Meetingnotes and Shadow are both AI meeting assistants for recording, transcription, and summaries, compared here on pricing, features, and workflow fit. Meetingnotes: Free, open-source macOS AI notetaker that records mic and system audio locally, transcribes, and summarizes meetings using your own OpenAI API key. Shadow: A bot-free, Mac-based AI meeting assistant that transcribes and summarizes calls locally without joining as a participant. 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 engineers wanting a free, transparent meeting notetaker matters most, and Shadow when capturing notes and summaries across multiple conferencing platforms without a bot joining matters most. Both record across Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams; trial each on real meetings before committing.
Free, open-source macOS AI notetaker that records mic and system audio locally, transcribes, and summarizes meetings using your own OpenAI API key.
A bot-free, Mac-based AI meeting assistant that transcribes and summarizes calls locally without joining as a participant.
Meetingnotes is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Shadow is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Meetingnotes | Shadow |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Captures both microphone and system audio on macOS | Bot-free capture that records system audio without joining the meeting as a participant |
| Standout feature | No meeting bot required to join calls | On-device (local) transcription on macOS |
| Team usage | Live transcription plus AI-generated summaries | Speaker identification during transcription |
| Integrations | Bring-your-own OpenAI API key cost model | Captures on-screen content in addition to spoken audio |
| Languages & capture | Local storage of meeting data | Customizable prompts/Skills to generate notes, summaries, and emails |
| Best-fit workflow | Open-source codebase on GitHub (LGPL-3.0) | Webhook integration to connect outputs to other tools |
Meetingnotes
Choose Meetingnotes if you need engineers wanting a free, transparent meeting notetaker — strengths include free and open source with a transparent codebase.
Shadow
Choose Shadow if you need capturing notes and summaries across multiple conferencing platforms without a bot joining — strengths include does not add a visible bot to meetings.
Meetingnotes
Shadow
It depends on your workflow. Meetingnotes is strong for engineers wanting a free, transparent meeting notetaker, while Shadow is strong for capturing notes and summaries across multiple conferencing platforms without a bot joining. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Meetingnotes is a free tier with paid upgrades and Shadow 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.