Ava: AI live captioning and transcription app for accessibility, providing real-time captions for conversations and video meetings. OpenTranscribe: Self-hosted, containerized web app for transcribing and analyzing audio/video with WhisperX, speaker diarization, search, and collaboration. 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 OpenTranscribe when collaborative review of transcripts with time-stamped annotations matters most. Run both through a week of actual calls to see which suits your workflow.
AI live captioning and transcription app for accessibility, providing real-time captions for conversations and video meetings.
Self-hosted, containerized web app for transcribing and analyzing audio/video with WhisperX, speaker diarization, search, and collaboration.
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
OpenTranscribe is a self-hosted, containerized web application for transcribing and analyzing audio and video files using current AI models. It is built with a FastAPI backend, a Svelte/TypeScript progressive web app frontend, and a Docker-based stack that includes PostgreSQL, Redis/Celery task queues, MinIO object storage, and OpenSearch for full-text indexing. Transcription is handled by WhisperX with the large-v3-turbo model and Faster-Whisper, supporting more than 100 languages, while automatic speaker diarization uses PyAnnote v4 with overlap detection. The project is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and is actively maintained, with v0.4.1 released in April 2026. Beyond transcription, OpenTranscribe provides AI-powered summarization (including BLUF-format and custom JSON schemas), topic extraction, and content analysis through multiple LLM providers such as OpenAI, Claude, vLLM, Ollama, and OpenRouter. Collaboration features include time-stamped comments and annotations, and the platform can automatically import media from local folders, S3, and SMB shares. It also supports a set of cloud ASR providers as alternatives to local transcription, giving teams flexibility between fully local processing and managed services while keeping the application running on their own infrastructure. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Ava is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); OpenTranscribe is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Ava | OpenTranscribe |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Integration with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams | WhisperX transcription with large-v3-turbo and 100+ language support |
| Standout feature | Real-time live captions for in-person and online conversations | Automatic speaker diarization via PyAnnote v4 with overlap detection |
| Team usage | Color-coded speaker identification | Full-text search and filtering powered by OpenSearch |
| Integrations | Optional professional scribe service for higher accuracy | AI summarization, topic extraction, and content analysis via multiple LLM providers |
| Languages & capture | Mobile, web, and desktop apps | Time-stamped comments for collaboration and annotation |
| Best-fit workflow | Saved transcripts and conversation summaries | Auto-import from local folders, S3, and SMB shares |
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.
OpenTranscribe
Choose OpenTranscribe if you need teams self-hosting a searchable archive of transcribed meeting and media recordings — strengths include fully self-hosted web app with a complete transcription-and-analysis stack.
Ava
OpenTranscribe
It depends on your workflow. Ava is strong for real-time captioning for deaf and hard-of-hearing participants, while OpenTranscribe is strong for teams self-hosting a searchable archive of transcribed meeting and media recordings. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Ava is a free tier with paid upgrades and OpenTranscribe 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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