# Otter vs Fireflies — personal transcription or team meeting intelligence

> Fireflies for teams: CRM sync, searchable transcripts across the company, and conversation intelligence on paid tiers. Otter for individuals who live in Zoom and want mature live transcription without team-platform overhead. Same category, different customers: the choice is team or person.

Human page: https://testedactually.com/ai-meeting-notes/otter-vs-fireflies/
Mirror: https://testedactually.com/ai-meeting-notes/otter-vs-fireflies.md
Updated: 2026-09-20

## Otter vs Fireflies: the short version

**Otter vs Fireflies**

|  | Otter | Fireflies |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Best for | individuals living in Zoom who want mature live transcription | teams that want every call transcribed, searchable, and synced to the CRM |
| Free tier | Free plan, 300 transcription minutes per month | Free plan with storage and AI credit limits (400 mins storage, 20 credits) |
| Paid from | $8.33/user/mo | $10/user/mo |
| Free plan cap | 300 transcription minutes per month | Storage and AI credit limits on free (400 mins storage, 20 credits) |
| CRM sync | Yes, native CRM sync (Salesforce, HubSpot) | Yes, Salesforce and HubSpot on paid tiers |
| Call recording | Yes, Zoom, Meet, and Teams | Yes, Zoom, Meet, and Teams |
| AI crawler policy | open | open |

## Don't use it if

- **Fireflies**: a visible bot joining your client calls is a problem, its assistant appears as a participant.
- **Otter**: the value is team-wide search and CRM wiring, Otter is built around the individual's notebook.
- **Otter**: you record outside Zoom, Meet, or Teams, check platform support before committing.

## The actual difference

Both transcribe meetings well, which is why this comparison confuses people.
The companies are building different products. Otter is a superior notebook
for the person in the meeting: mature live transcription, strong Zoom
integration, individual plans. Fireflies is a company memory: every call,
every rep, searchable, scored, and pushed into the CRM. Buying the wrong one
is not a feature mismatch, it is a customer mismatch.

## Free plans, honestly

Otter's free plan is concrete (300 transcription minutes a month at our last
check) and generous for an individual. Fireflies' free tier works as a
team trial: enough to prove the value, not enough to run a sales org. Both
are real free tiers rather than trials. Numbers move quarterly: the table
above carries check dates and sources.

## The bot question

Some meetings cannot have a visible bot: client workshops, board calls,
certain jurisdictions. Fireflies shows up as a participant by design. Otter
can too, though its Zoom-native integration softens that. If the bot is a
dealbreaker, the honest answer is not Otter but Granola, which records
system audio locally and never joins anything.

## Our verdict in one line each

Otter if the meeting notes belong to you. Fireflies if they belong to the
company.

## FAQ

### Is Fireflies or Otter better for teams?

Fireflies. Its paid tiers add CRM sync (Salesforce, HubSpot), conversation intelligence, and company-wide searchable transcripts. Otter's plans centre the individual, and team features are thinner. Teams that standardise on Otter usually end up exporting to other tools anyway.

### Which has a better free plan, Otter or Fireflies?

Otter's free plan is the more concrete; 300 transcription minutes a month at our last check. Fireflies' free tier meters credits and features. Both are real free tiers, not trials; check the dated numbers in the table above before deciding.

### Do Otter and Fireflies join calls as a bot?

Both can, and Fireflies normally does; its assistant appears in the participant list. Otter integrates natively with Zoom, Meet, and Teams and can also record via app or bot. If a visible bot is unacceptable, Granola in our meeting notes cluster is the bot-free answer.

### Can I get transcripts into my CRM?

Fireflies, on paid tiers; Salesforce and HubSpot sync with meeting notes and action items. Otter added native CRM sync (Salesforce, HubSpot) in 2026; our original data said otherwise and the vendor moved, which is exactly why every number here carries a check date.


## Sources

- https://otter.ai/pricing — checked 2026-09-20, confidence: documented
- https://otter.ai/ — checked 2026-09-20, confidence: unconfirmed
- https://otter.ai/ — checked 2026-09-20, confidence: documented
- https://fireflies.ai/pricing — checked 2026-09-20, confidence: documented
- https://fireflies.ai/pricing — checked 2026-09-20, confidence: unconfirmed
- https://fireflies.ai/ — checked 2026-09-20, confidence: unconfirmed