Meetingnotes and Riverside are both AI meeting assistants for recording, transcription, and summaries, compared here on pricing, features, and workflow fit. Meetingnotes: Free, open-source macOS app that records, transcribes, and summarizes meetings locally using your own OpenAI API key. Riverside: Browser-based podcast and video recording studio with AI transcription, captions, and text-based editing that also handles interviews and remote meetings. They overlap on ai-meeting-assistants, so the right pick depends on team size, budget, and which meeting workflows you automate.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
For ai-meeting-assistants workflows, shortlist Meetingnotes when privacy-focused engineers recording and summarizing local meetings matters most, and Riverside when transcribing and captioning recorded podcast episodes and video interviews matters most. Both record across Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams; trial each on real meetings before committing.
Free, open-source macOS app that records, transcribes, and summarizes meetings locally using your own OpenAI API key.
Browser-based podcast and video recording studio with AI transcription, captions, and text-based editing that also handles interviews and remote meetings.
Meetingnotes is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Riverside is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Meetingnotes | Riverside |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Records both microphone and system audio for meeting capture | AI-generated transcripts with automatic speaker detection and labeling |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription using the OpenAI API | Transcription support across more than 100 languages |
| Team usage | AI summaries that combine transcripts with manual notes | Caption and subtitle export in SRT and VTT formats |
| Integrations | Customizable system prompts for personalized note-taking | Text-based editing that lets users cut and rearrange recordings by editing the transcript |
| Languages & capture | Local storage of notes and transcripts for privacy | Local high-quality recording of each participant's audio and video track |
| Best-fit workflow | Search, copy, and delete management for stored notes | AI clip generation for short-form social video |
Meetingnotes
Choose Meetingnotes if you need privacy-focused engineers recording and summarizing local meetings — strengths include completely free and open-source with no subscription.
Riverside
Choose Riverside if you need transcribing and captioning recorded podcast episodes and video interviews — strengths include records each participant locally, producing cleaner audio and video than typical call recording.
Meetingnotes
Riverside
It depends on your workflow. Meetingnotes is strong for privacy-focused engineers recording and summarizing local meetings, while Riverside is strong for transcribing and captioning recorded podcast episodes and video interviews. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Meetingnotes is a free tier with paid upgrades and Riverside is a free tier with paid upgrades. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
Yes. Many teams run more than one meeting assistant when the workflows are complementary and the budget is justified.