Fireflies searchers are after cheaper per-seat pricing, longer retention, or a notetaker that does not require a bot to join the call.
Check the retention window on the free and entry tiers, not the monthly minutes. Archives get deleted quietly and nobody notices until they search.
Side by side
| Tool | Pricing | Best for | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Otter.ai | Freemium | A sales or project manager in back-to-back calls who needs searchable notes without typing. | Web, iOS, Android |
| tl;dv | Freemium | A team that wants meeting recording and search without a per-minute budget. | Web, Zoom, Teams |
| Sembly AI | Paid | A project team that wants meeting outcomes tracked as tasks rather than paragraphs. | Web, Zoom, Teams |
The options, and what each one costs you
- Better if
- A sales or project manager in back-to-back calls who needs searchable notes without typing.
- You give up
- The free tier's monthly minutes disappear fast, accuracy drops sharply with accents, crosstalk, or bad audio, and the summaries need checking before you forward them.
- Better if
- A team that wants meeting recording and search without a per-minute budget.
- You give up
- The free plan is unlimited where it is cheap and metered where it matters: ten AI notes and five Ask AI queries, then the upgrade prompt.
- Better if
- A project team that wants meeting outcomes tracked as tasks rather than paragraphs.
- You give up
- Transcription accuracy is mid-pack, and the structured output is only as good as the transcript — task extraction misses anything said off-script.
Frequently asked
What is the best alternative to Fireflies.ai?
It depends on what you are leaving for. Check the retention window on the free and entry tiers, not the monthly minutes. Archives get deleted quietly and nobody notices until they search. Our closest match on features and price is Otter.ai.
Is there a free alternative to Fireflies.ai?
Otter.ai is free to start. tl;dv is free to start.
How much does switching from Fireflies.ai cost?
Migration is usually the expensive part, not the licence: exports rarely preserve permissions, history or automations. Budget a day per active workspace for anything with a database in it.
How we picked
Every tool here is in our AI Tools directory, which means we have used it and written down where it falls short. Nothing on this page is sponsored, and the order is not for sale.