Balto: Real-time AI guidance and agent-assist platform that coaches contact-center and sales agents live during calls. Pluely: A lightweight open-source desktop AI meeting assistant that captures system audio for live transcription and on-call answers without joining as a visible bot. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Balto when guiding agents live through objections and compliance requirements matters most, and Pluely when running a privacy-conscious, locally processed meeting helper via ollama matters most. Trial each on a few real meetings before you commit — the better fit usually shows fast.
Real-time AI guidance and agent-assist platform that coaches contact-center and sales agents live during calls.
A lightweight open-source desktop AI meeting assistant that captures system audio for live transcription and on-call answers without joining as a visible bot.
Balto is a contact-center AI platform centered on real-time guidance during live customer and sales calls. Rather than focusing on post-call review, Balto listens to conversations as they happen and surfaces dynamic prompts, objection-handling cues, compliance checklists, and knowledge-base answers to the agent in the moment. Its Agent Assist pulls relevant information so reps can respond to customer questions instantly, while real-time QA automatically scores interactions across all calls and flags compliance risk early, maintaining an audit trail for supervisors. Coaching automation tailors recommendations to each agent's performance, and real-time note generation produces call summaries without manual write-ups. Balto also offers voice AI agents to handle high-volume, repeatable calls and supports omnichannel context across voice and digital channels. It integrates with CRMs and telephony systems such as Salesforce and RingCentral. The platform is used across industries including healthcare, insurance, banking, collections, and home improvement, and is aimed at contact centers and sales teams that want in-the-moment guidance, compliance assurance, and automated quality management at scale. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Pluely is an open-source AI meeting assistant created by independent developer Srikanthnani and released in 2025 as a privacy-first, bot-free alternative to commercial in-meeting copilots. Built with Tauri, the app is roughly 10MB and launches quickly, running as an always-on-top overlay on macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Windows, and Linux. Rather than sending a participant into your call, Pluely captures system audio and microphone input directly on your device, converts speech to text, and can surface AI responses and notes during a meeting, interview, or presentation. It is bring-your-own-key, so users connect their own provider credentials; it supports a wide range of large language models, including OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, Grok, Mistral, Cohere, Ollama, and custom endpoints, alongside multiple speech-to-text engines such as Whisper, Deepgram, ElevenLabs, Groq, and Azure. Because it is GPL-licensed and fully inspectable, teams can audit or modify the code, and local model options via Ollama allow processing to stay on the machine. As an indie project it depends on external API keys for most capabilities and is still maturing. Confirm features and any usage policies on the official site. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Balto is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Pluely is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Balto | Pluely |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Real-time, in-call guidance with dynamic prompts and objection cues | Bot-free capture of system audio and microphone for live transcription |
| Standout feature | Agent Assist that surfaces knowledge-base answers live | Always-on-top overlay app for macOS, Windows, and Linux |
| Team usage | Automated quality assurance scoring across 100% of calls | Bring-your-own-key support for many LLMs (OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Mistral, Cohere, Ollama, custom) |
| Integrations | Real-time compliance monitoring with audit trails | Multiple speech-to-text providers (Whisper, Deepgram, ElevenLabs, Groq, Azure, and others) |
| Languages & capture | Automated call summaries and coaching recommendations | Lightweight (~10MB) and fast to launch |
| Best-fit workflow | Integrations with CRMs and phone systems such as Salesforce and RingCentral | Open source under GPL with optional local processing via Ollama |
Balto
Choose Balto if you need guiding agents live through objections and compliance requirements — strengths include guides agents during the call rather than only analyzing afterward.
Pluely
Choose Pluely if you need getting live transcription and ai assistance during meetings without a visible bot in the call — strengths include free and open source with fully inspectable code.
Balto
Pluely
It depends on your workflow. Balto is strong for guiding agents live through objections and compliance requirements, while Pluely is strong for getting live transcription and ai assistance during meetings without a visible bot in the call. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Balto is a free tier with paid upgrades and Pluely 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.
More head-to-head comparisons involving Balto and Pluely.
Balto: Real-time AI guidance and agent-assist platform that coaches contact-center and sales agents live during calls. 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.
Balto: Real-time AI guidance and agent-assist platform that coaches contact-center and sales agents live during calls. 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.
Balto: Real-time AI guidance and agent-assist platform that coaches contact-center and sales agents live during calls. 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. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
Balto: Real-time AI guidance and agent-assist platform that coaches contact-center and sales agents live during calls. Bee: Wearable AI device that captures spoken conversations and turns them into transcripts, summaries, and reminders. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
Balto: Real-time AI guidance and agent-assist platform that coaches contact-center and sales agents live during calls. Beey: Web app for automatic transcription, subtitle creation, translation, and live transcription. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
Balto: Real-time AI guidance and agent-assist platform that coaches contact-center and sales agents live during calls. 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.
Balto: Real-time AI guidance and agent-assist platform that coaches contact-center and sales agents live during calls. Bliro: Bot-free AI meeting assistant that transcribes online and in-person conversations from device audio without recording audio or video. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
Balto: Real-time AI guidance and agent-assist platform that coaches contact-center and sales agents live during calls. 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.
Balto: Real-time AI guidance and agent-assist platform that coaches contact-center and sales agents live during calls. BoardBreeze: AI software that converts board meeting recordings into compliant, formatted minutes capturing motions, votes, and action items. The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.
Balto: Real-time AI guidance and agent-assist platform that coaches contact-center and sales agents live during calls. Boardable: Board meeting platform for nonprofits with AI-generated minutes, an in-meeting assistant, and AI insights that turn discussion into action items. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
Balto: Real-time AI guidance and agent-assist platform that coaches contact-center and sales agents live during calls. Bold: Bot-free AI notetaker by Bold App Studios that records meetings on-device, transcribes with speaker detection, and writes summaries with action items. The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.
Balto: Real-time AI guidance and agent-assist platform that coaches contact-center and sales agents live during calls. Boostlingo: Language access platform whose AI Pro engine delivers live AI captioning, translation, and transcription for meetings, webinars, and events. We compare them on cost, capture approach, and day-to-day fit so you can choose faster.