I tested 7 Plaud AI alternatives to find the best note-taker in 2025

Plaud AI definitely made a splash with its sleek little gadget for AI note-taking. The idea is cool, no doubt: a slim device that records your calls and meetings, then uses AI to write up transcripts and summaries. But once the novelty wears off, you might start wondering if it’s the right tool for the job, especially when you’re paying for the hardware and a monthly subscription.

A lot of folks are looking for Plaud AI alternatives that are more flexible, play nicer with their team, or just don’t require carrying another piece of tech. Maybe you need something that plugs straight into your helpdesk, or maybe the subscription model just doesn’t sit right. If you’re ready to stop just passively recording conversations and start actively getting work done with them, you’re in the right place. We’ve waded through the top options to help you find your perfect match.

What are Plaud AI alternatives?

When we talk about Plaud AI alternatives, we’re looking at more than just voice recorders. At its heart, Plaud captures audio and turns it into text and summaries. So, an alternative is any tool that can do that, and hopefully, a bit more.

These tools generally fall into two camps:

1. Hardware recorders: Like Plaud, these are physical gadgets made for grabbing high-quality audio on the go, usually paired with their own AI software.

2. Software platforms: These are apps that run on your computer or phone. They can join your online meetings or let you upload audio files, and they often pack a bigger punch with AI features built for teamwork and business tasks.

The best one for you really depends on a simple question: do you just want a transcript, or do you want an AI that can actually do things based on what was said?

How we chose the best Plaud AI alternatives

To put together a list that’s actually useful, we sized up each tool against a few key things that matter to professionals and teams. We weren’t just looking for Plaud clones; we wanted tools that solve the core problem of "taking notes" in interesting and powerful ways.

Here’s what we looked for:

• What’s it for? Is it built for your personal notes, for a team to collaborate in real-time, or to automate entire business processes? We wanted a mix.

• Hardware or software? Does it make you buy a special device, or is it a flexible app that works with what you already own?

• How smart is the AI? We checked how deep the AI goes. Does it just give you a summary, or can it spot action items, find trends, draft replies, and kick off workflows?

• Does it play well with others? How well does it connect to tools you already use, like Slack, Zendesk, or Google Docs? A tool that works in a silo just creates more work.

• What’s the real cost? We looked at the total price, including any upfront hardware fees and monthly subscriptions. We gave bonus points for clear, simple pricing.

Plaud AI alternatives comparison

Here’s a quick side-by-side look at our top picks.

Tool	Best For	Starting Price	Hardware Required?
eesel AI	Business & Support Automation	$239/mo (annual)	No
Otter.ai	Real-time Meeting Transcription	Free plan available	No
tl;dv	Sales Coaching & Video Meetings	Free plan available	No
Fireflies.ai	Conversation Intelligence	Free plan available	No
FoCase REC	Affordable Call Recording	$79 (device cost)	Yes
HiDock	Desk-based Hybrid Work	$269 (device cost)	Yes
Your Smartphone	Budget-friendly DIY	Free	No

The top 7 Plaud AI alternatives in 2025

1. eesel AI

While Plaud is handy for capturing your own notes, eesel AI is built for businesses that need to turn conversations into action, automatically. It’s less about recording one meeting and more about handling the thousands of customer support tickets, internal questions, and chatbot messages that pile up every day.

Instead of just handing you a summary, eesel AI connects directly to your helpdesk (like Zendesk or Freshdesk), internal wikis (Confluence, Google Docs), and chat tools (Slack). It reads your past tickets and documents to automate frontline support, draft replies for agents, sort new tickets, and answer internal questions.

It’s what you look for when you realize you don’t just need notes, you need an AI that can do the work.

A workflow showing how eesel AI, a leader among Plaud AI alternatives, automates the entire customer support process from ticket creation to resolution.:

Why it’s a great alternative:

• It does more than just transcribe: eesel AI doesn’t just tell you what was said; its AI Agent takes action. It can answer customer questions on its own, escalate tricky issues, tag tickets correctly, and even look up order information.

• Get started in minutes: Unlike a lot of business software that makes you sit through sales calls and long setup processes, you can get eesel AI up and running yourself in minutes. Just connect your helpdesk with a click.

• Test before you go live: Nervous about letting an AI talk to your customers? I get it. eesel AI has a simulation mode that lets you test it on your past tickets. You can see exactly how it would have performed and what your resolution rate would have been before you turn it on.

• It connects all your knowledge: It learns from everything, your help center, old tickets, macros, and those random documents scattered in Google Drive or Confluence, to give accurate answers that have the right context.

The simulation mode in eesel AI allows users to test the AI's performance on past tickets before going live, a key feature for businesses considering powerful Plaud AI alternatives.:

Pricing:

eesel AI’s pricing is straightforward and based on how many interactions it handles, not how many tickets it solves. That way, your bill doesn’t shoot up just because you had a busy month.

• Team: $299 per month ($239/mo if billed annually). This gets you up to 1,000 AI interactions, 3 bots, and integrations with Slack, help centers, and docs.

• Business: $799 per month ($639/mo if billed annually). This includes up to 3,000 interactions, unlimited bots, and adds the ability to train on past tickets, use Microsoft Teams, set up AI-powered triage, and run bulk simulations.

• Custom: You can talk to their sales team for plans with unlimited interactions and more advanced custom setups.

2. Otter.ai

Otter.ai is probably one of the most well-known software-based Plaud AI alternatives. It’s fantastic at giving you a live transcript of your virtual meetings on Zoom, Google Meet, and other platforms. Its "OtterPilot" can automatically join your calls, record everything, and create a searchable transcript with labels for who said what.

It’s a solid choice for teams that spend their days in virtual meetings and need a shared space to review notes, highlight important bits, and add comments.

Pros:

• Really good at real-time transcription.

• The free plan is quite generous, with 300 transcription minutes a month.

• Otter AI Chat lets you ask questions about your meetings after they’re over.

Cons:

• The OtterPilot bot shows up in your meeting as a participant, which can feel a little awkward.

• It’s not as good for recording in-person meetings as a dedicated hardware device.

• You have to be on the pricey Enterprise plan to get video recordings.

Pricing:

Otter offers a few plans, and the free one is a great place to start.

• Basic: Free. Gives you 300 transcription minutes each month (capped at 30 mins per conversation) and basic AI features.

• Pro: $16.99 per user/month ($8.33/mo if billed annually). This bumps you to 1,200 minutes (90 mins per conversation).

• Business: $30 per user/month ($19.99/mo if billed annually). You get 6,000 minutes (4 hours per conversation) and more admin tools.

• Enterprise: Custom pricing for larger companies needing things like SSO and video replay.

3. tl;dv

tl;dv (too long; didn’t view) is another meeting assistant that’s all about video. Like Otter, it records, transcribes, and summarizes your calls. But it really shines with its features for sales teams. It gives you analytics like talk-to-listen ratios and how long someone monologues, which is gold for coaching and performance reviews.

It also makes it super easy to snip clips and create highlight reels from your recordings. This is perfect for sharing key customer feedback or a great example of handling an objection with the rest of the team.

Pros:

• An amazing free plan with unlimited recordings and transcriptions.

• Great tools for sales coaching and analytics.

• Connects with over 5,000 other apps, including CRMs like HubSpot and Salesforce.

Cons:

• It’s software-only, so you can’t use it as a standalone recorder for in-person chats.

• The focus is almost entirely on virtual meetings.

Pricing:

The official tl;dv pricing page was down when we wrote this, but the company is famous for its powerful free plan. Based on what we could find elsewhere, here’s the breakdown:

• Free: Free forever. Reportedly includes unlimited recordings, transcripts, AI summaries, and timestamps.

• Pro: Around $18 per user/month. This unlocks integrations with tools like Salesforce and lets you create those highlight reels.

• Business: Around $59 per user/month. Adds advanced sales coaching features, like tracking your playbook and getting AI tips on handling objections.

4. Fireflies.ai

Fireflies.ai works a lot like Otter and tl;dv. It sends a bot (his name is "Fred") to your online meetings to record and transcribe them. Its big thing is "Conversation Intelligence." After a call, Fireflies digs through the transcript to track keywords, gauge sentiment, and measure things like talk time and how many filler words were used.

This makes it a pretty powerful tool if you want to spot trends across all your company’s conversations, whether they’re in sales, customer support, or recruiting.

Pros:

• Gives you deep analytics and topic tracking across all your meetings.

• Supports video recording on its paid plans.

• Has a mobile app you can use to record in-person conversations.

Cons:

• Having "Fred" pop up in all your meetings can feel a bit intrusive.

• The interface can be a bit much if all you want are simple notes.

Pricing:

Fireflies.ai’s pricing is based on features and how much storage you need.

• Free: $0. You get unlimited transcription but are limited to 800 minutes of storage and basic summaries.

• Pro: $18 per seat/month ($10/mo if billed annually). Unlocks unlimited summaries, 8,000 minutes of storage, and lets you download your files.

• Business: $29 per seat/month ($19/mo if billed annually). This gets you unlimited storage, video recording, and the conversation intelligence features.

• Enterprise: $39 per seat/month (billed annually). Adds features for large companies like SSO and HIPAA compliance.

5. FoCase REC

If the main reason you liked Plaud AI was the physical gadget for recording phone calls, then FoCase REC is a direct, and cheaper, competitor. It’s a small, magnetic recorder that snaps onto your phone and uses vibration sensors to capture both sides of the conversation clearly.

It has an app that uses AI to transcribe and summarize your recordings, and its free plan offers 600 transcription minutes a month, which is double what Plaud gives you.

Pros:

• Much cheaper than Plaud AI, at around $79 for the device.

• A more generous free plan (600 vs. 300 transcription minutes per month).

• Simple, one-button design that’s easy to use.

Cons:

• The AI features aren’t as advanced as the software-first options.

• The official website appears to be down and the domain name is for sale. That’s a huge red flag for support and whether the product is even available.

• It brings up the same privacy questions about recording calls without consent.

Pricing:

Based on old information, the device cost about $79. This one-time payment came with a free lifetime plan of 600 transcription minutes per month. But since the official website is gone, this product might be discontinued or very hard to find from a reliable seller.

6. HiDock

HiDock takes a different hardware approach. It’s not a portable recorder but an 11-in-1 docking station for your desk that also happens to record and transcribe calls. It connects to your laptop and phone and can record any meeting or call you take at your desk, no matter the app.

It’s an interesting gadget for hybrid workers who want one device to manage all their monitors and accessories, charge their laptop, and handle recording. A huge selling point is its promise of free, unlimited transcription for life.

Pros:

• It’s a multi-tasker: a docking station, charger, and recorder all in one.

• Has bi-directional noise cancellation for clean audio.

• The purchase is supposed to include a lifetime of free, unlimited transcription.

Cons:

• It’s chained to your desk, so it’s not for recording on the move.

• The AI features are pretty basic: just transcription and simple summaries.

• Like a few others on this list, their official pricing page was down when we checked.

Pricing:

The HiDock website didn’t have a working pricing page. However, based on their product info and reviews, you pay for the hardware upfront.

• HiDock H1 (11-in-1 Dock): Around $269.

• HiDock P1 (Portable Recorder): No price was listed.

Buying the device reportedly gets you a lifetime free subscription to their HiNotes service for unlimited transcription, which is a great deal if you can actually find the product in stock.

7. Your smartphone + AI

Sometimes the best tool is the one you already own. Modern phones like the Google Pixel or the latest iPhones have surprisingly good transcription features built right into their voice recorder apps. For any other phone, you can just use a standard voice memo app.

Once you have the audio file, you can upload it to a service like Google’s NotebookLM or even just paste the transcript into ChatGPT with a prompt like, "Summarize this meeting transcript and list the key action items." It takes a few extra steps, but it’s free and works remarkably well when you only need to do it occasionally.

Pros:

• It’s completely free, using devices and services you already have.

• Super flexible, you can use whatever AI model you like for the summary.

• You don’t have to trust another company with your sensitive recordings.

Cons:

• It’s a manual process: record, export, upload, paste, prompt.

• Recording and transcription quality can be a mixed bag.

• You don’t get any advanced features like speaker identification or analytics.

Pricing:

Free! (Though you might need a subscription to an AI tool like ChatGPT Plus for more advanced summaries).

How to choose the right Plaud AI alternative

Okay, that’s a lot of options.

To narrow it down, ask yourself:

• What’s the actual headache I’m trying to fix?

  If you’re trying to automate customer support and cut down on ticket volume, a business automation tool like eesel AI is really the only one on this list built for that. Its ability to plug into a helpdesk and actually resolve issues is something a simple note-taker can’t do.

• Where do my most important conversations happen?

  If you live on Zoom and Google Meet, a software tool like Otter.ai or tl;dv will feel right at home. If you’re always on phone calls or in face-to-face meetings, a hardware device like the FoCase REC might be more reliable (if you can even find one for sale).

• Is this for me, or for my whole team?

  For your own productivity, almost any of these can work. But if you need to share notes, collaborate on insights, and track team performance, you’ll want a platform with strong team features like Fireflies.ai or tl;dv.

• What’s my budget?

  If you’re watching your wallet, starting with a great free plan from tl;dv or using the DIY smartphone method is a smart move. But if you’re trying to solve a big business problem like high support costs, the return on investment from a platform like eesel AI can easily cover the subscription fee.

From passive notes to active automation

Plaud AI had a neat idea with its dedicated hardware, but the world of Plaud AI alternatives shows that the future is about more than just recording conversations. It’s about turning those conversations into real results with as little manual work as possible.

For individuals, tools like Otter.ai and gadgets like FoCase REC are great for just capturing information. But for businesses, the real power comes from AI that doesn’t just listen, but acts. Platforms like eesel AI are leading this shift, moving us from passive transcription to active automation. By connecting all your company knowledge to your tools, you can build an AI workforce that solves problems, helps your team, and makes your whole operation run smoother.

Ready to see what an automation-first AI can do for your business? Try eesel AI for free and see for yourself in minutes.