Fireflies and Otter are similar: both record your meetings, transcribe them and turn them into searchable notes. But Fireflies targets teams with deep integrations, while Otter focuses on speed and simplicity. Which one suits you?
Fireflies in brief
Fireflies is an AI notetaker that automatically attends, records and transcribes your meetings. The tool sends a bot to your Zoom, Teams or Meet meetings, creates transcripts and generates summaries. What sets Fireflies apart is its focus on teamwork: integrations with CRM systems like HubSpot and Salesforce are extensive, and you can ask questions about multiple meetings at once via AskFred. The tool also offers AI Apps that let you create custom prompts for specific workflows. Fireflies works on all platforms and now also supports video recording.
Otter in brief
Otter is an AI assistant that transcribes and summarizes meetings, with a strong focus on real-time listening. The tool excels in transcription accuracy for English and has an excellent mobile app for recording in-person conversations. OtterPilot automatically joins your online meetings and generates action items. A handy feature: Otter automatically takes screenshots of presentation slides and adds them to the transcript. The interface is simple and clean, making the tool accessible for beginners.
Fireflies vs Otter: the differences
The biggest difference lies in the target audience. Fireflies is built for teams that want to connect their meeting data to other tools. The CRM integrations are much more extensive than Otter’s: you can automatically sync contacts, update deals, and send summaries to Slack. With the AI Apps feature, you create custom extractors that pull specific information from meetings, such as budget amounts or decision points. Otter keeps it simpler and focuses on the core: transcribing and summarizing, without many external integrations.
The transcription accuracy differs subtly. Users report that Otter often transcribes English more naturally and handles different English accents better. Fireflies has more difficulty with jargon and non-standard pronunciation. But Fireflies compensates for this with better speaker recognition in structured meetings. Otter recently added French and Spanish, while Fireflies continues to focus on English with plans for more languages.
The free plans differ significantly. Fireflies offers unlimited transcription with 800 minutes of storage, but limits AI summaries and blocks CRM integrations. Otter gives you 300 transcription minutes per month with a maximum of 30 minutes per conversation. The biggest criticism of Otter: old recordings are blocked if you don’t pay. You can no longer view your historical data without upgrading. Fireflies keeps your old transcripts accessible.
Video recording is where Fireflies has an edge. The tool can capture both audio and video, though that feature is in the more expensive Business plan. Otter does audio only. For teams that want to preserve visual context, that’s relevant. On the other hand, Otter’s real-time transcription works more smoothly: you see the transcript scrolling live during the meeting, which is nice if you want to read along during the conversation.
A practical difference: the meeting bot. Both tools send a virtual participant to your meetings. Fireflies’ bot is perceived by some users as intrusive and is difficult to permanently remove. Otter has a different problem: the tool sends unsolicited invitations to your contacts with messages like “XYZ wants you to join Otter”. That’s experienced by many users as spam. So both tools have their own annoyance factor here.
Pricing compared
Fireflies starts at €10 per month for the Pro plan with annual payment, or €18 per month if you pay monthly. That plan gives you unlimited transcription, AI summaries, and basic integrations. For video recording and unlimited storage, you need the Business plan: €19 per month annually, €29 monthly.
Otter is slightly cheaper at €8.33 per month for the Pro plan with annual prepayment, or €16.99 monthly. The Business plan costs €20 per month annually or €30 monthly. On paper, Otter seems more affordable, but watch out for the limits: the Pro plan gives you 1,200 minutes per month, while Fireflies Pro is unlimited. For teams with many meetings, Fireflies can ultimately be cheaper.
Fireflies’ free plan is more generous if you only need transcription. Unlimited transcribing with 800 minutes of storage beats Otter’s 300 minutes per month. But Otter’s free plan does give access to basic AI summaries, while Fireflies puts those behind the paywall. So the question is: do you need more transcription volume, or AI features?
Conclusion
Fireflies wins for teams that want to integrate meetings into their workflow. The CRM integrations, Slack notifications, and AI Apps make it more powerful for business use. The free plan is also more generous in terms of transcription volume. Otter is better for solo users who simply want fast, accurate transcriptions, especially via the mobile app. The real-time transcription and better English accuracy are plus points. But the aggressive growth tactics and blocking of old data on the free plan are major downsides. For most teams, Fireflies is the better choice because of the integrations and more fair free plan. Otter remains relevant for individual users who prioritize transcription quality over team features.
