Otter is the best known name in meeting transcription, and it is genuinely good at transcribing. But a bot called Otter.ai Notetaker appears in your participant list, and what you get back is words, not the meeting.
Short answer: pick Otter if you want live captions appearing while people are talking, and a transcript is all you need. Pick Jotted if you do not want a bot announcing itself in your client calls, and if you want the video kept, not just the words.
The practical difference: Otter needs its bot to be allowed into the meeting. Jotted records your own screen, so it works in any call on any platform, including ones where outside bots are blocked.
Your prospect sees a bot join before you have said hello. On a first call with someone who is already unsure about the meeting, it changes the room.
Half of a client call is what was on screen. The design, the spreadsheet, the thing you pointed at. A transcript cannot show any of it.
More companies are blocking meeting bots from outside tools. When the bot cannot join, you get nothing at all.
| Jotted | Otter.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Bot joins the call | Never | Yes, visible in the participant list |
| Keeps the full video | Yes, screen and audio | No, transcription focused |
| Works when the other side blocks bots | Yes, it records your own screen | No, the bot cannot join |
| Recording length limit | None, on any plan | Paid plan capped around 1,200 recording minutes a month |
| Transcript on the free plan | Every word, done on your own computer | Limited minutes |
| Live captions during the call | No, everything is after the call | Yes |
| Files kept on your own computer | Always, on every plan | Cloud based |
| Price, billed monthly | Free, or $14 | From $16.99 per user |
| Monthly usage cap on the paid plan | None | Around 1,200 recording minutes and 10 file imports |
Prices checked July 2026 and quoted on monthly billing, not the cheaper annual rate. Tools change their plans often, so check Otter.ai's own pricing page before you decide.
Otter is the better choice if you want live captions during the meeting, which Jotted does not offer. It is also better if you need transcription of things that are not meetings at all, like an in-person interview or a lecture recorded on a phone.
And if you have never had a client comment on the bot, and you genuinely only ever need the words, Otter does that job well and has done for years.
On price, Otter starts at $16.99 per user a month against Jotted's $14, and that paid plan is capped at roughly 1,200 recording minutes a month with a limit on file imports. Jotted has no minute cap on any plan, including the free one.
Otter has been doing this the longest and its live transcription is genuinely polished. Words appear as people talk, which is useful if you are following along or trying to catch something you missed. Jotted does not do that, on purpose. Everything happens after the call.
What Otter cannot do is keep the meeting itself. It is built around text. If a client walked you through a spreadsheet, or you demoed something on screen, the transcript will tell you words were said and nothing about what was being shown.
The bot is the other half. Otter.ai Notetaker joins as a participant and everyone sees it. Some people do not care. Some clients ask about it. And a growing number of companies now block outside meeting bots entirely, which means the recording simply does not happen.
Jotted records from your desktop, the way a screen recorder does. Nothing joins, nothing appears in the list, and it works the same in Zoom, Meet, Teams, Webex or anything else, because it is not integrating with the platform at all.
Yes. A participant named Otter.ai Notetaker joins the call and is visible to everyone in it. Jotted records from your own computer instead, so nothing joins and nothing appears in the participant list.
Otter is built around transcription rather than video. If you need to see what was on screen during the call, that is the main reason people look for an alternative.
Any bot-based notetaker fails, because the bot is not allowed in. Jotted keeps working, because it records your own screen and never asks the meeting platform for anything.
Yes, and it stays free. Unlimited recordings of any length, with every word transcribed on your own computer. No card, no trial clock, no watermark.
Yes. Transcription runs on your own machine, so it is free forever. The free plan labels your side and everyone else. Pro puts real names on the speakers and adds the summary and action items.
Record free forever, no card and no bot. Join the waitlist and you'll be first in.
Free forever plan · Unlimited recordings · No bot, ever