Otter ai vs Descript, which tool meets your needs and is worth your money?
Otter AI helps you with real-time transcription services, and one of its advanced features is the AI chat which will help you retrieve past meeting data through a casual conversation.
Descript on the other hand is more helpful for content creators, it helps with audio and video file editing, greenscreen replacement, eye contact corrections, and so many features that are helpful for creators rather than meetings specifically.
We must admit that both Otter AI and Descript have unique strengths and they also have weaknesses. Users have not been happy with Otter AI transcription quality, they weren't happy that a bot is joining the meeting, and it also doesn't work offline.
Descript too has its own downsides, especially if you are looking for an AI note taker, that helps you with your meetings, Descript cannot help you much in those regards.
This is where we introduce Jamie (that's us!).
Jamie is a bot-free meeting tool with its own advanced features, that fills in the gaps of both Descript and Otter.ai.
This article will help you find the exact tool that fits your needs!
TL;DR
- Otter AI: Best for live transcription and info retrieval but contains bots and doesn't work offline.
- Descript: Best for creators needing audio/video AI enhancements, not ideal for meetings.
- Jamie: Perfect for offline and online meetings, bot-free, compatible with all platforms, consists of an AI chatbot, but doesn't store audio or video files and doesn't do real-time transcription services.
In this article, I have broken down everything from the features, pricing comparison, and real user reviews. This way you can find out which tool is the best fit for your workflow.
Otter AI and Descript are Great, But Jamie is Private and Offline
Otter AI and Descript are two transcription tools that are both very accurate and have some great collaboration features.
Otter is great for live transcription, so if you want to see captions of your meeting as it happens, Otter is the way to go.
Descript is great for audio and video content creators. It has some great AI features, like Studio Sound, which can remove background noise and clean up your audio, audio, and video editing, and Green Screen, which can change the background of your video.
But neither Otter nor Descript is perfect when it comes to offline transcription, data privacy, or meeting insights.
That’s where Jamie comes in!
Jamie offers a more secure, GDPR-compliant, offline transcription solution with advanced AI customization to help you get more out of your meetings.
It’s clear that the tools are great at transcription, but Jamie has a different set of skills that can help you get more out of your meetings.
Features - Otter AI vs Descript vs Jamie
TL;DR
- Otter AI: Best for live transcription and team collaboration.
- Descript: Excellent for audio/video editing but not for real-time meeting environments
- Jamie: The most balanced choice for secure, offline, and meeting-specific workflows.
Jamie Features
Meeting Transcription & Notes
Jamie provides excellent meeting transcriptions and AI-generated notes.
Many users have complimented how amazing Jamie's notes are, and how they require zero to minimal edits. Please don't take it from us, take it from a previous Otter.ai user who switched to Jamie.
Hello, Team Jamie.
It’s not often that I drop a resource I use daily like a hot potato for something else. Congrats to your entire team on your Jamie platform. I found it today, reviewed a few videos, read a bit, and decided to try the Free subscription.
I listened to a webinar and decided to test Jamie against my Otter account. They both ran on my Mac desktop, recorded at the exact same time (for only 5 minutes) to see how they performed on the same video at the same time.
These screenshots speak for themselves. Now, to decide which subscription of Jamie to switch to. 😊
Curious to see the screenshots? Here they are!
Otter's Transcription
As you can see, this is the full meeting summary that Otter.ai provided for the same 5-minute meeting they had.
Now let's look at how Jamie did!
Jamie's Transcription
This clearly shows our commitment to providing you with high-quality meeting notes. Our intelligent topic detection breaks down your meeting notes, so it's easy for you to scan, skim, and find the information that you need fast, without missing "ANY" detail.
And if you are in a rush and you need the information much quicker, you will love our next feature.
Executive Assistant Sidebar (CTRL + J)
Meet, Jamie's AI Chat function. It's called the Executive Assistant Sidebar.
Here's what the Sidebar can do for you;
- Retrieve past meeting information, you simply have to ask for it from Jamie.
- It doesn't disrupt your workflow, which means you don't have to open browsers like Google or ChatGPT to get the information you need. Simply press the shortcut CTRL + J, and it will pop up on the right side of the screen, as you can see below. You can be in a meeting, or simply doing something on your desktop/laptop. Simply open the sidebar and you can use the Sidebar as how you would use ChatGPT.
- If you want to close the Sidebar, simply press CTRL + J again, it's as simple as that.
- Choose from ChatGPT 4, Claude 3 Opus, to Jamie's own LLM.
- Choose Jamie: For when you want to retrieve past meeting notes.
- Claude 3 Opus: For when you want to draft a creative email, brainstorm, and stuff.
- GPT-4: For when you want to use ChatGPT and yes it can search the web too.
- All of this is also available in the free plan. We do not hide away ANY premium features in the free plan, so please give it a try!
Works Offline and in Any Video Conferencing Platform
Jamie is a native application. You download it to your device and its plug and play from there.
You simply have to click "Start Meeting" and it will transcribe by detecting the audio from the speakers and microphone.
What does this mean? and How does this benefit me?
- Transcribes meetings offline and online.
- Transcribes meetings that take place in person.
- Ad hoc/on-demand meeting transcriptions, meaning you don't need to have an online scheduled meeting for you to transcribe.
- It works on any video conferencing platform, meaning you don't have to worry if Jamie is compatible with different video conferencing platforms.
- It works without bots. Yes, Jamie values privacy and human connection. Bot interfering in the meeting can cause a lot of awkwardness. Jamie simply transcribes in the background letting you and your attendees focus on what matters the most.
Speaker Identification
Speaker identification is when a meeting tool like Jamie identifies the multiple speakers in a conversation or recording so you can see who said what during the meeting.
As you can see in the image, Jamie has already identified the speakers. Jamie trains on these voices so you don’t have to manually input their speaker's name over and over again.
You’ll train Jamie maybe 5 times and Jamie is ready to go. Unless the person comes in with a cold and a raspy voice you’ll have to input it manually.
Jamie is the right choice if you:
✅ Need offline transcription for in-person or remote meetings.
✅ Need a bot-free experience with top-notch privacy, GDPR compliance, and robust data security.
✅ Want AI tools that go beyond manual transcription (e.g., brainstorming, action items, concise meeting summaries).
Jamie isn’t the best option if you:
❌ Need real-time transcription during meetings (Jamie processes audio after meetings).
❌ Require video recording alongside the audio files.
❌ Work on content creation instead of meetings.
Otter AI Features
- Live Transcription: Real-time captions for meetings and webinars.
- Team Collaboration: Comment and highlight as you go.
- Cloud Sync: Syncs across devices and integrates with Zoom and Google Meet.
- Action Items Automation: Captures and assigns tasks during meetings so your team is aligned.
- Custom Vocabulary: Personalize with custom vocabulary for names, jargon, and acronyms for industry-specific needs.
- Playback and Search: Search by keyword, speaker, or date range.
Otter AI is the right choice if you:
✅ You need live transcription for meetings or webinars.
✅ You want a team note-taking environment.
✅ You use Zoom or Google Meet for your meetings.
✅ You need task automation for post-meeting follow-up.
Otter AI isn’t the best option if you:
❌ You need an offline transcription.
❌ You work in an industry where data privacy is paramount.
❌ You need AI for human transcription tasks beyond transcription.
If you want to take a quick look into how Otter.ai compares to Jamie. Here's a comparison table for you.
Descript Features
Audio/Video Editing
Descript is a powerful editing tool for audio and video. These are its key features.
- Studio Sound: Remove background noise and enhance audio.
- Green Screen: Replace backgrounds.
- Filler Word Removal: Remove “ums” and “uhs” instantly.
- Eye Contact: Simulate eye contact to keep your audience engaged.
- Clips and Highlights: AI finds the most shareable moments.
- Templates and layouts: to create pro-looking visuals in seconds.
Underlord by Descript
Underlord is Descript’s AI assistant that simplifies tedious media editing tasks. It automates audio and video enhancements like removing filler words, fixing audio, centering speakers in the frame, and creating shareable clips while keeping you in control of the creative decisions.
- Edit for Clarity: Remove filler words and retakes.
- Studio Sound: Reduce background noise and enhance audio.
- Center Active Speaker: Center the speaker in the frame without cropping.
- Create Clips: Scan for shareable moments.
- Brainstorm and Write: Helps with scripting, outlining, and social posts with AI.
Descript is the right choice if you need advanced editing features:
✅You create podcasts edit audio, videos, or other media content.
✅ You need advanced audio/video and advanced editing capabilities.
✅ You need a synthetic voice (Overdub).
Descript isn’t the best option if you:
❌ You need an offline or meeting-focused speech-to-text transcription.
❌ You need GDPR-level privacy or security.
❌ You want simpler tools for basic note-taking and meeting summaries.
Here's a quick comparison table between Descript and Jamie
Pricing - Otter AI vs Descript vs Jamie
Pricing is crucial when choosing a transcription tool. While Otter and Descript offer free versions, Jamie provides affordable plans tailored to professionals and teams.
TL;DR
- Jamie: Free plan has all premium features, paid plans start at €24/month, scaling to €99/month for unlimited credits.
- Otter AI: The free plan has 300 minutes, and key features require upgrades. Pro plan is $16.99/month, Business plan is $30/month.
- Descript: For multimedia professionals, plans start at $12/month for Hobbyist and $24/month for Creator, with advanced AI tools and 4K exports. The free plan is limited.
Jamie Pricing
- Free: €0/month for 10 meeting credits and 30-minute meetings.
- Standard: €24/month for 20 credits and 3-hour meetings.
- Pro: €47/month for 50 credits and 3-hour meetings.
- Executive: €99/month with unlimited credits and 3-hour meetings.
Otter AI Pricing
- Free: 300 monthly transcription minutes.
- Pro: $16.99/month for 1,200 minutes and advanced features.
- Business: $30/month for collaborative tools and priority support.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing with advanced security and administrative features for organization-wide deployment.
Descript Pricing
- Free: Limited editing and transcription.
- Hobbyist: $12/month for 10 transcription hours, watermark-free exports, and limited AI tools.
- Creator Plan: $24/month for 30 transcription hours/month, 4k exports, and unlimited AI features, including Studio Sound and Green Screen.
Conclusion on Pricing | Otter AI, Descript, or Jamie?
Jamie is the clear winner when it comes to pricing. It offers the most generous free plan that unlocks all premium features right away.
Unlike Otter AI and Descript, Jamie doesn’t withhold critical features like automatic speech recognition, transcription, or decision detection from its free plan.
This makes it the easiest to use, regardless of your budget. Jamie’s paid plans start at just €24/month and scale up for professionals and teams. The €99/month Executive plan provides unlimited meeting credits for heavy users.
Coming in second is Otter AI, which balances transcription minutes with collaboration features. While the free plan gives you 300 transcription minutes, team management and advanced exports require a paid plan, which pushes you to the Pro ($16.99/month) or Business ($30/month) plans. If you want more flexibility or unlimited usage, these limitations can be a bit of a bummer.
Last but not least, there’s Descript, which is designed for multimedia creators. The $24/month Creator plan is a great value, offering 30 transcription hours, 4K video exports, and advanced AI features. But the free plan is pretty weak.
In conclusion, Jamie is the clear winner when it comes to value and premium features, even in the free plan. Otter and Descript are both great alternatives, but they’re better suited for transcription-heavy tasks and multimedia endeavors, respectively.
What are Customers Saying about Otter AI vs Descript vs Jamie?
Jamie Reviews | G2 Rating 4.9/5.0
Users Love
- "It can actually transcribe, summarize, and detect action items with way more accuracy than the rest."
- "Jamie saves me the work of a human assistant (approx. 45k annual salary)."
- "Jamie does not rely on bots joining my calls and works seamlessly without any plugins."
- "The meeting notes that Jamie creates are outstanding, and the best I have seen so far."
- "The notes are sorted automatically for me, saving a lot of time when revisiting my notes."
Users Dislike
- "From a realistic point of view, it must be acknowledged that the relatively new tool certainly still has potential for optimization."
- "Jamie excels in creating precise meeting summaries, but it shines brightest once it learns your specific terminology. This initial setup requires some hands-on input."
- "Maybe they should adjust their pricing a bit, but that's my personal take."
Source: G2
Otter AI Reviews| G2 Rating 4.4/5.0
Users Love
- "Otter provides better meeting insights along with accurate and real-time transcription of meetings."
- "Otter.ai has done an outstanding job of capturing esoteric, technical jargon, making it super easy to go back to notes."
- "It takes the whole points and at the end gives you a short summary regarding the whole meeting."
- "Having one source of truth for all meeting recordings is great, with the summary of the call being available right there."
- "Conversation Intelligence is the best feature. Summaries, outlines, and action items are very accurate and to the point."
Users Dislike
- "For free features - it is very limited and sometimes in noisy environments or in slow networks it struggles a bit."
- "The least helpful feature has been its ability to collect summaries and takeaways from meetings. This has just taken a bit of trial and error."
- "If anyone is not a premium member, they will only have limited monthly minutes of the Otter.ai Notetaker, which is a drawback."
- "The user interface is scattered and confusing, there are many 'known issues,' and the permissions seem complex."
- "Having to tag endless speakers. Spending 1 hour to tag all the speakers in a 10-hour meeting only to have to do it all again."
Source: G2
Descript Reviews| G2 Rating 4.6/5.0
Users Love
- "I use/try a LOT of software, and this is amongst one of the most useful tools I've ever encountered."
- "The way Descript automatically transcribes video and audio – including punctuation – is really amazing and saves me so much time."
- "The innovative way you can edit videos with text, taken from their brilliant transcription AI."
- "I love the ability to read my video and remove sections from the text and video simultaneously."
- "Using Descript made editing my videos so easy, I love being able to edit the video right on the script instead of trying to cut and paste in timeline format."
Users Dislike
- "The podcast often gets imported out of sync or the recording is lost. I'd avoid using it."
- "Interface could be made better, needs more features for video editing."
- "After months of 'updates,' I've found features like Studio Sound have gotten worse."
- "You do need to go through the entire video to make sure automated edits haven't removed important sections."
- "The system is very robust so it can feel a little daunting to get started."
Source: G2
Final Thoughts - Otter ai, Descript, or Jamie?
So which is best? Otter AI, Descript, or Jamie? It really depends on your needs and priorities. Each has its own strengths and is best suited for different situations.
If you need real-time transcription and collaboration, Otter AI is a good choice. It’s great for teams that use live captions, meeting recaps, and integration with Zoom and Google Meet.
But it doesn't work offline, and some users may be uncomfortable with the bots entering the meeting, also the lack of quality in the meeting notes can make them seek alternatives.
Descript is the best choice for content creators and multimedia producers. It has the best editing features for audio and video editors, including Studio Sound, Green Screen, and text-based editing. However it’s not designed for meeting workflows or offline use, so it may not be the best choice for professionals who focus on transcription and note-taking, especially during meetings.
Jamie is the best choice if you need a meeting-centric, secure, and offline-compatible solution. It’s bot-free, has AI-powered meeting notes, and works with any video conferencing platform. It prioritizes data privacy and is easy to use, making it a great choice for business professionals who want a simple, customizable experience.
Key Takeaways:
- Jamie is the best choice if you need secure, offline meeting transcription, Intelligent AI summaries, and bot-free, secure, and simple meeting experiences that focus on building human connections with minimal interruptions.
- Otter AI is the best choice if you need live transcription, team collaboration, and automated tasks during online meetings.
- Descript is the best choice if you need advanced audio/video editing for producing professional-grade content.
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Sanduni Yureka is a Growth Content Editor at Jamie, known for driving a 10x increase in website traffic for clients across Singapore, the U.S., and Germany. With an LLB Honors degree and a background in law, Sanduni transitioned from aspiring lawyer to digital marketing expert during the 2019 lockdown. She now specializes in crafting high-impact SEO strategies for AI-powered SaaS companies, particularly those using large language models (LLMs). When she’s not binge-watching true crime shows, Sanduni is obsessed with studying everything SEO.
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