Cockatoo: AI transcription and note-taking service that records and transcribes meetings and lectures, then turns them into structured notes and summaries. 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. The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Cockatoo when transcribing recorded meetings and interviews into searchable, structured notes matters most, and Handy when privacy-sensitive voice-to-text where audio must stay on-device matters most. Run both through a week of actual calls to see which suits your workflow.
AI transcription and note-taking service that records and transcribes meetings and lectures, then turns them into structured notes and summaries.
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.
Cockatoo is an AI transcription and note-taking service available through the web and an iOS app that converts spoken audio and video into text and structured notes. Users can record meetings and lectures directly or upload existing audio and video files in a wide range of formats, after which Cockatoo automatically generates a transcript with punctuation and capitalization, identifies speakers, and produces summaries with key takeaways and action items. Beyond transcription, the product offers voice typing, an AI chat agent for asking questions about content, full document translation across many languages, and video transcription with subtitles and captions. Transcripts and notes can be searched and exported to formats including PDF, DOCX, TXT, SRT, and audio, and the app syncs to the cloud. Cockatoo supports more than one hundred languages and is designed for individuals and professionals who need affordable, accurate transcription of recordings such as meetings, interviews, lectures, podcasts, and other spoken content. The service is operated by Cockatoo Inc. and is actively running in 2025 and 2026 at cockatoo.com. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
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
Cockatoo 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 | Cockatoo | Handy |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Record or upload audio and video, then transcribe to structured text | Push-to-talk and toggle dictation modes with a configurable global keyboard shortcut |
| Standout feature | AI summaries with key takeaways and action items | Fully offline, on-device transcription with no cloud uploads |
| Team usage | Automatic speaker detection and punctuation | Multiple local speech models including Whisper (GPU-accelerated) and Parakeet V3 (CPU, auto language detection) |
| Integrations | AI chat agent and full document translation across 100+ languages | Silero Voice Activity Detection to filter silence and process only speech |
| Languages & capture | Video transcription with subtitles and captions | Automatically pastes transcribed text into any active application text field |
| Best-fit workflow | Export to PDF, DOCX, TXT, SRT, and audio with cloud sync | Cross-platform desktop app (macOS, Windows, Linux) built with Tauri |
Cockatoo
Choose Cockatoo if you need transcribing recorded meetings and interviews into searchable, structured notes — strengths include handles both live recording and bulk upload of existing audio and video files.
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.
Cockatoo
Handy
It depends on your workflow. Cockatoo is strong for transcribing recorded meetings and interviews into searchable, structured notes, while Handy is strong for hands-free dictation into emails, documents, chat apps, and code editors. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Cockatoo 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.
Often yes: teams combine tools when one handles capture and another handles analysis.
More head-to-head comparisons involving Cockatoo and Handy.
Cockatoo: AI transcription and note-taking service that records and transcribes meetings and lectures, then turns them into structured notes and summaries. Coconote: AI note taker by Quizlet that turns lectures, meetings, documents, videos, and audio into organized notes, transcripts, and study materials. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
Cockatoo: AI transcription and note-taking service that records and transcribes meetings and lectures, then turns them into structured notes and summaries. CogniCor: AI assistant for financial advisors that automates meeting prep, note-taking, follow-ups, and forms inside the CRM. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
Cockatoo: AI transcription and note-taking service that records and transcribes meetings and lectures, then turns them into structured notes and summaries. Cogram: AI platform for the architecture, engineering and construction industry that automates meeting minutes and action items with strong privacy controls. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
Cockatoo: AI transcription and note-taking service that records and transcribes meetings and lectures, then turns them into structured notes and summaries. ColdCALR: AI cold-call roleplay and training tool where reps practice scripts against AI prospects and get scored on technique. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
Cockatoo: AI transcription and note-taking service that records and transcribes meetings and lectures, then turns them into structured notes and summaries. Comulytic Note Pro: Card-thin AI voice recorder and companion app that records, transcribes, and summarizes meetings, calls, and client conversations. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
Cockatoo: AI transcription and note-taking service that records and transcribes meetings and lectures, then turns them into structured notes and summaries. Condens: UX research platform for storing, transcribing, tagging, and analyzing user interviews in a searchable, collaborative repository. The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.
Cockatoo: AI transcription and note-taking service that records and transcribes meetings and lectures, then turns them into structured notes and summaries. Conveo: AI-led qualitative research platform that runs video, voice, and text interviews and analyzes every signal for insights at speed. The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.
Cockatoo: AI transcription and note-taking service that records and transcribes meetings and lectures, then turns them into structured notes and summaries. Convin: AI conversation intelligence platform for contact centers and sales teams that records, transcribes, and scores calls, chats, and emails. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
Cockatoo: AI transcription and note-taking service that records and transcribes meetings and lectures, then turns them into structured notes and summaries. Convo: Bot-free real-time AI meeting assistant for Mac and Windows that transcribes calls, suggests replies live, and syncs notes to Slack, Notion, and HubSpot. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
Cockatoo: AI transcription and note-taking service that records and transcribes meetings and lectures, then turns them into structured notes and summaries. CraftNote: A cross-platform AI meeting assistant that transcribes and summarizes conversations, identifies speakers, and can join calls on major meeting platforms. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
Cockatoo: AI transcription and note-taking service that records and transcribes meetings and lectures, then turns them into structured notes and summaries. Cresta: Enterprise contact-center AI platform combining real-time agent assist, autonomous AI agents, and conversation intelligence. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
Cockatoo: AI transcription and note-taking service that records and transcribes meetings and lectures, then turns them into structured notes and summaries. Cuebo: AI sales coaching platform with a roleplay arena of video-avatar buyers, automated course generation, and call analysis. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.