HumlaHumla vs Otter.ai
Otter uploads your meetings to its cloud. Humla joins nothing and can keep everything local.
- Free, no account
- Open source, MIT
- Apple Silicon, macOS 13 or later
Which should you pick?
- Pick Humla for privacy, on-device processing, and price.
- Pick Otter.ai for integrations and a mobile app.
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.
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.
One meeting, from agenda to recap
Write the agenda, record the call, press Summarize. Your note stays on the left while the transcript and the recap fill in on the right.
Six pages, maybe a new CMS?
Keep the brand palette
Who signs off the budget?
Hanna approves budget, wants qu
Speakers are identified when you stop.
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.
Otter.ai vs the field
Weighing Otter.ai against another tool? These honest head to heads put Humla up as the third option.
Related reading
- What is Meeting bot?A meeting bot is an automated participant that joins a video call to record and transcribe it, appearing in the attendee list like another guest.
- What is On-device transcription?On-device transcription converts speech to text entirely on your own computer, with no audio sent to a cloud service.
- What is Speaker diarization?Speaker diarization is the process of splitting an audio recording into segments by who is speaking, so a transcript can show “who said what.”
- What is AI notetaker vs AI notepad?An AI notetaker records and transcribes a meeting for you; an AI notepad is one you write in yourself while the AI augments your notes with the transcript.
Keep your meetings on your Mac.
Free and open source. Apple Silicon, macOS 13 or later.