Fireflies vs Otter: Which is the Better Transcription Tool?

Taking notes by hand is a thing of the past. Many tools provide transcription services for video meetings, but two of the most widely used and well-known are Otter and Fireflies. Although the two AI tools are very similar, they have their key differences.

In this comparison, we will go through all the details about the two and hopefully, it will help you decide which one to choose as your AI meeting assistant.

What is Fireflies.ai?

Fireflies.ai is an app that automates meeting notes. It helps teams transcribe, summarise, and analyze voice conversations. Fireflies.ai records and transcribes meetings from multiple platforms. Use it with Google Meet, Zoom, Teams, Webex, and more. It quickly captures video and audio and produces transcripts in minutes.

Fireflies.ai is a real-time knowledge base for your team. All voice conversations are stored in one place. Organise meetings by department and set custom privacy controls. Ensure the right information reaches the right team members.

The app supports different team roles. Sales teams can use it to fill CRMs and close deals faster. Engineers can automate meeting management documentation. Recruiters can improve their hiring process. Marketers can better understand customer needs. Educators and media professionals can benefit from accurate transcripts and captions.

What is Otter.ai?

For businesses, Otter.ai increases the efficiency of meetings by automatically taking notes. This allows participants to focus more on the discussion. In sales, the tool helps close deals and onboard new customers quickly. It provides automated meeting summaries, making follow-up easier.

For educators, OtterPilot helps students and teachers succeed. It provides real-time captions and notes for lectures and meetings. For media professionals, it helps create compelling stories with detailed notes from interviews or meetings.

Otter’s meeting assistant software features include automated note-taking and summarization. It provides transcripts, and action items and allows users to chat with Otter for quick answers. These features are accessible via web and mobile apps, ensuring convenience for all users.

Fireflies.ai key features

• Seamless Voice Capture: Fireflies allows easy capture of voice conversations. It works anywhere you need it, ensuring no detail is missed.
• Video Conferencing Bot: Connect Fireflies to your calendar for joining meetings with a video-conferencing URL. It supports major platforms like Zoom and Google Meet and is great for individual and team productivity.
• Audio File Upload: Easily upload pre-recorded audio files in various formats, including MP3 and WAV, directly from the Fireflies dashboard.
• Chrome Recorder Extension: Gain more control over your meetings. The Chrome extension lets you capture conversations across various platforms.
• Storage Upload Integration: Automatically transcribe meetings from Dropbox, Box, and OneDrive. Simply select a folder for Fireflies to monitor.
• Flexible API: The API offers flexibility for sending audio streams to Fireflies for processing and transcription.
• Multilingual Support: Offers support for Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, and more.

Advanced Search and Collaboration:

• Smart Search Capabilities: Search for keywords, themes, and topics such as dates, questions, and sentiment.
• Custom Topic Trackers: Create trackers for specific discussions like pricing or competitors.
• Collaboration Tools: Share parts of calls as soundbite snippets, leave time-stamped notes, and embed transcripts in tools like Notion and Salesforce.

Fireflies.ai drawbacks

• Limited Post Meeting Recaps: Some users find the automatically generated summaries, meeting notes may not be as informative or insightful as desired.
• Editing Limitations: Editing transcribed text can be cumbersome, and some users would like more control over removing unwanted sections, like casual conversation at the beginning of meetings.
• Accuracy: While generally well-regarded, transcription accuracy isn’t perfect, and Fireflies.ai may struggle with technical terms or heavy accents.

Otter.ai key features

• Otter for Different Platforms: Use Otter on iOS, Android, and the web. It’s flexible and convenient.
• Custom Vocabulary Learning: Otter.ai adapts to your specific language needs.
• Playback Control: Review meeting recap with synced audio and text. Control playback speed for ease.
• Sharing Options: Share notes via groups and links. Collaborate easily with your team.
• Integrations: Works with Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet. It’s integrated for easy use.
• Speaker Identification: Otter.ai identifies when multiple speakers speak in audio meetings. This makes notes clearer and more organized.
• Search and Summary Tools: Find notes by keyword, speaker, and date. Summaries and word clouds provide quick, valuable insights.
• Meeting management: Edit text, speakers, meeting highlights and time codes for accuracy.
• Security and Management: Offers two-factor authentication, single sign-on, and admin controls for security and ease of management.

Otter.ai drawbacks

• Limited Free Version: The free tier only allows a small number of transcription minutes and has a lifetime limit on the number of audio files you can transcribe.
• Accuracy Issues: While generally good, Otter can struggle with complex jargon, technical terms, strong accents, and background noise.
• Microphone Dependence: Transcription quality can vary depending on the microphone or headset you use.
• Limited Language Support: Otter currently only supports transcription in English (with accents).

Fireflies.ai Integrations

• Zoom Integration: Records and transcribes Zoom meetings. The Fireflies.ai Notetaker joins Zoom meetings to take notes and transcribe conversations.
• Google Meet Integration: Enhances Google Meet with recording and transcribing. The Notetaker attends meetings, providing transcripts and notes.
• Microsoft Teams Integration: Integrates with Teams for meeting recording and transcription. Fireflies.ai Notetaker automatically joins to record and transcribe.
• Salesforce Integration: Syncs meeting data with Salesforce. Transcripts and notes from meetings are logged under Salesforce contacts.
• Slack Integration: Sends meeting transcripts to Slack channels. Notes and recordings from meetings are automatically shared in Slack.
• Trello Integration: Creates tasks from meeting action items in Trello. Utilizes voice commands or AI assistance for automatic task creation.
• Zapier Integration: Connects with various apps through Zapier. Enables pushing of transcripts and recordings to multiple applications.
• Asana Integration: Automatically generates tasks in Asana from meetings. Utilizes AI-assisted action items or voice commands for task creation.
• Dropbox Integration: Sends meeting data to Dropbox folders. Transcripts and notes are automatically routed based on user preferences.
• Google Calendar Integration: Records and transcribes meetings scheduled via Google Calendar. Fireflies.ai Notetaker joins these meetings for note-taking and transcription.

There are many more tools that Fireflies.ai can be integrated with, so this only scratches the surface.

How accurate is Fireflies transcription?

Fireflies advertises that its transcripts are over 90% accurate. This means you can expect a fair amount of accuracy, but it won’t be perfect.

I have used Fireflies for both English and Lithuanian transcription and can confirm that the Lithuanian transcription is less than 90% accurate, while the English is often more than 90% accurate.

Here are some things to consider that can affect Otter and Fireflies’ accuracy:

• Background noise: If there’s a lot of background noise in your meeting, it can be harder for Fireflies to understand the speech.
• Multiple speakers speak once: Like many speech recognition tools, Fireflies can struggle when multiple people speak simultaneously.
• Accents and technical jargon: If participants in your meeting have strong accents or use technical language, Fireflies might misinterpret some words.

Even with these limitations, Fireflies can be a valuable tool for capturing the main points of your meetings. You can always go back and edit the transcript for accuracy.

Otter.ai Integrations

• Zoom Integration: Otter auto-joins Zoom meetings for note-taking. It records audio, captures slides, and generates highlight summaries with action items. Useful for making Zoom online meetings more productive.
• Google Meet Integration: Similar to Zoom, OtterPilot™ auto-joins Google Meet meetings. It records, takes notes, and creates summaries. This helps in organizing and reviewing meeting content effectively.
• Microsoft Teams Integration: OtterPilot™ functions in Microsoft Teams meetings too. It captures audio and visuals, offering a comprehensive meeting record. This is ideal for teams using Microsoft’s ecosystem.
• Chrome Extension: Enables OtterPilot™ in browser-based meetings. Works with Zoom, Google Meet, and Google Calendar. It’s a quick way to start using Otter.ai in meetings directly from Chrome.
• Dropbox Integration: Syncs audio and video files in Dropbox for automatic transcription. This feature is useful for storing and transcribing meeting recordings effortlessly.
• Google Calendar Integration: Otter auto-joins meetings scheduled in Google Calendar. It’s handy for ensuring all meetings are recorded and transcribed without manual setup.
• Google Drive Integration: Otter exports meeting transcripts and summaries to Google Drive. This helps organize and share meeting documentation within Google’s ecosystem.
• Slack Integration: Otter.ai integrates with Slack for real-time updates. This keeps teams informed and aligned, especially for remote and hybrid teams.
• iOS and Android Apps: OtterPilot is available on mobile devices. It supports both in-person and virtual meetings. Great for on-the-go professionals needing meeting assistance.

Otter and Fireflies both have many applications that can be integrated and in this list of integrations, I have only touched on some of the more popular integrations that most people will use.

How accurate is Otter.ai transcription?

Reports on Otter.ai’s accuracy vary. Otter does not provide how accurate their transcription is, while independent reviews suggest a more realistic range of 85-90%.

The key points is that Otter.ai transcription is generally good, but it’s not perfect. But soon, as AI is implemented more and more in the workplace, we will see more accurate tools.

Fireflies vs Otter pricing

Fireflies.ai pricing

Free Plan 

• $0/month
• Perfect for starters. 
• Unlimited transcriptions. 
• 800 mins of storage per seat. 
• Key features: Record meetings, and transcribe in 69+ languages. 

Pro Plan 

• $18/seat/month
• For individuals and small teams. 
• Unlimited transcriptions and summaries. 
• 8,000 mins of storage per seat. 
• Plus: AI apps, CRM integrations, and unlimited public channels. 

Business Plan 

• $29/seat/month
• Ideal for growing businesses. 
• Unlimited storage and transcriptions. 
• Features: Video capture, team insights, unlimited channels. 

Enterprise Plan 

• $39/seat/month, billed annually.
• For large organizations. 
• Custom data retention, dedicated manager. 
• HIPAA compliance, private storage.

Otter.ai pricing

Basic Plan:

• Free, perfect for trying Otter.
• AI assistant for meeting notes in real-time.
• Includes 300 transcription minutes monthly.

Pro Plan:

• Monthly: $16.99 per user.
• Annual saving: 41%, at $10 per user/month.
• Ideal for small team collaboration.
• 1200 transcription minutes monthly per user.

Business Plan:

• Monthly: $30 per user.
• Annual saving: 33%, at $20 per user/month.
• Enhances team productivity.
• 6000 transcription minutes monthly per user.

Enterprise Plan:

• Custom pricing, schedule a demo.
• Advanced security and control features.
• Suitable for large organizations.

Which is better: Fireflies vs Otter?

All in all, both Otter and Fireflies are great tools for transcribing meetings and getting meeting summaries, but they have their key differences.

Fireflies.ai is better for people who have meetings in other languages and not just in English, and it also has a much better free plan and more features than Otter.ai, while Otter has a higher accuracy for English meeting notes.

When choosing between the two meeting assistants, you should also consider the price; Otter has a slightly lower price and fewer features than Fireflies, so depending on which tool you are looking for, consider the features you are looking for and the user interface.

As both have free plans, you can easily try them out to see which one works best for you or your company’s needs, as in the end they perform the same action: transcribe meetings.

Consider using more AI in your work, not just Fireflies and Otter – many other AI tools are great for research or even design.