study notes matters most. Test each on your own meetings; the right choice tends to become obvious quickly.
AI live captioning and transcription app for accessibility, providing real-time captions for conversations and video meetings.
AI transcription and note-taking service that records and transcribes meetings and lectures, then turns them into structured notes and summaries.
Ava is a live captioning and transcription service built primarily for deaf and hard-of-hearing users, as well as for organizations that need accessible meetings and conversations. The app captures audio from in-person conversations and from video conferencing tools, then generates real-time captions on a phone, computer, or in the meeting interface. Ava combines automatic speech recognition with an optional professional scribe service for higher-accuracy, ADA-compliant captioning, giving users a choice between fast AI captions and human-assisted transcription. Features include color-coded speaker identification so users can follow who said what, support for many languages, and stored transcripts and summaries after a conversation ends. Through its Ava Connect integration, the service connects with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, and it is available across mobile (iOS and Android), web, and desktop (Windows and Mac). Ava is aimed at individuals who need accessibility support in daily conversations and meetings, as well as at educational institutions, healthcare providers, corporations, and event venues that must provide compliant real-time captioning without committing to a traditional CART contract. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Cockatoo is an AI transcription and note-taking service available through the web and an iOS app that converts spoken audio and video into text and structured notes. Users can record meetings and lectures directly or upload existing audio and video files in a wide range of formats, after which Cockatoo automatically generates a transcript with punctuation and capitalization, identifies speakers, and produces summaries with key takeaways and action items. Beyond transcription, the product offers voice typing, an AI chat agent for asking questions about content, full document translation across many languages, and video transcription with subtitles and captions. Transcripts and notes can be searched and exported to formats including PDF, DOCX, TXT, SRT, and audio, and the app syncs to the cloud. Cockatoo supports more than one hundred languages and is designed for individuals and professionals who need affordable, accurate transcription of recordings such as meetings, interviews, lectures, podcasts, and other spoken content. The service is operated by Cockatoo Inc. and is actively running in 2025 and 2026 at cockatoo.com. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Ava is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Cockatoo is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Ava | Cockatoo |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Integration with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams | Record or upload audio and video, then transcribe to structured text |
| Standout feature | Real-time live captions for in-person and online conversations | AI summaries with key takeaways and action items |
| Team usage | Color-coded speaker identification | Automatic speaker detection and punctuation |
| Integrations | Optional professional scribe service for higher accuracy | AI chat agent and full document translation across 100+ languages |
| Languages & capture | Mobile, web, and desktop apps | Video transcription with subtitles and captions |
| Best-fit workflow | Saved transcripts and conversation summaries | Export to PDF, DOCX, TXT, SRT, and audio with cloud sync |
Ava
Choose Ava if you need real-time captioning for deaf and hard-of-hearing participants — strengths include strong accessibility focus for deaf and hard-of-hearing users.
Cockatoo
Choose Cockatoo if you need transcribing recorded meetings and interviews into searchable, structured notes — strengths include handles both live recording and bulk upload of existing audio and video files.
Ava
Cockatoo
It depends on your workflow. Ava is strong for real-time captioning for deaf and hard-of-hearing participants, while Cockatoo is strong for transcribing recorded meetings and interviews into searchable, structured notes. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Ava is a free tier with paid upgrades and Cockatoo is a free tier with paid upgrades. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
Often yes: teams combine tools when one handles capture and another handles analysis.
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