Fireflies vs Otter in a nutshell
If you’re reading this article, I assume you’re looking for a solution to transcribe your meetings, and maybe record them. For that, Fireflies and Otter are two interesting options. Let’s explore them more in detail.
What is Otter.ai ?
Otter.ai is an AI transcription tool. You can use it with your online meetings or interviews and it will automatically transcribe everything that’s said during it. It’s pretty useful as you don’t have to bother with taking notes, Otter does it for you!
What is Fireflies.ai ?
Fireflies is an AI meeting assistant. Just like Otter, it can transcribe your meetings, but it can also do more and be your assistant for many tasks related to meetings. Fireflies offers features like meeting recording, meeting summary, meeting notes collaboration etc…
What are the key differences between Fireflies and Otter?
I think you’ve understood it, the main difference between Fireflies and Otter is that they’re not the same kind of tool. Fireflies is an AI meeting assistant while Otter is a pure transcription tool.
So if you’re looking for transcription features only, Otter might be the right solution for you. If you’re looking for a more advanced tool to help you increase your productivity, Fireflies will certainly be more interesting for you.
But Claap may be even more interesting. Claap is an AI meeting assistant which offers way more than Fireflies if you’re looking to increase your productivity. But we’re going to see it more in detail in the rest of the article.
Fireflies vs Otter: which one is the best option?
Even though Fireflies and Otter are two different tools by nature, they still offer the same kind of features. So it’s easy to compare them! Here are the aspects we will evaluate, for each of the two tools, to help you determine which one is the better option:
- Transcription capabilities: The tools’ ability to transcribe accurately, handle multiple languages, from various sources…
- Recording functions: The tools’ ability to record meetings efficiently.
- AI and Summary options: The tools’ ability to summarize and analyze meetings using AI.
- Collaborative features: The tools’ collaborative features at disposal to enhance teamwork and cooperation.
- Pricing: the price and different plans offered for the two tools.
Transcription capabilities
It’s certainly the main feature you’re looking for. There are many aspects to look at to evaluate the transcription capabilities of a tool. Let’s do it together
Transcription accuracy
Transcription accuracy is the first thing you need to look at. You should be able to know what exactly happened in the meeting without even participating, so you definitely don’t want a transcript full of mistakes.
Here, Fireflies and Otter have very similar performances, with a reported accuracy of 90% for Fireflies and between 85 and 95% for Otter.
If these figures are not sufficient for you, I would advise you to check Claap, a tool able to transcribe meetings with a word error rate as low as 1%. You won’t find anything better.
Languages supported
If you conduct meetings in a language other than English, you might want to choose Fireflies as it supports more than 60 languages. Otter will not be appropriate for you as it’s only able to transcribe meetings held in English.
But maybe you speak a language not even supported by Fireflies! Don’t worry, you can opt for the actual champion of this category: Claap which supports more than 99 different languages!
Live transcription
Otter offers a live transcription feature which allows you to transcribe your meetings in real-time. Fireflies does not offer this possibility. So if you’re looking for live transcription, Otter might be the best solution for you.
Still looking for an AI meeting assistant able to transcribe your meetings in real time? Claap is there for you!
Speaker labels
It’s always better to have the names of the different speakers in your transcripts. It helps you gain time as you will not have to write them yourself, and it also gives you more complete transcripts.
Here, Fireflies has the edge as it automatically writes the names of the speakers in the transcripts, while Otter is unable to do it. Another tool capable of that is Claap.
Transcription bot
For both Fireflies and Otter, you will have to invite a bot in your meeting to transcribe it. If you want to do it more discreetly, you can use Claap: no more transcription bot!
Recording functions
As the transcriptions are never 100% accurate, the ability to record meetings is central. It ensures that no valuable insights or discussions are missed! But do the tools have equal capabilities in this regard?
Audio Recording
Both tools offer to record the audio of your meetings. So you’ll have to choose your preferred tool by looking at their other features!
Video recording
Sometimes, the audio is not enough to understand the subtleties of a meeting. So you may want the video recording of your meetings. If you do, Fireflies is the best option for you as Otter can’t record videos. Note that Claap is also a viable option to video record your meetings.
Platforms compatibility
If you are using Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams, you can choose Fireflies or Otter indifferently as both tools are compatible with the 3 platforms. However, if you’re using another video conference platform such as Webex, GoToMeeting or Skype, Fireflies is the option that will better suit your needs.
AI and Summary options
Transcription and recording features are the bare minimum you should expect from this kind of tool. A GREAT tool will have powerful AI features to summarize and/or analyze your notes.
Otter has pretty basic AI features. It captures key moments of the meeting to help you understand it in a minute. It also offers a functionality called Highlight Summaries but you have to manually highlight certain parts of the conversation to add them to your summary.
In my opinion, Fireflies offers more interesting features. Just like Otter, it captures key moments of the meeting but then creates a personalized summary, following your guidelines. For instance you can ask Fireflies to list the 10 keywords that best describe your meeting or list the action items using bullet points!
If you are looking for an AI meeting assistant with powerful summary features, you should check Claap. Claap is able to summarize your meetings, not only following your guidelines but literally filling your template! Just indicate which kind of takeaways you want and Claap will deliver!
Collaborative features
Otter and Fireflies are tools that can drastically increase your productivity, notably thanks to powerful collaborative features. But which of these 2 tools has the most interesting features? Let’s see that together!
Sharing options
Otter only allows you to send your meeting transcripts by email after the meeting. On the other hand, Fireflies allows you to share your recordings and transcripts on workspaces to make them available to your teammates.
Claap also offers intuitive workspaces where your teammates can easily interact with your recordings.
Interaction capabilities
Otter and Fireflies are quite different when it comes to collaborative features.
If you’re looking for real-time collaboration, then you might be interested in Otter, as it’s the only tool allowing this kind of collaboration. Basically, all the participants have access to the live transcript and can correct or react to what is being said.
If you’re looking for more advanced collaboration, you might want to check Fireflies. Fireflies allows you to comment and react to the recordings/transcripts in your workspaces, which facilitates collaboration and teamwork.
However, in my opinion, the best collaborative tool is Claap. Otter and, to a lesser extent, Fireflies were primarily designed for individual users that want to take notes during meetings. Claap has always been designed for users, teams and organizations.
With Claap, your teammates can comment and react to your recordings. But they can even do it with a specific part of the video. It’s ideal if you want to ask a question about a specific part of a slide for instance.
In short, Claap is more than just a transcription tool. It's a game-changer that will disrupt and elevate your working methods.
Pricing
I wouldn't recommend making your choice solely based on price. You should think about your potential productivity gains and how much money you can save/generate with that. The price is still a crucial factor to consider. So here is an overview of the pricing and plans offered by Otter and Fireflies:
Pricing and plans offered by Otter
- Basic: Free with 300 monthly transcription minutes, 30 min limit per conversation, and 3 audio or video imports.
- Pro: $10/month per user with 1200 monthly transcription minutes, 90 min limit per conversation, and 10 audio or video imports per month
- Business: $20/month per user with 6000 monthly transcription minutes, 4 hours limit per conversation, and unlimited audio or video imports
- Enterprise: Custom
Pricing and plans offered by Fireflies
- Free: with limited transcription credits and 800 min storage of recordings
- Pro: $10/month per user with unlimited transcription credits, 8000 min storage of recordings and features like AI Super Summaries
- Business: $19/month per user with unlimited transcription credits, unlimited storage of recordings and other features like video screen capture
- Enterprise: Custom
And what about Claap?
- Free: Free with 10 min of meeting recording per video and an upload limit of 10 videos.
- Basic Recorder: $10/month per user with 30 min of meeting recording per video and unlimited videos upload/storage.
- Power Recorder: $30/month per user with unlimited recording time and unlimited videos upload/storage + access to AI features.
- Enterprise: Custom
If you're eager to explore Claap's paid features but have reservations about making a financial commitment, we've got you covered. Claap offers a 14-day free trial that grants you unlimited access to all premium features at no cost.
In conclusion: what is the best option between Fireflies and Otter?
Your decision will depend on your use case
Fireflies and Otter are two strong options if you’re looking for a transcription tool.
I would recommend choosing Otter if you:
- Have meetings exclusively in English
- Are only interested in the transcription feature
- May need a live transcription of your meetings
Otherwise, I would advise you to use an AI meeting assistant like Fireflies. You will have access to more advanced features and be able to further increase your productivity. And I mentioned Fireflies, but in my opinion, the tool you should use is Claap.
Revolutionize your meetings with Claap
You should by now be familiar with Claap, as I have discussed it throughout the article. But it's for your own good! I don't want you to miss out on THE tool that will take you to another level.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of Claap's capabilities:
- Audio and video transcription: Claap effortlessly generates automatic meeting notes using its audio and video transcription capabilities.
- Meeting recording: Claap entirely records the meetings held on Zoom and Google Meet.
- AI Summary : Claap summarizes and structures your notes the way you want it, so you can have access to the key elements of a meeting at a glance.
- Collaborative features: Claap allows you to collaborate differently with the possibility to interact with specific parts of the screen in the recording.
- Video wiki: Claap enables you to store your videos and go through them easily thanks to powerful search features.
But Claap is more than a simple AI meeting assistant. Claap is an asynchronous meeting tool. With its screen recording feature, you can create claaps: 2 to 5 minutes videos that replace your traditional meetings.
With Claap, you will never have to find a 30 minutes (or a 1 hour) slot to present your findings again. You take 5 minutes to record a claap, you publish it on your workspaces, your teammates can comment, react and ask their questions. And you and your teammates just saved a very precious time.
This was just an example. There are infinite ways to increase your productivity using Claap. Discover them by trying Claap yourself! (Free plan available with no credit card required)
