Cockatoo: AI transcription and note-taking service that records and transcribes meetings and lectures, then turns them into structured notes and summaries. Pluely: A lightweight open-source desktop AI meeting assistant that captures system audio for live transcription and on-call answers without joining as a visible bot. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Cockatoo when transcribing recorded meetings and interviews into searchable, structured notes matters most, and Pluely when running a privacy-conscious, locally processed meeting helper via ollama 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.
A lightweight open-source desktop AI meeting assistant that captures system audio for live transcription and on-call answers without joining as a visible bot.
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
Pluely is an open-source AI meeting assistant created by independent developer Srikanthnani and released in 2025 as a privacy-first, bot-free alternative to commercial in-meeting copilots. Built with Tauri, the app is roughly 10MB and launches quickly, running as an always-on-top overlay on macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Windows, and Linux. Rather than sending a participant into your call, Pluely captures system audio and microphone input directly on your device, converts speech to text, and can surface AI responses and notes during a meeting, interview, or presentation. It is bring-your-own-key, so users connect their own provider credentials; it supports a wide range of large language models, including OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, Grok, Mistral, Cohere, Ollama, and custom endpoints, alongside multiple speech-to-text engines such as Whisper, Deepgram, ElevenLabs, Groq, and Azure. Because it is GPL-licensed and fully inspectable, teams can audit or modify the code, and local model options via Ollama allow processing to stay on the machine. As an indie project it depends on external API keys for most capabilities and is still maturing. Confirm features and any usage policies on the official site. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Cockatoo is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Pluely is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Cockatoo | Pluely |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Record or upload audio and video, then transcribe to structured text | Bot-free capture of system audio and microphone for live transcription |
| Standout feature | AI summaries with key takeaways and action items | Always-on-top overlay app for macOS, Windows, and Linux |
| Team usage | Automatic speaker detection and punctuation | Bring-your-own-key support for many LLMs (OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Mistral, Cohere, Ollama, custom) |
| Integrations | AI chat agent and full document translation across 100+ languages | Multiple speech-to-text providers (Whisper, Deepgram, ElevenLabs, Groq, Azure, and others) |
| Languages & capture | Video transcription with subtitles and captions | Lightweight (~10MB) and fast to launch |
| Best-fit workflow | Export to PDF, DOCX, TXT, SRT, and audio with cloud sync | Open source under GPL with optional local processing via Ollama |
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.
Pluely
Choose Pluely if you need getting live transcription and ai assistance during meetings without a visible bot in the call — strengths include free and open source with fully inspectable code.
Cockatoo
Pluely
It depends on your workflow. Cockatoo is strong for transcribing recorded meetings and interviews into searchable, structured notes, while Pluely is strong for getting live transcription and ai assistance during meetings without a visible bot in the call. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Cockatoo is a free tier with paid upgrades and Pluely 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.
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