Simon Says and aTrain are both AI meeting assistants for recording, transcription, and summaries, compared here on pricing, features, and workflow fit. Simon Says: AI transcription, captioning, and translation built for professional video and audio workflows. aTrain: Open-source offline transcription tool from the University of Graz that turns recorded meetings and interviews into text using Whisper and speaker detection. They overlap on ai-meeting-assistants, ai-transcription, 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, ai-transcription workflows, shortlist Simon Says when transcribing and captioning footage for video editing projects matters most, and aTrain when researchers transcribing recorded interviews for qualitative analysis matters most. Both record across Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams; trial each on real meetings before committing.
AI transcription, captioning, and translation built for professional video and audio workflows.
Open-source offline transcription tool from the University of Graz that turns recorded meetings and interviews into text using Whisper and speaker detection.
Simon Says is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); aTrain is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Simon Says | aTrain |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | AI transcription with speaker identification | Offline, fully local transcription with no data leaving the device |
| Standout feature | Subtitle and caption generation with visual editing | Built on OpenAI Whisper via the faster-whisper engine |
| Team usage | Translation across many languages | Speaker detection/diarization using pyannote.audio |
| Integrations | Integrations with Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, and Avid | Exports compatible with MAXQDA, ATLAS.ti, and NVivo |
| Languages & capture | Support for professional audio and video formats | Graphical interface requiring no programming skills |
| Best-fit workflow | AI transcription with speaker identification | NVIDIA GPU acceleration support |
Simon Says
Choose Simon Says if you need transcribing and captioning footage for video editing projects — strengths include integrates directly with professional video editing software.
aTrain
Choose aTrain if you need researchers transcribing recorded interviews for qualitative analysis — strengths include free and open source under agpl-3.0.
Simon Says
aTrain
It depends on your workflow. Simon Says is strong for transcribing and captioning footage for video editing projects, while aTrain is strong for researchers transcribing recorded interviews for qualitative analysis. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Simon Says is a free tier with paid upgrades and aTrain 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.