An Otter.ai alternative that keeps transcription on your computer

Otter.ai is an AI notetaker built around a meeting agent: it joins your Zoom, Teams and Google Meet calls, writes a live transcript that recognizes speakers, and shares a summary with action items afterwards. People look for an Otter.ai alternative when the free plan's 300 minutes a month run out, when a bot in the call feels wrong, or when recordings should not leave their computer. Barside is a free desktop app for Windows, Linux and Mac. It transcribes calls on your own computer, with no bot and no minute allowance, then uses the AI you connect to turn each transcript into decisions and tasks.

Below is an honest comparison, with the things Otter does better and a way to bring your Otter transcripts with you.

The short answer

Otter is strong when you want a notetaker that works for you: its agent joins meetings, records, recognizes speakers, and shares notes with your team. It has web, desktop, iPhone and Android apps, a Chrome extension, and integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot and Zapier on paid plans.

Barside is a different kind of tool:

• Transcription on your computer. Barside's speech engine (Whisper) turns your microphone and your computer's sound into text in a note. Lines are labelled You and Others, with times. English is built in, and 34 more languages are a one-time download.
• No minutes to count. The engine runs on your computer, so Barside does not count minutes, per month or per call. The audio stays in the note too.
• Follow-through with your own AI. Meeting follow-through proposes a summary, quoted decisions, tasks with owners and a recap draft, using the Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or OpenRouter account you connect.
• Meetings of its own. Barside's video meetings, for up to 6 people, have live captions written on each person's computer and save a meeting note with the transcript.

What Barside does not do: join a call without you, name speakers on Zoom or Teams calls, transcribe audio files you upload, or run on your phone.

Why people look for an Otter.ai alternative

These are the common reasons, stated fairly:

• Minutes run out. As of September 2026, Otter Basic includes 300 transcription minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation and 3 audio or video imports in total. Pro raises that to 1,200 minutes a month and 90 minutes per conversation. Basic also keeps only your 25 most recent conversations.
• A bot in the meeting. Otter's agent joins calls as a participant, which not every host or client wants. Otter's desktop app for Mac and Windows can record without a bot, which helps, but it still uploads the recording to Otter to be transcribed, and the conversation is kept in your Otter account.
• Where recordings live. Otter stores data in Amazon S3 with AES-256 server-side encryption. Its privacy page says it de-identifies user data before training its own models, and that its third-party AI providers do not train on customer data. You may simply want recordings to stay on your own computer.
• Languages. Otter transcribes English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese (Simplified). If your calls are in Portuguese, Hindi, Korean or Polish, you need another tool.
• Cost per seat. Business is US$30 per user a month, or US$19.99 billed annually. For a small team that adds up.

Barside at a glance

1. Install speech once. In Settings → Assistant settings, choose Install speech, about 150 MB. It needs no AI key.
2. Start a transcript. Press the microphone on the desktop bar, choose Transcribe a call in the assistant (Ctrl+Shift+A), or type call in the search bar. Then press Start recording.
3. Watch it fill. Barside creates a "Call transcript" note and writes the call down in 30-second pieces, each with its time and label: [03:12] You: … or [03:40] Others: …. Each piece with sound in it is also saved in the note as a WAV file, so you can listen again.
4. Stop. Press Stop & save, or use the recording item in the tray.
5. Follow through. In Library & briefing → Meeting follow-through, choose the transcript and press Analyze meeting. Keep the tasks you want, set reminder times and save: Barside makes a recap note and a note for each task.

For a language other than English, choose Install more languages (141 MB) under Speech language in Assistant settings, then pick the language or automatic detection. On Linux, Barside records computer sound through PulseAudio or PipeWire, so the same steps work there. In Barside for Mac, computer sound needs macOS 14.2 or later.

The detailed guides: transcribe calls on your computer and meeting follow-up and action items.

Otter.ai vs Barside: feature comparison

Pricing compared

Prices are as each company's page shows them, as of September 2026.

On the day we checked, Otter's page also offered first-time subscribers 20% off Business for 3 months, and students and teachers with a .edu email address 20% off Pro. With Barside, the only running cost is the AI you choose for summaries, and it depends on the model and the length of your calls.

Where your recordings go

With Otter, recordings and transcripts are stored in Otter's cloud, in Amazon S3 with AES-256 server-side encryption. Otter has a SOC 2 Type 2 report and says it follows GDPR and HIPAA requirements. It uses de-identified data to train its own models.

With Barside, speech turns into text on your computer. The call audio and the transcript are saved in your note, in your own library, and nothing is uploaded. The internet is used only in these cases:

• The speech engine is downloaded once from GitHub, and its model from Hugging Face.
• When you run Meeting follow-through or ask your library a question, the matching text goes to the AI company you connected, and its data policy applies. You can leave any workspace or note out of Library AI in Library → Sources.
• In a Barside video meeting, captions go only to the people in the meeting. Video, sound and captions never pass through Barside's servers.

Barside does not encrypt your notes or ordinary ZIP backups, so keep your computer and backups safe. Computer audio includes every sound the computer plays, so close other audio before a call, and always tell people you are recording. The privacy guide covers recordings and transcripts, and how meetings handle your data has its own section.

Where Otter.ai is better

Otter does several things Barside does not attempt. Choose Otter if they matter to you.

• It goes to meetings for you. Otter's agent joins Zoom, Teams and Google Meet, writes the notes and shares them. Barside only transcribes calls on a computer where it is running.
• Speaker names. Otter recognizes speakers. On calls in other apps, Barside can only tell your microphone from computer audio, and in a room with one microphone, every line is You.
• A live transcript. Otter's transcript appears as people talk. Barside's appears every 30 seconds.
• Files and phones. Otter transcribes audio and video files you import, records in-person conversations, and has iPhone and Android apps. Barside is a desktop app, and it cannot turn an audio file into a transcript.
• Subtitles. Paid plans export SRT captions for videos.
• Teams and sales tools. Admin features on Business, SSO and SCIM on Enterprise, CRM integrations, and specialized agents for sales, recruiting and education.
• The Mac. Otter has a Mac app today. ## How to move from Otter.ai to Barside

Barside has no Otter importer, but Otter's exports are ordinary files that Barside reads.

1. In Otter, open a conversation, click the three dots at the top, and choose Export. Basic exports TXT; paid plans also export DOCX and PDF. Choose whether to include speaker names and timestamps. On Business and higher plans, you can bulk export many conversations at once.
2. Put the files in one folder, or in a ZIP.
3. In Barside, open Settings → Import notes, choose Other files, then Choose files, and pick the TXT or DOCX files or the ZIP.
4. Check the preview, choose a new or existing workspace, and import. Each file becomes a note. The files are read on your computer, and nothing is uploaded.
5. Open Meeting follow-through on the conversations that still need action, or ask across all of them with AI search. Answers cite the notes they came from.

Keep your Otter account until you have exported everything you need. From then on, start new calls with Transcribe a call.

Tips for better transcripts in Barside

• Wear headphones. Barside labels each line by which channel is louder, your microphone or the computer's sound. Without headphones, a quiet reply right when the speaker changes can get the other label.
• Silence other audio. Computer audio includes music, videos and notification sounds.
• Pick the language. If a call is in one language, choose it under Speech language; use automatic detection when calls vary.
• Use Barside's own meetings for names. For your own calls of up to 6 people, hold a Barside video meeting and turn on captions. Each person's Barside writes down that person's words on their own computer, and the meeting note records who said each line. Meetings use the free Spaces sign-in (Google or an email code). Guests can join from a browser at barside.space/join; they see the captions, but their own words are captioned only in the app.
• Let the agent prepare the follow-up. Turn on After each call transcript, prepare a follow-up in Agents & approvals → Meeting. After each call, it proposes a checklist, reminders and a recap email, and each one waits for your approval. See AI agents that ask before they act.

Who should switch, and who should stay

Barside is a good fit if you:

• keep hitting Otter's minute or conversation limits;
• want transcription that runs on your computer, with the audio kept in your own library;
• hold calls in a language Barside transcribes and Otter does not, such as Portuguese, Korean or Polish;
• use Windows or Linux (or a Mac) and want transcripts next to your notes, tasks and reminders;
• prefer to approve every task, reminder and email before anything happens.

Stay with Otter if you:

• want a notetaker that joins meetings for you and shares notes automatically;
• need speaker names, a live transcript, or SRT subtitles;
• transcribe recorded files or in-person conversations on your phone;
• need CRM integrations, SSO and admin controls for a sales or support team;
• work on a Mac.

Other Otter.ai alternatives worth a look

• Granola. Listens through your computer's audio with no bot, and writes notes from your own jottings and the transcript. Basic is free with 30 days of meeting history; Business is US$14 per user a month. Read the Granola alternative guide.
• Fathom. A free plan that does not cap recordings or transcripts, with a bot or, in a beta for the Mac, without one. Premium is US$20 a month, or US$16 a month billed annually.

For more options, see the best transcription apps and the best AI meeting assistants. If you also want to replace your video calls, read the Zoom alternative guide.

Works well with transcripts