Ava: AI live captioning and transcription app for accessibility, providing real-time captions for conversations and video meetings. joinly: Open-source, self-hostable connector that lets AI agents join Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams calls to transcribe, listen, and act in real time via MCP. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Ava when real-time captioning for deaf and hard-of-hearing participants matters most, and joinly when self-hosted, privacy-first real-time meeting transcription for regulated teams matters most. Trial each on a few real meetings before you commit — the better fit usually shows fast.
AI live captioning and transcription app for accessibility, providing real-time captions for conversations and video meetings.
Open-source, self-hostable connector that lets AI agents join Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams calls to transcribe, listen, and act in real time via MCP.
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
joinly is an open-source middleware project (by joinly-ai) that makes meetings accessible to AI agents. It runs as a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that equips any agent with the tools to join a live video call, capture a real-time transcript, and interact by voice or chat during the meeting. Rather than being a finished notetaker app, joinly is a framework developers use to build interactive meeting agents that can listen, answer, search the web, draft documents, and post chat messages while the meeting is in progress. It works cross-platform across Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams (and browser-based calls), and is model-agnostic, supporting OpenAI, Anthropic, and local models through Ollama. Speech-to-text and text-to-speech are modular, with Whisper or Deepgram for transcription and Kokoro, ElevenLabs, or Deepgram for synthesis. The project is MIT licensed and deployed via Docker (with a separate CUDA GPU image), giving teams full data sovereignty. The MCP server exposes join/leave controls, transcript and participant access, audio control, chat messaging, and video snapshots, making it a building block for custom, privacy-first meeting automation. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Ava is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); joinly is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Ava | joinly |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Integration with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams | MCP server that exposes meeting tools (join/leave, transcript, chat, audio control, snapshots) to AI agents |
| Standout feature | Real-time live captions for in-person and online conversations | Real-time transcription with timestamps and speaker information, subscribable for live updates |
| Team usage | Color-coded speaker identification | Cross-platform support for Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and browser-based calls |
| Integrations | Optional professional scribe service for higher accuracy | Modular speech-to-text and text-to-speech backends (Whisper, Deepgram, Kokoro, ElevenLabs) |
| Languages & capture | Mobile, web, and desktop apps | Model-agnostic: works with OpenAI, Anthropic, and local LLMs via Ollama |
| Best-fit workflow | Saved transcripts and conversation summaries | Docker-based self-hosting with optional CUDA GPU image |
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.
joinly
Choose joinly if you need building custom ai meeting agents that answer questions and run tasks during live calls — strengths include fully open source (mit) and self-hostable for complete data control.
Ava
joinly
It depends on your workflow. Ava is strong for real-time captioning for deaf and hard-of-hearing participants, while joinly is strong for building custom ai meeting agents that answer questions and run tasks during live calls. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Ava is a free tier with paid upgrades and joinly is a free tier with paid upgrades. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
Sure. Running both makes sense when their strengths don't overlap and the budget allows.
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