Pluely and Wave 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. Wave: Cross-platform AI note taker that records and transcribes meetings, calls, and voice memos into summaries. 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 Wave when recording browser-based meetings without a bot joining 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.
Cross-platform AI note taker that records and transcribes meetings, calls, and voice memos into summaries.
Pluely is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Wave is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Pluely | Wave |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Bot-free capture of system audio and microphone for live transcription | Records meetings, calls, lectures, and voice memos |
| Standout feature | Always-on-top overlay app for macOS, Windows, and Linux | Bot-free tab audio capture plus combined tab and mic mode |
| Team usage | Bring-your-own-key support for many LLMs (OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Mistral, Cohere, Ollama, custom) | Speaker-labeled transcripts with summaries and action items |
| Integrations | Multiple speech-to-text providers (Whisper, Deepgram, ElevenLabs, Groq, Azure, and others) | Apps for iOS, Android, web, Mac, Windows, and Chrome |
| Languages & capture | Lightweight (~10MB) and fast to launch | Support for dozens of languages |
| Best-fit workflow | Open source under GPL with optional local processing via Ollama | Encrypted cloud storage with no model training on user data |
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.
Wave
Choose Wave if you need recording browser-based meetings without a bot joining — strengths include bot-free capture across many platforms and devices.
Pluely
Wave
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 Wave is strong for recording browser-based meetings without a bot joining. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Pluely is a free tier with paid upgrades and Wave 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.