Circleback: AI meeting assistant that automatically takes notes, transcribes in 100+ languages, assigns action items, and runs automations across Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Webex, and in-person calls. oTranscribe: A free, open-source web app that eases manual transcription of recorded interviews by integrating media playback controls beside a text editor. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Circleback when automatically capturing notes and action items so attendees can stay focused in meetings matters most, and oTranscribe when academic and qualitative researchers transcribing fieldwork or oral-history recordings matters most. Run both through a week of actual calls to see which suits your workflow.
AI meeting assistant that automatically takes notes, transcribes in 100+ languages, assigns action items, and runs automations across Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Webex, and in-person calls.
A free, open-source web app that eases manual transcription of recorded interviews by integrating media playback controls beside a text editor.
Circleback is a Y Combinator-backed AI meeting assistant that captures, transcribes, and organizes conversations automatically. It works with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, GoTo, Slack huddles, and in-person meetings, and offers a botless option via its desktop app for those who prefer not to send a bot into calls. After each meeting it produces structured notes, identifies and auto-assigns action items, and provides searchable transcripts with speaker identification across 100+ languages. AI-driven automations and "Insights" can push data into connected tools and answer questions across past meetings. Integrations include Gmail, Outlook, Slack, Google Calendar, HubSpot, Salesforce, Attio, Zoho, Linear, Notion, Monday, Zapier, and Make, plus developer access through MCP, a CLI, and webhooks. Circleback states SOC 2, GDPR, EU-US DPF, and HIPAA compliance, and offers mobile and desktop apps. New users can try it free before subscribing.
Best suited for
oTranscribe is a free, open-source (MIT license) web app, created by Elliot Bentley and maintained by the MuckRock Foundation, that takes the pain out of transcribing recorded interviews. It runs in the browser on desktop computers and places an integrated audio or video player alongside a text editor, so you can pause, rewind, and fast-forward your recording using keyboard shortcuts without taking your hands off the keys or switching between apps. It is built for journalists, researchers, oral historians, and students who type up interviews and recordings themselves. Rather than using automatic speech recognition, oTranscribe assists manual transcription: you listen and type, inserting interactive timestamps (Ctrl+J) that you can click to jump back to that moment in the media. Your transcript autosaves to the browser's local storage, and audio files never leave your computer, keeping work private. Finished transcripts can be exported to Markdown, plain text, or oTranscribe's own .otr format, or sent to Google Drive. Rich-text formatting and adjustable playback speed are supported.
Best suited for
Circleback is from $20.83/mo (paid); oTranscribe is open source (open source). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Circleback | oTranscribe |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | AI meeting notes | Integrated audio/video player next to the transcript editor |
| Standout feature | Action item tracking | Keyboard shortcuts to pause, rewind, fast-forward, and adjust playback speed without leaving the keyboard |
| Team usage | Multi-language transcription | Clickable interactive timestamps that jump to the matching point in the media |
| Integrations | AI search across meetings | Automatic saving to browser local storage with transcript history backups |
| Languages & capture | Workflow automations | Export to Markdown, plain text, .otr format, or send to Google Drive |
| Best-fit workflow | AI meeting notes | Local, private processing - audio and transcript never leave the user's computer |
Circleback
Choose Circleback if you need automatically capturing notes and action items so attendees can stay focused in meetings — strengths include works across zoom, google meet, microsoft teams, webex, goto, slack huddles, and in-person meetings.
oTranscribe
Choose oTranscribe if you need journalists typing up recorded interviews for articles — strengths include completely free and open source under the mit license.
Circleback
oTranscribe
It depends on your workflow. Circleback is strong for automatically capturing notes and action items so attendees can stay focused in meetings, while oTranscribe is strong for journalists typing up recorded interviews for articles. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Circleback is from $20.83/mo and oTranscribe is open source. 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.
More head-to-head comparisons involving Circleback and oTranscribe.
Circleback is automation-first (it triggers CRM, Linear and Slack actions); Granola is a bot-free personal notepad. Automation versus privacy.
Circleback: AI meeting assistant that automatically takes notes, transcribes in 100+ languages, assigns action items, and runs automations across Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Webex, and in-person calls. Cirrus Insight: Salesforce-focused sales productivity platform whose Conversation Intelligence module records meetings, transcribes them word-for-word in real time, and auto-generates summaries and next steps synced to CRM. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
Circleback: AI meeting assistant that automatically takes notes, transcribes in 100+ languages, assigns action items, and runs automations across Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Webex, and in-person calls. Claap: Async video plus AI meeting recording and CRM updates Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
Circleback: AI meeting assistant that automatically takes notes, transcribes in 100+ languages, assigns action items, and runs automations across Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Webex, and in-person calls. Clari Copilot: Real-time sales call prompts and conversation intelligence Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
Circleback: AI meeting assistant that automatically takes notes, transcribes in 100+ languages, assigns action items, and runs automations across Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Webex, and in-person calls. Cleft Notes: AI voice-note app that turns spoken thoughts and meeting audio into structured, organized notes. The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.
Circleback: AI meeting assistant that automatically takes notes, transcribes in 100+ languages, assigns action items, and runs automations across Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Webex, and in-person calls. ClickUp AI Notetaker: ClickUp's built-in AI Notetaker captures meeting recordings, transcripts, and summaries and connects them to ClickUp Docs and tasks. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
Circleback: AI meeting assistant that automatically takes notes, transcribes in 100+ languages, assigns action items, and runs automations across Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Webex, and in-person calls. Clipto: Mac-based AI transcription and knowledge assistant that indexes and searches meetings, interviews, podcasts, lectures, and other audio/video locally on-device. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
Circleback: AI meeting assistant that automatically takes notes, transcribes in 100+ languages, assigns action items, and runs automations across Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Webex, and in-person calls. Close Notetaker: An AI notetaker built into Close CRM that automatically transcribes and summarizes sales calls and meetings inside the CRM. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
Circleback: AI meeting assistant that automatically takes notes, transcribes in 100+ languages, assigns action items, and runs automations across Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Webex, and in-person calls. Cluely: Cluely is a real-time AI meeting assistant that runs as a desktop overlay to provide live transcription, automatic meeting notes, and on-demand AI answers during calls. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
Circleback: AI meeting assistant that automatically takes notes, transcribes in 100+ languages, assigns action items, and runs automations across Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Webex, and in-person calls. Coach Pilot: AI sales coaching agent that joins calls, coaches reps in real time, updates the CRM, and scores deals. We compare them on cost, capture approach, and day-to-day fit so you can choose faster.
Circleback: AI meeting assistant that automatically takes notes, transcribes in 100+ languages, assigns action items, and runs automations across Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Webex, and in-person calls. Cockatoo: AI transcription and note-taking service that records and transcribes meetings and lectures, then turns them into structured notes and summaries. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
Circleback: AI meeting assistant that automatically takes notes, transcribes in 100+ languages, assigns action items, and runs automations across Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Webex, and in-person calls. Coconote: AI note taker by Quizlet that turns lectures, meetings, documents, videos, and audio into organized notes, transcripts, and study materials. The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.