Cleft Notes: AI voice-note app that turns spoken thoughts and meeting audio into structured, organized notes. 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. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Cleft Notes when capturing post-meeting recaps and action items by voice matters most, and Steno when using ai to summarize, search, and compare deposition transcripts for case strategy matters most. Run both through a week of actual calls to see which suits your workflow.
AI voice-note app that turns spoken thoughts and meeting audio into structured, organized notes.
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.
Cleft Notes is an AI-powered voice-note app that captures spoken thoughts, meeting recaps, and other audio and converts them into structured, readable notes. Users record by speaking, and the app transcribes the audio and reshapes it into organized output, offering formats such as bulleted and headed notes, flowing paragraphs without bullets, or a cleaned-up verbatim transcript. It performs transcription on-device, which allows it to work offline and supports a privacy-focused approach, with encrypted cloud sync and local file storage that users control. Cleft integrates with a range of productivity tools, including Notion, Apple Notes, Obsidian, Todoist, and automation via Zapier, so notes can flow into existing workflows. The app is available across the Apple ecosystem, including iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and CarPlay, making it convenient to capture thoughts hands-free. While it is broadly a voice-to-notes tool, it is commonly used to capture meeting summaries and post-meeting recaps, and it is aimed at professionals and individuals who think out loud and want spoken input turned into well-formatted notes rather than raw recordings. 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
Cleft Notes 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 | Cleft Notes | Steno |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | On-device transcription that works offline | Certified court reporters producing rough, original, and certified transcripts |
| Standout feature | Multiple output formats: organized, no-bullets, or verbatim | Interactive realtime transcription during proceedings |
| Team usage | Encrypted cloud sync with user-controlled local storage | Steno Connect Zoom app for remote depositions with exhibit handling |
| Integrations | Integrations with Notion, Apple Notes, Obsidian, Todoist, and Zapier | Transcript Genius AI for summaries, semantic search, and Q&A with page/line citations |
| Languages & capture | Available on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and CarPlay | Multi-transcript comparison to surface contradictions and discrepancies |
| Best-fit workflow | Hands-free voice capture of thoughts and meeting recaps | Firm Dashboard for scheduling, file access, and invoice management |
Cleft Notes
Choose Cleft Notes if you need capturing post-meeting recaps and action items by voice — strengths include on-device transcription enables offline use and privacy.
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.
Cleft Notes
Steno
It depends on your workflow. Cleft Notes is strong for capturing post-meeting recaps and action items by voice, while Steno is strong for scheduling and capturing certified transcripts for remote or in-person depositions. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Cleft Notes 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.
Often yes: teams combine tools when one handles capture and another handles analysis.
More head-to-head comparisons involving Cleft Notes and Steno.
Cleft Notes: AI voice-note app that turns spoken thoughts and meeting audio into structured, organized notes. ClickUp AI Notetaker: ClickUp's built-in AI Notetaker captures meeting recordings, transcripts, and summaries and connects them to ClickUp Docs and tasks. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
Cleft Notes: AI voice-note app that turns spoken thoughts and meeting audio into structured, organized notes. Clipto: Mac-based AI transcription and knowledge assistant that indexes and searches meetings, interviews, podcasts, lectures, and other audio/video locally on-device. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
Cleft Notes: AI voice-note app that turns spoken thoughts and meeting audio into structured, organized notes. Close Notetaker: An AI notetaker built into Close CRM that automatically transcribes and summarizes sales calls and meetings inside the CRM. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
Cleft Notes: AI voice-note app that turns spoken thoughts and meeting audio into structured, organized notes. Coach Pilot: AI sales coaching agent that joins calls, coaches reps in real time, updates the CRM, and scores deals. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
Cleft Notes: AI voice-note app that turns spoken thoughts and meeting audio into structured, organized notes. Cockatoo: AI transcription and note-taking service that records and transcribes meetings and lectures, then turns them into structured notes and summaries. The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.
Cleft Notes: AI voice-note app that turns spoken thoughts and meeting audio into structured, organized notes. Coconote: AI note taker by Quizlet that turns lectures, meetings, documents, videos, and audio into organized notes, transcripts, and study materials. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
Cleft Notes: AI voice-note app that turns spoken thoughts and meeting audio into structured, organized notes. CogniCor: AI assistant for financial advisors that automates meeting prep, note-taking, follow-ups, and forms inside the CRM. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
Cleft Notes: AI voice-note app that turns spoken thoughts and meeting audio into structured, organized notes. Cogram: AI platform for the architecture, engineering and construction industry that automates meeting minutes and action items with strong privacy controls. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
Cleft Notes: AI voice-note app that turns spoken thoughts and meeting audio into structured, organized notes. ColdCALR: AI cold-call roleplay and training tool where reps practice scripts against AI prospects and get scored on technique. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
Cleft Notes: AI voice-note app that turns spoken thoughts and meeting audio into structured, organized notes. Comulytic Note Pro: Card-thin AI voice recorder and companion app that records, transcribes, and summarizes meetings, calls, and client conversations. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
Cleft Notes: AI voice-note app that turns spoken thoughts and meeting audio into structured, organized notes. Condens: UX research platform for storing, transcribing, tagging, and analyzing user interviews in a searchable, collaborative repository. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
Cleft Notes: AI voice-note app that turns spoken thoughts and meeting audio into structured, organized notes. Conveo: AI-led qualitative research platform that runs video, voice, and text interviews and analyzes every signal for insights at speed. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.