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. Shadow: A bot-free, Mac-based AI meeting assistant that transcribes and summarizes calls locally without joining as a participant. We compare them on cost, capture approach, and day-to-day fit so you can choose faster.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Brainote when recording and transcribing meetings or lectures into shareable notes and minutes matters most, and Shadow when privacy-conscious teams that prefer on-device transcription matters most. Run both through a week of actual calls to see which suits your workflow.
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.
A bot-free, Mac-based AI meeting assistant that transcribes and summarizes calls locally without joining as a participant.
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
Shadow is a bot-free AI meeting assistant for macOS that captures meetings by listening to your computer's audio in the background rather than joining the call as a visible participant. Because transcription runs locally on the Mac, the audio does not need to leave the device for that core processing step, which the company positions as a privacy advantage. Shadow can automatically detect when a meeting starts, transcribe the conversation with speaker identification, and turn the discussion into structured notes, summaries, and follow-up items. It also captures on-screen content alongside the spoken audio, so material shared during a call (slides, dashboards, or shared windows) can be reflected in the output. The tool works across common conferencing platforms including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Webex, Slack, and Discord. Users can configure customizable prompts (described as Skills) to generate notes, summaries, or drafted emails, and connect outputs to other tools via webhooks. It is aimed at professionals and teams who want meeting capture without adding another bot to the call. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Brainote is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Shadow is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Brainote | Shadow |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | AI transcription of audio, video, and speech to text | Bot-free capture that records system audio without joining the meeting as a participant |
| Standout feature | Voice memo and audio recording capture | On-device (local) transcription on macOS |
| Team usage | Automatic summaries, notes, and study guides from recordings | Speaker identification during transcription |
| Integrations | Multi-source input: PDFs, YouTube links, web pages, and handwritten-note OCR | Captures on-screen content in addition to spoken audio |
| Languages & capture | AI chat assistant to refine and clarify notes | Customizable prompts/Skills to generate notes, summaries, and emails |
| Best-fit workflow | Flashcard and quiz generation with spaced-repetition review | Webhook integration to connect outputs to other tools |
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.
Shadow
Choose Shadow if you need capturing notes and summaries across multiple conferencing platforms without a bot joining — strengths include does not add a visible bot to meetings.
Brainote
Shadow
It depends on your workflow. Brainote is strong for recording and transcribing meetings or lectures into shareable notes and minutes, while Shadow is strong for capturing notes and summaries across multiple conferencing platforms without a bot joining. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Brainote is a free tier with paid upgrades and Shadow 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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