Cockatoo: AI transcription and note-taking service that records and transcribes meetings and lectures, then turns them into structured notes and summaries. Meeting Transcriber: Open-source, local-first macOS app that auto-records Teams, Zoom, and Webex calls and transcribes, diarizes, and summarizes them entirely on-device. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Cockatoo when transcribing recorded meetings and interviews into searchable, structured notes matters most, and Meeting Transcriber when recording and summarizing teams, zoom, or webex calls without inviting a cloud meeting bot matters most. Try them side by side on real calls before deciding — needs vary by team.
AI transcription and note-taking service that records and transcribes meetings and lectures, then turns them into structured notes and summaries.
Open-source, local-first macOS app that auto-records Teams, Zoom, and Webex calls and transcribes, diarizes, and summarizes them entirely on-device.
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
Meeting Transcriber is an open-source, local-first meeting transcriber for macOS, distributed under the MIT license and developed in the open on GitHub (pasrom/meeting-transcriber) with its own product site at meetingtranscriber.app. It runs as a menu bar application that automatically detects and records calls on Teams, Zoom, and Webex, capturing the meeting app's audio and your microphone as separate tracks so that transcription and speaker separation stay clean. Transcription happens fully on-device using one of three selectable speech-recognition engines: WhisperKit (covering 99+ languages), Parakeet TDT v3 (25 European languages with a small, fast model), or Qwen3-ASR (30 languages, requiring macOS 15+). It performs dual-track diarization and can recognize recurring speakers by storing voice embeddings across meetings and matching them with cosine similarity. After a meeting, it can generate a structured Markdown protocol containing a summary, participants, topics discussed, decisions, tasks, open questions, and the full transcript, using either the Claude Code CLI, any OpenAI-compatible endpoint such as Ollama or LM Studio, or a transcript-only mode with no LLM. Because everything runs locally, audio, transcripts, and summaries stay on the user's Mac. It installs via Homebrew Cask and requires macOS 14.2 or later. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Cockatoo is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Meeting Transcriber is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Cockatoo | Meeting Transcriber |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Record or upload audio and video, then transcribe to structured text | Automatic recording of Teams, Zoom, and Webex meetings via a macOS menu bar app |
| Standout feature | AI summaries with key takeaways and action items | On-device transcription with selectable engines: WhisperKit, Parakeet TDT v3, or Qwen3-ASR |
| Team usage | Automatic speaker detection and punctuation | Dual-track diarization with separate app and microphone tracks for clean speaker separation |
| Integrations | AI chat agent and full document translation across 100+ languages | Recurring-speaker recognition using stored voice embeddings matched by cosine similarity |
| Languages & capture | Video transcription with subtitles and captions | Structured Markdown protocols (summary, participants, topics, decisions, tasks, open questions, transcript) |
| Best-fit workflow | Export to PDF, DOCX, TXT, SRT, and audio with cloud sync | Pluggable summarization backends: Claude Code CLI, OpenAI-compatible APIs (Ollama, LM Studio), or transcript-only |
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.
Meeting Transcriber
Choose Meeting Transcriber if you need privacy-conscious professionals who want meeting transcripts and notes kept on their own mac — strengths include fully open source under the mit license with development in the open on github.
Cockatoo
Meeting Transcriber
It depends on your workflow. Cockatoo is strong for transcribing recorded meetings and interviews into searchable, structured notes, while Meeting Transcriber is strong for privacy-conscious professionals who want meeting transcripts and notes kept on their own mac. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Cockatoo is a free tier with paid upgrades and Meeting Transcriber is a free tier with paid upgrades. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
You can — some teams pair them when each covers a different part of the meeting workflow.
More head-to-head comparisons involving Cockatoo and Meeting Transcriber.
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.