From Speech to Text: 8 Best Transcription Tools in 2024

Transcription of audio content into written text has become a crucial issue in many fields. Today, no one can imagine wasting hours transcribing audio or video content into text. And you're right not to try - that's what transcription tools are for!

Transcription tools will help you from transcribing notes, conferences or business meetings, to transcribing video content for the hearing impaired. Voice-to-text transcription software saves a considerable amount of time.

In this article, we take a look at the best transcription tools available at the end of 2023. This article follows our article on the best AI transcription tools, which helped you find the tool best suited to your needs. Here, we'll take a look at a few more of the options available to you

What is AI transcription?

Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the way we live and work. One of the most concrete applications of AI and one of its friends, natural language processing, is the transcription of audio and video content. 

Transcription of audio content into written text has become a crucial issue in many fields. Today, no one can imagine wasting hours transcribing audio or video content into text…  

This ranges from transcribing notes, conferences or business meetings, to transcribing video content for the hearing impaired. Voice-to-text transcription software saves a considerable amount of time.

How does AI transcription work?

Gone are the days of the scribe, and today it's technology that relieves us of the time-consuming task of transcription. By the way, how exactly does it work?

• Audio and video processing: The AI system analyzes audio or video data and then isolates the words people are saying to separate them from any background noise;
• Speech recognition: Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) is employed to convert the detected spoken words into written text. This includes recognizing various speech patterns such as languages, accents, and specialized terminology;
• Use of Natural Language Processing (NLP): NLP is applied to enhance the transcription's accuracy by understanding the context, nuances, and grammatical structure of the language. This step ensures a more comprehensive interpretation of the spoken content;
• Output generation: The system produces a written transcript of the audio or video as its output. It may also offer advanced features like speaker identification, sentiment analysis or topic identification.

Main criteria for choosing a transcription tool

There are so many transcription tools on the market that it's hard to know where to turn. Let's try to get our heads around the criteria for choosing a transcription tool that meets your needs.

Accuracy

The number one criterion for a transcription tool... is that it transcribes your content correctly. Otherwise, it won't be of much use to you.

For instance, if your need is to transcribe video to text, having a high degree of accuracy is essential. In this case, the transcription tool must be capable of accurately converting spoken words from the video into written form. Any misinterpretation or distortion of the data could lead to misunderstanding or misinformation.

You need to check if the tool has a reputation for not messing up your words, especially if you've got fancy accents or some business jargon.

Ease of use

No one wants to deal with a tool that's as confusing as assembling IKEA furniture. Look for a user-friendly transcription tool, where you can just dive in without needing a PhD in tech.

Speed of the transcription

Time is money. So, a tool that can hustle and transcribe stuff quickly without making you wait is essentiel. Rapid transcriptions will save you time and increase your productivity.

Cost vs. Features ratio

You don't want to break the bank, but you also don't want a tool that's as basic as a toaster. You’ll want to Find a balance between cost and the features you need. You’ll have to consider your budget and compare the pricing models of different transcription tools. 

You'll find transcription tools to suit every budget.Some tools offer subscription plans, pay-as-you-go options, or free trials.

Adaptability to your formats and uses

Life is unpredictable, and so are your transcription needs. According to your needs, find a tool that can handle different audio and video formats or various languages.

And if you want to flirt with the possibilities offered by conversation intelligence softwares, maybe you’ll want your tool to feature speaker identification or sentiment analysis.

Integration with your existing tools

Ensure that the transcription tool you pick integrates seamlessly with the tools and platforms you currently use. Whether it's video conferencing software, project management tools, or cloud storage platforms, compatibility is essential for a smooth workflow.

Collaboration features

If you're working in a team, consider tools that offer collaboration features. This may include the ability to share transcripts, assign tasks, or collaborate in real-time.

Scalability

If you anticipate increased transcription needs in the future, choose a tool that scales well with your growing workflow. Scalability ensures that the tool can continue to integrate effectively as your requirements evolve.

Security and privacy

Obviously, you don't want all your transcribed content to end up in the wild. You want them protected. Check if the tool you’re about to pick is serious about keeping your data private and not sharing it with the whole internet.

8 best transcription tools [2024]

1. Claap: best overall for transcription, meeting recording, screen recording and all-in-one video workspace
2. Descript: best for content creation (video/podcast)
3. Trint: the tool to boost your SEO
4. Fireflies: your meeting assistant
5. Otter: AI assistant taking notes for you
6. Rev.com: the tool that puts a human touch to transcription
7. Sonix: best if you use industry-specific jargon
8. Beey: makes life easier for journalists

1. Claap: best overall for transcription, meeting recording, screen recording and all-in-one video workspace

Claap meets all your transcription needs and goes even further with its AI-powered summaries. With Claap, turn a 1-hour customer call into an actionable list of feedback, confirm what you promised to follow up with after a sales call, or get a summary of next steps from your product roadmap sessions, all in seconds.

Best features

• Meeting Recording: With Claap, record your meetings and keep a written track of them thanks to automatic transcripts in over 99 languages. Claap supercharges your meetings with AI-powered summaries and notes according to your desired templates;
• Screen Recording: Claap helps you record quick video of your screen and uses the transcript to help you create the most engaging video allowing you to record your webcam, or use the transcript to edit your video;
• All-in-one collaborative workspace: Claap lets you organize all videos in a centralized video workspace divided into teams and channels, just like a wiki. You’ll be able to find back videos or specific quotes thanks to video transcripts. Alternatively you can push videos and add your transcripts to a Notion database. This will be useful if your goal is to use the transcript for content creation.

Weaknesses

• Claap only support video files
• Transcripts can’t be translated into other languages

Which type of user?

Claap adapts to all your business needs, and is particularly well suited to startups and tech companies. Fast-growing start-ups such as Revolut and Qonto, as well as smaller ones such as Surfe or Figures, have all placed their trust in us.

Pricing

• Free Plan: It includes 10 min of meeting recording per video and 10 videos;
• Basic Recorder: $10/month per user with 30 min of meeting recording per video, video editing, 99-language transcript, video insights;
• Power Recorder: $30/month per user with access to all AI features (automated zoom recording, AI-powered summaries, AI copilot, speaker insights);
• Enterprise: Contact Claap to see how the software can be tailored to your needs.

Explore Claap's premium features with confidence! Enjoy a 14-day free trial, no credit card required.

2. Descript: best for content creation (video/podcast)

Descript streamlines the management of audio and video materials by automatically transcribing your recordings, enabling seamless editing in a text document format. This user-friendly platform not only simplifies transcription but also revolutionizes content creation.

Best features

• Adaptability to various audio and video formats;
• Accurate transcription: advanced speech recognition (even for different speech patterns and dialects). Descript also offers a service (White Glove service) to deliver up to 99% accuracy in an average of 24 hours with Professional transcriptionists;
• Simple and powerful audio and video editing (green screen, stock media, effects and transitions…);
• Easy content transformation for various platforms;
• Studio sound: Descript transforms lousy recordings into studio quality with a single click;
• Filler word removal: Instantly purge recordings of "um" and "uh" and "you know" and all those repeat words;
• AI voices: create a realistic clone of your voice;
• Multi-language support (23 languages).

Weaknesses

• May require a learning curve for advanced editing features;
• Limited functionalities in the free version compared to premium plans and limited transcription hours, even with the first paying plan (10 hour/month/user);
• Manual transcription (white glove service) is to be paid as a supplement ($2/minute).

Which type of user?

Descript is mainly dedicated to content creators, especially podcasts and videos. The platform aims to revolutionize the creation of this type of content. Descript is also aimed at marketing content creators, supporting them in in-house video marketing creation.

Pricing

• Free plan including 1 hour/month of transcription;
• Creator plan at $12/user/month including 10 hour/month/editor of transcription;
• Pro plan at $24/user/month including 30 hour/month/editor of transcription and unlimited access to AI tools;
• Enterprise, you need to contact Descript.

3. Trint: the tool to boost your SEO

Trint stands out as the preferred option if you’re building a business primarily centered around video content. You can incorporate searchable captions into videos, making Trint a priceless tool for SEO and therefore increasing traffic to your website.

Best features

• Powerful search feature;
• Closed captions and AI translation in 50+ languages. The caption editor turns transcripts into editable captions for videos in whatever language you like. This will boost your SEO;
• Easy to edit your transcripts: Verify, edit, playback and search transcripts just like a text doc. Editorial tools help you create articles, podcasts, scripts and soundbites;
• 99% of accuracy in transcriptions;
• Multi-language transcription (40+ languages available);
• Collaborative workspace where your teams can add comments, tags and provide feedback in real-time;
• Centralized video library secured (ISO 27001 certification);
• Manageable privacy settings.

Weaknesses

• No free plan;
• More expensive than other transcription tools. The first paying plan is about $60/user/month with only 7 files to be transcribed;
• May require additional editing for highly technical or specialized content.

Which type of user?

Trint is designed for the media world, with its roots founded by Emmy Award-winning reporter Jeff Kofman. As an AI-powered SaaS platform, Trint serves newsrooms, podcasters, local businesses, and global organizations, offering more than just transcription. 

From editorial tools to real-time collaboration and easy export, Trint streamlines the content creation workflow for content creators.

Pricing

• Starter plan at $60/user/month with 7 files per month to transcribe and edit;
• Advanced plan at $75/user/month with unlimited transcription;
• Enterprise, you need to contact Trint.

4. Fireflies: your meeting assistant

Fireflies is firstly designed to turn your meetings into an automated knowledge base. Fireflies features screen recording, conversation intelligence, collaboration and, of course, audio and video transcription. 

Best features

• Meeting assistant: Fireflies connect your calendar to your meeting events thanks to its video conferencing bot and provide you with many workflows to streamline your work;
• Highly accurate transcription quality as the system is trained specifically for conversation and meetings across different industries and accents. Fireflies offers 90% accuracy for most meetings;
• Multi-language support: transcription in 60+ languages
• Powerful search capabilities: Fireflies helps you search keywords, topics, action items, dates, time, metrics, questions and more;
• Conversation intelligence features: topic trackers, sentiment analysis;
• Integration with 39 of your favorite work apps (Slack, Notion, Zoom…);
• Collaborative features: reactions, comments, threads, soundbites, embed features.

Weaknesses

• Transcript accuracy could be improved;
• AI-summaries and action items may be slightly inconsistent.

Which type of user?

Fireflies targets the market of small to medium-sized businesses. Fireflies is highly adaptable to all industries, as it is trained on a variety of conversations in many sectors. If you're aspiring for business growth and transitioning to a different category, Fireflies is a good pick.

Pricing

• Free plan with limited transcription credits and 800 mins of storage/user
• Pro plan at $18/user/month with unlimited transcription credits and 8,000 mins of storage/user. AI features (AI summaries and apps) start with the pro plan;
• Business plan at $29/user/month with unlimited transcription credits and unlimited storage;
• Enterprise, you need to contact Fireflies.

5. Otter: AI assistant taking notes for you

Otter.ai provides live, automatic transcription services for individuals and businesses. It's a good tool for live note-taking during lectures or creating written transcriptions for business meetings. It also allows quick transcription of existing audio or video files.

Best features

• Several integrations with your favorite apps (Google workspace, Microsoft suite, Zoom…);
• Speech-to-text transcription in real-time during the meeting;
• Otter records the audio of meetings and Otter assistant takes notes in real-time during the meeting;
• Otter captures slides or documents shared during the meetings and add them to your notes;
• Takeaway panel to highlight key points of the meeting summarized thanks to AI-powered summaries;
• Collaborative workspace where you can comment, tag your colleagues and start working on video content;
• Conversation intelligence features for sales teams such as coaching possibilities, visibility on the deal pipeline, speaker identification, automation of administrative tasks and call insights;
• Real-time captions.

Weaknesses

• No screen recording;
• No video wiki;
• No automated AI meeting notes;
• Only offers transcriptions and capionning in English.

Which type of user?

Otter caters to two different audiences. You can use Otter if you're a student for your lectures. As a student, you'll appreciate Otter's ability to add information from course slides to your notes.

Otter is also designed for business and mainly addresses 3 needs: general business needs that require taking notes during meetings, sales teams needs and media creation needs. Otter is a good pick if you look for real-time transcription during meetings.

Pricing

• Free plan with AI meeting assistant records, transcription and summaries generation. The free plan supports 300 min of transcription per month and 30 minutes per conversation;
• Pro plan at $10/user/month with 1,200 min of transcription per month, 90 minutes per conversation and team features unlocked;
• Business plan at $20/user/month with 6,000 min of transcription per month, 4 hours per conversation;
• Enterprise, you need to contact Otter.

And if you need more points of comparison with Otter, we've put together our top 5 Otter alternatives in another article.

6. Rev: the tool that puts a human touch to transcription

Rev offers human-generated transcription services. It's (almost) an exception in this ranking, so much so that today's tools are based on AI. Your files are quickly transcribed by professional transcription experts with 99% of accuracy.

Best features

• Human transcription: your audio and video files are transcribed into text with 99% accuracy by transcription experts. Rev's transcription experts are perfectly suited to your industry. Rev is particularly popular with legal professionals;
• Captions: add English captions on your videos;
• Translated subtitles: add translated on-screen subtitles to your videos with 99% accuracy;
• AI-powered transcription (90+% accurate)

Weaknesses

• For human transcription, you have to wait for your transcripts (usually around 5 to 12 hours);
• Human transcription is more expensive than AI transcription;
• There is no intermediary plan between pay-per-minute services and business plan;
• Collaborative features are limited.

Which type of user?

Experts in jargon-intensive sectors (lawyers, researchers, scientists) appreciate Rev for the human quality of the transcription. Rev is also a good pick if you have occasional transcription needs. If your transcription needs are large and time-critical, Rev may not be the best choice due to cost and turnaround time.

Pricing

• Human transcription: $1.50 per minute
• English  closed captions: $1.50 per minute
• Global translated subtitles: $5-12 per minute
• AI transcription: $0.25 per minute
• Rev for business: for customers that need 100+ hours of transcripts, captions or subtitles annually. You need to contact Rev

7. Sonix: best if you use industry-specific jargon

Sonix AI excels in transforming spoken language into written text using cutting-edge automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology. By analyzing audio recordings, it accurately identifies spoken words and transcribes them with precision, showcasing its advanced capabilities in converting speech to text.

Best features

• In-browser and automated transcript editor;
• Word-by-word timestamps: this way you can follow what was said exactly when it was said;
• Multi-language support (38+ languages);
• Speaker labeling in the transcripts. Sonix also identifies each speaker;
• Notes and commenting on the transcript;
• Create your own dictionary (super useful if you use a lot of jargon);
• Text and subtitle exports in multiple formats.

Weaknesses

• Less attractive interface compared to some other tools;
• Pricing structure may seem confusing;

Which type of user?

Sonix is a transcription tool tailored for industries immersed in jargon-heavy content. Sonix is ideal for professionals in legal, medical, or technical fields. Sonix’s custom dictionaries where you can add your own terminology, help you capture the nuances of conversations from very specific industries.

Pricing

• Standard pay-as-you go transcription: $10 per hour (ideal for projects)
• Premium subscription: $5/hour plus $22/user/month
• Enterprise subscription: you need to contact Sonix

8. Beey: makes life easier for journalists

Beey offers a great solution for automated transcription and subtitles. Utilizing advanced voice recognition technology, it provides fast and precise transcriptions at an affordable price. The platform includes a user-friendly editor for refining transcripts, exporting in various formats, and effortlessly creating subtitles.

Best features

• Advanced AI voice recognition for speech-to-text transcription. You can convert audio and video to text with 90%+ precision for most English, German and Czech recordings;
• The Beey editor facilitates text editing and formatting of the transcripts;
• You can get in touch with professional proofreaders to check your texts;
• Provide different export formats;
• Create captions, subtitles and translations (20+ languages);
• Collaborative platform to share credit and projects.

Weaknesses

• Playback Limitation: Users noted inconvenience with Beey, as it doesn't support text correction during simultaneous playback;
• Technical vocabulary is not always well transcribed.

Which type of user?

Beey is for all content creators. Beey is popular among journalists for transcribing interviews and archiving recordings. It is also used for TV and radio monitoring.

Pricing

• Free plan
• Beey Standard: €0.125 + VAT per minute (€7.5 per hour) of your audio recording for transcription
• Beey enterprise: contact Beey

Conclusion

The days of monks and scribes are over. Allow yourself to relax your wrists!

Now that you've made your way through this transcription tools list, you should have found what you're looking for for your transcription needs. Let me remind you that, in addition to these transcription features, Claap lets you record screens, meetings and collaborate in a centralized workspace. Go for it!