HumlaCompare
Humla vs Read.ai.
Read.ai's bot joins your calls and everything runs in its cloud. Humla joins nothing and can keep every meeting on your Mac.
Free · Open source · macOS 13+ (Apple Silicon)
In short
Which should you pick?
- Pick Humla for privacy, on-device processing, and price.
- Pick Read.ai for meeting analytics and integrations.
Side by side
How they compare.
An honest look. Humla wins on privacy, price, and openness; Read.ai leads on meeting analytics and integrations.
| Humla | Read.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| No bot joins the call | — | |
| 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 / $20–40/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 in the call. Read.ai joins as a visible notetaker participant; Humla records your Mac directly, so clients never see a recorder join.
- On-device, not cloud. Read.ai processes and stores meetings in its cloud; Humla can run transcription and summaries entirely on your Mac — nothing leaves.
- Nothing to train on. Humla has no backend and no telemetry — it only talks to the AI providers you choose, with your own key.
- Free and open source. Read.ai runs $20–40/user/month beyond a 5-meeting free tier; Humla is free forever and MIT-licensed, with optional team sync at $5/user/month — or self-host it free.
- 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 Read.ai instead.
Humla isn't for everyone. Choose Read.ai if:
- You want meeting analytics and engagement insights, plus a notetaker for calls you don't personally attend.
- You need deep CRM/workflow integrations (Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, Notion) and native mobile apps.
Learn the terms