HumlaCompare
Humla vs Otter.ai.
Otter uploads your meetings to its cloud. Humla joins nothing and can keep everything local.
Free · Open source · macOS 13+ (Apple Silicon)
In short
Which should you pick?
- Pick Humla for privacy, on-device processing, and price.
- Pick Otter.ai for integrations and a mobile app.
Side by side
How they compare.
An honest look. Humla wins on privacy, price, and openness; Otter.ai leads on integrations and mobile.
| Humla | Otter.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| No bot joins the call | Optional (botless desktop) | |
| Runs fully on your device | — | |
| Open source (auditable) | — | |
| Bring your own AI key / model | — | |
| Speaker labels (who said what) | ||
| AI summaries & action items | ||
| App integrations (Slack, CRM…) | — | |
| Mobile app | — | |
| Price | Free | Free / $17–30/user/mo |
Reflects each product's standard plans as of 2026 — check their sites for the latest.
Why Humla
What you get instead.
- No bot at all. Otter's Notetaker joins as a visible participant, and its botless desktop app still uploads to Otter's cloud; Humla records your Mac directly and can keep it there.
- Your audio stays local. Otter uploads and stores meetings in its cloud; Humla can run 100% on-device.
- Your audio isn't training data. Humla never uploads it, so there's nothing to train on.
- Free and unlimited. Otter's free tier is heavily capped (300 minutes/month, 3 lifetime file imports) and paid plans run $17–30/user/month.
- Speaks your language. Around 99 languages via Whisper — on-device or with your own key — plus a dedicated Norwegian model and per-language routing.
Demo
See a meeting become a note.
New note, record, summary — that's the whole workflow. The cleanup afterwards is none, on a five-minute meeting or an hour-long one.
Being fair
When to pick Otter.ai instead.
Humla isn't for everyone. Choose Otter.ai if:
- You want deep sales/CRM automation, an AI sales agent, and a large integration catalog.
- You need a mobile app and cross-platform (non-Mac) support.
Head-to-head
Otter.ai vs the field.
Weighing Otter.ai against another tool? These honest head-to-heads put Humla up as the third option.
Learn the terms