Pluely and Riverside are both AI meeting assistants for recording, transcription, and summaries, compared here on pricing, features, and workflow fit. 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. 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 Pluely when getting live transcription and ai assistance during meetings without a visible bot in the call 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.
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.
Browser-based podcast and video recording studio with AI transcription, captions, and text-based editing that also handles interviews and remote meetings.
Pluely 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 | Pluely | Riverside |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Bot-free capture of system audio and microphone for live transcription | AI-generated transcripts with automatic speaker detection and labeling |
| Standout feature | Always-on-top overlay app for macOS, Windows, and Linux | Transcription support across more than 100 languages |
| Team usage | Bring-your-own-key support for many LLMs (OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Mistral, Cohere, Ollama, custom) | Caption and subtitle export in SRT and VTT formats |
| Integrations | Multiple speech-to-text providers (Whisper, Deepgram, ElevenLabs, Groq, Azure, and others) | Text-based editing that lets users cut and rearrange recordings by editing the transcript |
| Languages & capture | Lightweight (~10MB) and fast to launch | Local high-quality recording of each participant's audio and video track |
| Best-fit workflow | Open source under GPL with optional local processing via Ollama | AI clip generation for short-form social video |
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.
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.
Pluely
Riverside
It depends on your workflow. Pluely is strong for getting live transcription and ai assistance during meetings without a visible bot in the call, while Riverside is strong for transcribing and captioning recorded podcast episodes and video interviews. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Pluely 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.