COMPARISONEvery claim sourced · verified Jun 2026

Hedy vs Otter.ai: the honest comparison.

Choose Hedy if the meeting itself is where you need help: live coaching, bot-free capture, and local options. Choose Otter.ai if your team needs shared transcripts, speaker labels, and workflow sync. We make Ottex, which fits buyers who want dictation, meetings, and finished work in one Mac/iOS-first tool.

Ottex

Mac, iOS · Free tier · $14/mo · PAYG

Ottex is unusually broad for a young Mac/iOS-first tool: it turns dictation and meetings into emails, tickets, CRM updates, notes, and docs, but it is not the pick if you need Windows, Android, web, browser extension, or compliance paperwork.

Choose if

You want one tool for system-wide dictation, meeting recording, and finished written outcomes like follow-up emails, Linear tickets, CRM updates, PRDs, and docs
You want a real free path: unlimited local dictation, file transcription, and meetings on Mac with Whisper/Parakeet, or BYOK instead of a forced subscription
You need multilingual dictation with 100+ languages, auto-detection, mixed-language speech, personal vocabulary, and per-app output rules

Look elsewhere if

You need Windows, Android, Linux, web access, or a browser extension
You need mature team infrastructure such as a shared workspace, API/webhooks, third-party note destinations, or assistant chat over transcripts today.

Hedy

Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, Web · Limited free · $12.99/mo · $299 one-time

Hedy is strongest as a bot-free live meeting coach and searchable conversation memory, with local/offline options and broad platform support, but it is not a system-wide dictation tool and lacks proven speaker labels, hotkeys, snippets, or

Choose if

You want real-time coaching during meetings, with questions, blind-spot alerts, talking points, summaries, to-dos, and follow-up recaps after the session.
You need bot-free capture for Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, in-person conversations, or imported audio/video, with apps across iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and web
You value privacy controls: local speech recognition by default, optional local AI, optional cloud sync, GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC 2 Type I claims.

Look elsewhere if

You need system-wide dictation that inserts polished text into any app; Hedy explicitly does not support system-wide insertion or context-aware dictation.
You need meeting transcripts with publicly claimed speaker identification, timestamp exports, or speaker labels; those claims are not present here.

Otter.ai

Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, Web · Limited free · $16.99/mo

Otter.ai is a strong meeting transcription and team-notes platform with real-time summaries, CRM/workflow integrations, and broad apps, but it is not a system-wide dictation tool and relies on cloud transcription with only 6 published input

Choose if

You want AI meeting notes, summaries, speaker labels, follow-ups, and searchable transcripts across Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, web, desktop, iOS, and i
You run a team that needs shared workspaces, Salesforce or HubSpot note sync, Slack/Zapier workflows, API/webhooks, and compliance claims including SOC 2 Type
You need a meeting-focused product with a usable free trial path: Basic has 300 transcription minutes/month, Pro is $16.99/month or $8.33/user/month annually,

Look elsewhere if

You need true system-wide dictation that inserts text into any app; the dossier says this is not supported.
You need private or offline local transcription, BYOK, or zero-data-retention guarantees; imported files upload to Otter and those privacy claims are not public

The evidence

What actually differs, claim by claim.

Each section opens with the takeaway. The table underneath is the receipt — every cell carries its source and the date we checked it.

Pricing

Ottex has the best real free path: unlimited local AI or your own key, plus $0.2/hour PAYG, $14/mo Pro, and $24/seat/mo Team. Hedy is the better paid value between Hedy and Otter.ai for individuals, with 5 free hours/month, $12.99/mo Pro, and a $299 lifetime option. Otter.ai is pricier at $16.99/mo Pro and $19.99/seat/mo Business, but its Business plan adds unlimited meetings, in-app recordings, 6000 monthly minutes,

See the evidence — 13 claims across 3 toolsverified Jun 2026

	Ottex	Hedy	Otter.ai
Free tier	YesWhisper & Parakeet run on your Mac. Dictation and meetings, $0.	PartialUp to 5 hours per month; Real-time AI insights (first 30 min/session)	Partial300 monthly transcription minutes; 30 minutes per conversation; Import and transcribe 3 audio or video files lifetime per user
Subscription	$14/mo$14/mo — unlimited dictation and meeting intelligence, all hosted models included.	$12.99/moPro adds unlimited sessions, recording import, cross-session organization, Zapier, and API integrations.	$16.99/moAnnual price is published as $8.33/user/month and monthly price as $16.99/user/month.
Pay-as-you-go / one-timeEscape the flat subscription	$0.2/hourHosted models at cost: dictation ~$0.2/h, meetings ~$0.5/h (~$3/mo average).	$299 one-timeAll future updates included	NoSubscription only
Bring your own keyPay the model provider, not the middleman	YesOpenRouter, Google AI, OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, and compatible providers.	No public claim	NoNo public BYOK transcription or LLM-key support claim found.
Education discount	NoSame pricing for everyone.	No public claim	YesStudent and teacher discount program is listed for the Pro plan.

Platforms

Hedy and Otter.ai tie for coverage because both run on Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, and Web. Ottex is much narrower on platform, with only Mac and iOS today, so it loses if Windows, Android, or web access matters. The input does not establish a native-versus-Electron quality winner, so the practical platform call is 5 surfaces for Hedy and Otter.ai versus 2 Apple surfaces for Ottex.

See the evidence — 5 claims across 3 toolsverified Jun 2026

	Ottex	Hedy	Otter.ai
Platforms	Mac, iOS	Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, Web	Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, Web
Native app footprintLight on memory, instant to invoke	YesNative Swift app, ~50MB RAM.	YesVendor describes a native macOS application.	No public claim

Meetings & team memory

Hedy wins bot-free capture: it covers Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, in-person conversations, and imported audio/video, with 5 free hours/month and unlimited meeting length on $12.99/mo Pro. Otter.ai wins when speaker labels and shared team transcripts matter, with 300 free monthly minutes, 1200 Pro minutes, and 6000 Business minutes. Ottex also records meetings on Mac and iOS, but it is strongest when capture is paired

See the evidence — 17 claims across 3 toolsverified Jun 2026

	Ottex	Hedy	Otter.ai
Meeting recordingThe call is captured at all	YesWith speaker separation.	YesHedy records live sessions and meeting conversations.	YesOtter Notetaker records and transcribes Zoom meetings in real time.
Bot-free captureNo "recording bot" joins your call	YesSystem-audio capture, no bot joins the call.	YesFeature page says no bot joins calls.	YesDesktop app supports bot-free meeting capture.
Speaker separation	Yes	No public claim	YesSpeaker identification is listed on the pricing page.
Calendar detection	YesCalendar-based meeting detection.	YesGoogle Calendar is listed in the help center and news page.	YesNotetaker can automatically join synced calendar event meetings.
Cross-meeting search	Yes	YesPro users can group sessions and ask questions across conversations weeks ago.	YesOtter AI Chat searches across meetings and connected apps.
Shared team memory	PartialPublic share links, not a full team workspace.	YesSharing sessions and topics is listed in the help center.	YesOtter Workspaces provide team collaboration and management features.

From meeting to finished work

Otter.ai is the best of Hedy and Otter.ai for team meeting intelligence because it has summaries, speaker labels, follow-ups, searchable transcripts, Salesforce or HubSpot note sync, Slack/Zapier workflows, API/webhooks, and $19.99/seat/mo Business. Hedy is better during the live conversation, with real-time questions, blind-spot alerts, talking points, summaries, to-dos, and follow-up recaps at $12.99/mo Pro. Ottex

See the evidence — 10 claims across 3 toolsverified Jun 2026

	Ottex	Hedy	Otter.ai
Decisions, owners, action itemsLeave the meeting with next steps clear	YesDecisions with owners extracted.	YesGoogle Play listing says Hedy can find decisions across past conversations.	YesBusiness trial lists assigning action items to teammates.
Follow-up email draftedThe outcome is sent, not summarized	YesDrafted from templates or your own.	YesAuto-recap emails are listed for sharing insights.	YesOtter creates follow-ups from meetings.
CRM update / ticket draft	YesStructured for the target app.	No public claim	YesPricing lists synced notes to Salesforce or HubSpot and AI Chat with Salesforce.
Your rough notes steer the result	YesRough notes and instructions steer the result.	YesHedy 3 added in-meeting note-taking that powers AI suggestions.	No public claim

Dictation & transcription AI

Ottex wins dictation AI because it is the only one of the three with true system-wide dictation, BYOK, local options, per-app output rules, and 100+ languages. Hedy and Otter.ai both lose this dimension because neither supports system-wide dictation, even though Hedy lists 30 languages and local options while Otter.ai lists 6 languages and no local option. Hedy is the better fallback than Otter.ai for privacy-minded

See the evidence — 12 claims across 3 toolsverified Jun 2026

	Ottex	Hedy	Otter.ai
Engines	Cloud: Whisper, Gemini 3 Flash, Voxtral. Local: Whisper, Parakeet v3.Hosted routing, BYOK, or fully local.	Two local and two cloud speech recognition providersUsers can choose between private on-device transcription and cloud-based speech recognition.	proprietary cloud AI transcriptionOtter describes AI transcription and cloud upload for imported files.
Local / on-device optionAudio never leaves the machine	YesWhisper and Parakeet v3 run fully on-device.	YesLocal speech recognition and local AI processing can run on-device and offline.	NoImported files upload to Otter for transcription.
Model selection per task	YesChoose the model per task and per provider.	YesSpeech recognition provider can be changed in Settings > Speech & AI.	NoNo user-selectable recognition model is published.
Languages & mixed speechWork that crosses languages mid-sentence	Yes100+ languages · Mid-sentence language switching.	Yes30+ languages · App Store listing says Hedy supports multilingual conversations while returning insights in the preferred language.	No public claim
Per-app output rules	YesPer-app output rules: exact in AI chats, polished in email.	No public claim	No public claim

Cost

What a year actually costs at your volume.

Personal or team — switch tabs. Subscriptions are flat; usage-based pricing depends on how much you speak and meet.

You dictate about 3 h a week≈ 23,400 words at ~130 wpm

0 h5 h10 h

and sit in 4 h of meetings a weekhours you'd want captured and turned into follow-ups

0 h7.5 h15 h

Fill the gaps with:

Dictation appadded to meetings-only toolsMeetings appadded to dictation-only tools

Otter.aiPro$100/yr$100 + $0Annual price is published as $8.33/user/month and monthly price as $16.99/user/month. · 1200 in-app recording minutes; Up to 90 mins/meeting; 10 monthly audio/video file imports

OttexOttex Provider — PAYG$135/yrHosted models at cost: dictation ~$0.2/h, meetings ~$0.5/h (~$3/mo average).

OttexPro$168/yr$14/mo — unlimited dictation and meeting intelligence, all hosted models included.

Otter.aiBusiness$240/yr$240 + $0Business is published for teams at $19.99/user/month billed annually. · Unlimited meetings + in-app recordings; 6000 monthly transcription minutes - 4 hours per conversation; Import and transcribe unlimited audio or video files

Estimates, not quotes. Striped bar segments are the cost of the second app you picked above to cover the gap — rankings use that combined total. PAYG and BYOK usage are estimated at provider at-cost rates ($0.2/h dictation, $0.5/h meetings) — bring-your-own-key plans still pay the model provider per use. One-time licenses are amortized over 2 years. Subscriptions use published pricing, checked Jun 2026.

FAQ

Questions people actually ask.

Hedy vs Otter.ai: which should I pick?

Pick Hedy if you want bot-free live meeting coaching, local options, and broad device coverage across Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, and Web. Pick Otter.ai if your team needs speaker labels, shared transcripts, CRM sync, Slack/Zapier workflows, API/webhooks, and 6000 monthly transcription minutes on Business. Ottex is the better fit if you want one Mac/iOS tool for dictation, meetings, and finished outputs like emails,

Is Hedy free?

Hedy has a free plan with up to 5 hours per month, with real-time AI insights limited to the first 30 minutes per session. That is enough to try the workflow, but the real individual plan is $12.99/mo Pro or $299 one-time Lifetime. For a genuinely free option, consider Ottex: it offers unlimited local AI or your own key.

Is Otter.ai free?

Otter.ai Basic is free with 300 monthly transcription minutes, a 30-minute limit per conversation, and 3 lifetime imported audio or video files per user. That is a real trial path for meetings, but not a full replacement for paid usage if your calls are longer or file imports matter. For a genuinely free option, consider Ottex: it offers unlimited local AI or your own key.

How much does Hedy cost compared with Otter.ai?

Hedy is cheaper for individuals at $12.99/mo Pro, and it also offers a $299 one-time Lifetime plan. Otter.ai Pro is $16.99/mo, while Business is $19.99/seat/mo with unlimited meetings, in-app recordings, 6000 monthly transcription minutes, and unlimited file imports. Ottex sits between them at $14/mo Pro, with $0.2/hour PAYG and free local or BYOK paths.

Is Hedy safer than Otter.ai?

Hedy is the better privacy pick from this input because it has local speech recognition by default, optional local AI, optional cloud sync, and GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC 2 Type I claims. Otter.ai is cloud-based here, imported files upload to Otter, and private or offline local transcription is not publicly claimed. Ottex is also a strong privacy option because it supports local AI and BYOK.

Should I switch from Hedy to Otter.ai?

Switch to Otter.ai if you need speaker labels, team workspaces, Salesforce or HubSpot note sync, Slack/Zapier workflows, API/webhooks, or Business controls at $19.99/seat/mo. Stay on Hedy if your priority is live coaching, bot-free capture, local options, and a lower $12.99/mo Pro plan. Do not switch just for dictation, because neither Hedy nor Otter.ai is a system-wide dictation tool.

Does Hedy or Otter.ai work on Windows and Android?

Yes, both Hedy and Otter.ai list Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, and Web. That makes them a tie for platform coverage across 5 surfaces. Ottex is not the pick for Windows or Android because it lists only Mac and iOS.

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