Ava: AI live captioning and transcription app for accessibility, providing real-time captions for conversations and video meetings. Steno: Steno is a tech-enabled court reporting and litigation support platform that captures, transcribes, and analyzes legal proceedings such as depositions, including an AI transcript analysis tool. 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 Steno when using ai to summarize, search, and compare deposition transcripts for case strategy 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.
Steno is a tech-enabled court reporting and litigation support platform that captures, transcribes, and analyzes legal proceedings such as depositions, including an AI transcript analysis tool.
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
Steno is a court reporting and litigation services company built for law firms and attorneys. It provides access to a network of certified court reporters who capture spoken proceedings and produce transcripts in rough, original, and certified formats, with realtime, next-day, and expedited delivery options. For remote work, Steno Connect is a Zoom app purpose-built for depositions, adding secure exhibit handling, annotation, and a live technical assistant; the company reports SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA compliance. Video capabilities include standard video plus text-to-video synchronization. Its AI tool, Transcript Genius, reads case transcripts to generate summaries, answer conversational questions with page and line citations, run semantic and exact-match search, and compare multiple transcripts to surface contradictions; users can also upload outside .txt and .pdf transcripts. A Firm Dashboard handles scheduling, file access, and invoicing, and integrations include Zoom, Clio, and Litify. Steno also offers deferred, contingency-friendly payment. It is aimed primarily at litigators and legal support staff rather than general business meetings.
Best suited for
Ava is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Steno is custom pricing (contact sales). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Ava | Steno |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Integration with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams | Certified court reporters producing rough, original, and certified transcripts |
| Standout feature | Real-time live captions for in-person and online conversations | Interactive realtime transcription during proceedings |
| Team usage | Color-coded speaker identification | Steno Connect Zoom app for remote depositions with exhibit handling |
| Integrations | Optional professional scribe service for higher accuracy | Transcript Genius AI for summaries, semantic search, and Q&A with page/line citations |
| Languages & capture | Mobile, web, and desktop apps | Multi-transcript comparison to surface contradictions and discrepancies |
| Best-fit workflow | Saved transcripts and conversation summaries | Firm Dashboard for scheduling, file access, and invoice management |
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.
Steno
Choose Steno if you need scheduling and capturing certified transcripts for remote or in-person depositions — strengths include combines human-certified court reporting with ai-powered transcript analysis.
Ava
Steno
It depends on your workflow. Ava is strong for real-time captioning for deaf and hard-of-hearing participants, while Steno is strong for scheduling and capturing certified transcripts for remote or in-person depositions. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Ava is a free tier with paid upgrades and Steno is custom pricing. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
You can — some teams pair them when each covers a different part of the meeting workflow.
More head-to-head comparisons involving Ava and Steno.
Ava: AI live captioning and transcription app for accessibility, providing real-time captions for conversations and video meetings. Aviso AI: End-to-end AI revenue platform whose conversation intelligence records and analyzes sales calls and meetings for B2B revenue teams. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
Ava: AI live captioning and transcription app for accessibility, providing real-time captions for conversations and video meetings. 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. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
Ava: AI live captioning and transcription app for accessibility, providing real-time captions for conversations and video meetings. 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. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
Ava: AI live captioning and transcription app for accessibility, providing real-time captions for conversations and video meetings. Balto: Real-time AI guidance and agent-assist platform that coaches contact-center and sales agents live during calls. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
Ava: AI live captioning and transcription app for accessibility, providing real-time captions for conversations and video meetings. BarRaiser: AI interview intelligence platform that records interviews and coaches interviewers for better hiring. The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.
Ava: AI live captioning and transcription app for accessibility, providing real-time captions for conversations and video meetings. Basil AI: On-device AI note taker for Apple devices that transcribes and summarizes meetings entirely offline, with no cloud upload. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
Ava: AI live captioning and transcription app for accessibility, providing real-time captions for conversations and video meetings. BeAware Conference Captioning: AI real-time captioning and translation app for live in-person and hybrid events, with on-screen overlays and multilingual attendee access. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
Ava: AI live captioning and transcription app for accessibility, providing real-time captions for conversations and video meetings. Bee: Wearable AI device that captures spoken conversations and turns them into transcripts, summaries, and reminders. We compare them on cost, capture approach, and day-to-day fit so you can choose faster.
Ava: AI live captioning and transcription app for accessibility, providing real-time captions for conversations and video meetings. Beey: Web app for automatic transcription, subtitle creation, translation, and live transcription. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
Ava: AI live captioning and transcription app for accessibility, providing real-time captions for conversations and video meetings. Berrycast: A screen recorder and AI meeting notes tool with a Chrome extension and desktop app that records, transcribes, and summarizes calls. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
Ava: AI live captioning and transcription app for accessibility, providing real-time captions for conversations and video meetings. Bliro: Bot-free AI meeting assistant that transcribes online and in-person conversations from device audio without recording audio or video. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
Ava: AI live captioning and transcription app for accessibility, providing real-time captions for conversations and video meetings. Bluedot: Bot-free note taker for Meet, Zoom, Teams plus mobile recording Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.