Brainote: Brainote is an AI note-taking and study app that transcribes audio, video, and speech into text and turns it into summaries, notes, and study materials. Handy: Handy is a free, open-source, cross-platform push-to-talk app that transcribes your speech to text completely offline and pastes it into any text field. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Brainote when recording and transcribing meetings or lectures into shareable notes and minutes matters most, and Handy when privacy-sensitive voice-to-text where audio must stay on-device matters most. Try them side by side on real calls before deciding — needs vary by team.
Brainote is an AI note-taking and study app that transcribes audio, video, and speech into text and turns it into summaries, notes, and study materials.
Handy is a free, open-source, cross-platform push-to-talk app that transcribes your speech to text completely offline and pastes it into any text field.
Brainote is an AI-powered note-taking and study application available on the web, iOS, and Android. It captures content from multiple sources, including recorded voice memos and audio, uploaded PDFs, YouTube links, web pages, and handwritten notes via image OCR. Its core engine transcribes audio, video, and speech to text and then generates concise summaries and structured notes. For meeting and lecture scenarios, Brainote can transcribe recordings, convert meeting minutes into text, and produce organized AI meeting notes alongside study guides. Beyond transcription, it offers an AI chat assistant to clarify and refine notes, plus learning-focused tools such as automatically generated flashcards, quizzes, and spaced-repetition review. Transcripts and summaries can be exported for sharing. The product is marketed primarily toward students and learners preparing for exams, but its transcription and summarization capabilities also serve professionals capturing meetings and lectures. The free tier provides limited generation, while a Pro subscription unlocks unlimited use. No third-party meeting-platform integrations are advertised on its site.
Best suited for
Handy is a free, open-source desktop application that turns your voice into text completely offline, with no audio ever leaving your computer. You press a configurable keyboard shortcut, speak, and release (push-to-talk), or use a toggle mode to start and stop; Handy transcribes what you said and automatically pastes the result into whatever text field is active. Because it runs entirely on-device, it is built for privacy-conscious users who want dictation without cloud uploads or subscriptions. Under the hood it is built with Tauri (a Rust backend with a React/TypeScript frontend) and supports multiple local speech-recognition models, including OpenAI's Whisper variants with GPU acceleration and the CPU-friendly Parakeet V3 model with automatic language detection. Silero Voice Activity Detection filters out silence so only speech is processed. Handy runs on macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon), Windows, and Linux, and is released under the MIT license. It positions itself as an accessible, extensible alternative to paid dictation tools, and is best suited for hands-free typing rather than recording multi-party meetings.
Best suited for
Brainote is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Handy is open source (open source). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Brainote | Handy |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | AI transcription of audio, video, and speech to text | Push-to-talk and toggle dictation modes with a configurable global keyboard shortcut |
| Standout feature | Voice memo and audio recording capture | Fully offline, on-device transcription with no cloud uploads |
| Team usage | Automatic summaries, notes, and study guides from recordings | Multiple local speech models including Whisper (GPU-accelerated) and Parakeet V3 (CPU, auto language detection) |
| Integrations | Multi-source input: PDFs, YouTube links, web pages, and handwritten-note OCR | Silero Voice Activity Detection to filter silence and process only speech |
| Languages & capture | AI chat assistant to refine and clarify notes | Automatically pastes transcribed text into any active application text field |
| Best-fit workflow | Flashcard and quiz generation with spaced-repetition review | Cross-platform desktop app (macOS, Windows, Linux) built with Tauri |
Brainote
Choose Brainote if you need recording and transcribing meetings or lectures into shareable notes and minutes — strengths include available across web, ios, and android with a permanently free tier.
Handy
Choose Handy if you need hands-free dictation into emails, documents, chat apps, and code editors — strengths include completely free, open-source (mit) with no subscription or paywall.
Brainote
Handy
It depends on your workflow. Brainote is strong for recording and transcribing meetings or lectures into shareable notes and minutes, while Handy is strong for hands-free dictation into emails, documents, chat apps, and code editors. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Brainote is a free tier with paid upgrades and Handy is open source. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
Yes. Many teams run more than one meeting assistant when the workflows are complementary.
More head-to-head comparisons involving Brainote and Handy.
Brainote: Brainote is an AI note-taking and study app that transcribes audio, video, and speech into text and turns it into summaries, notes, and study materials. BriefMe: Italian mobile app that records conversations, transcribes them automatically, and generates AI summaries with key points, decisions, and action items. We compare them on cost, capture approach, and day-to-day fit so you can choose faster.
Brainote: Brainote is an AI note-taking and study app that transcribes audio, video, and speech into text and turns it into summaries, notes, and study materials. Briefly: AI meeting summaries with CRM and Slack delivery The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.
Brainote: Brainote is an AI note-taking and study app that transcribes audio, video, and speech into text and turns it into summaries, notes, and study materials. Bright Pattern: Bright Pattern is an omnichannel contact center platform that transcribes live and recorded customer interactions and applies AI-powered quality management and analytics across all channels. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
Brainote: Brainote is an AI note-taking and study app that transcribes audio, video, and speech into text and turns it into summaries, notes, and study materials. BrightHire: Interview intelligence platform that records, transcribes, and structures job interviews for hiring teams. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
Brainote: Brainote is an AI note-taking and study app that transcribes audio, video, and speech into text and turns it into summaries, notes, and study materials. Bubbles: Async video and AI meeting notes with action items Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
Brainote: Brainote is an AI note-taking and study app that transcribes audio, video, and speech into text and turns it into summaries, notes, and study materials. BuildBetter: A no-bot meeting recorder (BB Recorder) that captures and processes calls locally on Mac, with optional cloud upload for team collaboration. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
Brainote: Brainote is an AI note-taking and study app that transcribes audio, video, and speech into text and turns it into summaries, notes, and study materials. Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
Brainote: Brainote is an AI note-taking and study app that transcribes audio, video, and speech into text and turns it into summaries, notes, and study materials. CAMB.AI: CAMB.AI is an AI voice and localization platform whose Chatterbox app provides real-time, bi-directional voice translation for live multilingual meetings and support calls. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
Brainote: Brainote is an AI note-taking and study app that transcribes audio, video, and speech into text and turns it into summaries, notes, and study materials. CFAI: CFAI is a Windows desktop AI note taker that transcribes meetings and calls locally on-device with Faster Whisper, so audio never leaves the user's computer. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
Brainote: Brainote is an AI note-taking and study app that transcribes audio, video, and speech into text and turns it into summaries, notes, and study materials. CLOVA Note: South Korean AI meeting-minutes service by Naver that records meetings, transcribes speech, separates speakers, and generates summaries and action items. We compare them on cost, capture approach, and day-to-day fit so you can choose faster.
Brainote: Brainote is an AI note-taking and study app that transcribes audio, video, and speech into text and turns it into summaries, notes, and study materials. Calendly Notetaker: An AI meeting notetaker built into the Calendly scheduling platform that records meetings and generates summaries, transcripts, and action items. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
Brainote: Brainote is an AI note-taking and study app that transcribes audio, video, and speech into text and turns it into summaries, notes, and study materials. CallBro: Bot-free AI meeting assistant that transcribes calls from system audio and produces structured notes without joining the call. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.