Simon Says and ownscribe 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. ownscribe: Local-first command-line tool that records, transcribes, and summarizes meetings on macOS entirely on-device, with natural-language search across notes. 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 Simon Says when transcribing and captioning footage for video editing projects matters most, and ownscribe when developers capturing and summarizing meetings from the terminal on a mac 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.
Local-first command-line tool that records, transcribes, and summarizes meetings on macOS entirely on-device, with natural-language search across notes.
Simon Says is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); ownscribe is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Simon Says | ownscribe |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | AI transcription with speaker identification | Local-first recording, transcription, and summarization via CLI |
| Standout feature | Subtitle and caption generation with visual editing | System audio capture on macOS 14.2+ through Core Audio |
| Team usage | Translation across many languages | WhisperX transcription with word-level timestamps |
| Integrations | Integrations with Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, and Avid | Optional speaker diarization via PyAnnote |
| Languages & capture | Support for professional audio and video formats | Local summarization with a built-in Phi-4-mini model, plus Ollama and OpenAI-compatible backends |
| Best-fit workflow | AI transcription with speaker identification | Natural-language search across meeting notes with the ask command |
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.
ownscribe
Choose ownscribe if you need developers capturing and summarizing meetings from the terminal on a mac — strengths include runs entirely on-device with no data sent to external servers.
Simon Says
ownscribe
It depends on your workflow. Simon Says is strong for transcribing and captioning footage for video editing projects, while ownscribe is strong for developers capturing and summarizing meetings from the terminal on a mac. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Simon Says is a free tier with paid upgrades and ownscribe 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.