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Otter AI vs Fireflies vs Echosum: Which AI Meeting Assistant Actually Works in 2026?

Last updated: January 2026 • 12 min read 
If you’ve spent any time researching AI meeting assistants lately, you’ve probably noticed they all sound the same. “AI-powered transcription.” “Automatic summaries.” “Never take notes again.”
But when you actually try them, the differences become obvious fast.
I’ve been testing meeting assistants for the past six months across different scenarios: internal team syncs, client calls, interviews, and—here’s where it gets interesting—meetings where participants speak different languages.
This comparison covers three tools that represent different approaches to the problem: Otter AI (the established player), Fireflies.ai (the integration-focused option), and Echosum (the newer entrant with some genuinely different capabilities).
Let’s cut through the marketing and see what actually works.

TLDR: Quick Summary

The Problem None of These Tools Talk About

Here’s something I didn’t expect to matter until it did: most AI meeting assistants assume everyone in your meeting speaks the same language.
That’s fine if your entire team is in one country. But the moment you have a client call with someone in Germany, a vendor in Japan, or a remote team member in Brazil, you’re back to awkward pauses and Google Translate.
I’ll get into how each tool handles this (spoiler: most don’t), but it’s worth flagging upfront because it’s becoming a real consideration for distributed teams.

Otter AI: The Familiar Choice

Otter has been around since 2016, and it shows—in both good and bad ways.

What Otter Does Well

Live transcription is genuinely useful. You can watch the transcript appear in real-time during calls, which helps if you need to reference something that was just said. The mobile app is solid for recording in-person meetings.
The free tier is generous. 300 minutes per month is enough to actually evaluate whether it works for you.
Integrations cover the basics. Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams—Otter connects to what most people use.

Where Otter Falls Short

Speaker identification is hit or miss. In calls with more than 3-4 people, Otter frequently mislabels who said what. You end up spending time fixing the transcript instead of using it.
No offline capability. If your internet drops mid-meeting, you lose everything from that point forward. I learned this the hard way during a client call.
Summaries feel generic. The AI-generated summaries exist, but they’re not much better than what you’d get copying the transcript into ChatGPT.

Otter AI Pricing (2026)

  • Free: 300 minutes/month, basic features
  • Pro: $16.99/month – 1,200 minutes, advanced search
  • Business: $30/month per user – admin controls, usage analytics
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing

Otter is right for you if:

✅ You primarily need transcription, not analysis
✅ You’re on a tight budget and the free tier covers your needs
✅ Most of your meetings are 1-on-1 or small groups

Otter isn’t ideal if:

❌ You have larger team meetings where speaker ID matters
❌ You need your meeting tool to work offline
❌ You work with international clients or partners

Fireflies.ai: The Integration Play

Fireflies takes a different approach—it’s built around the idea that your meeting notes should flow into wherever you already work.

What Fireflies Does Well

CRM integrations are deep. If you live in Salesforce or HubSpot, Fireflies can automatically log call notes to the right contact or deal. This genuinely saves time for sales teams.
The AI search is useful. You can ask questions like “What did Sarah say about the timeline?” and get relevant clips. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than manual searching.
Topic tracking works. Fireflies can identify when certain subjects come up across multiple meetings, which is helpful for spotting patterns.

Where Fireflies Falls Short

The bot is unavoidable. Fireflies works by having a bot join your call. Some clients find this off-putting, especially in sensitive conversations. You can name it something innocuous, but people notice.
Transcription accuracy varies. In my testing, Fireflies struggled more with accents and cross-talk than competitors. Technical terminology also trips it up.
It’s expensive at scale. The per-seat pricing adds up quickly for larger teams, especially if you need the business features.

Fireflies Pricing (2026)

  • Free: 800 minutes storage, limited transcription
  • Pro: $18/month per seat – unlimited transcription, integrations
  • Business: $29/month per seat – conversation intelligence, team insights
  • Enterprise: $39/month per seat – SSO, custom security

Fireflies is right for you if:

✅ CRM integration is your top priority
✅ You’re comfortable with a bot joining calls
✅ You need to search across many past meetings

Fireflies isn’t ideal if:

❌ Your clients or meeting participants are bot-averse
❌ You frequently have calls with heavy accents or technical jargon
❌ Budget is a concern for your team size

Echosum: The Multilingual Option

Echosum is the newest tool in this comparison, and honestly, I almost didn’t include it. But after testing it alongside the others, it does enough differently to warrant serious consideration.

What Echosum Does Well

Real-time translation actually works. This is the standout feature. During a call, Echosum can show you what’s being said in another language, translated live. I tested this on a call with a German-speaking client—I saw the English translation appearing as they spoke, and they saw German translations of my English. Neither of us had to slow down or repeat ourselves.
No other tool in this comparison does this. It’s not a gimmick; it fundamentally changes what kinds of meetings you can have.
No bot joins your calls. Echosum captures audio directly from your device. Nobody in the meeting sees a “Recording Bot” join. For client-facing calls, this matters more than you might think.
Desktop apps for Mac and Windows. Native desktop applications that work seamlessly with any video conferencing tool—Zoom, Teams, Meet, or anything else. Plus a full web app if you prefer browser-based access.
Summaries are customizable. Instead of one generic summary format, you can create templates for different meeting types. A sales call summary pulls different information than a team standup summary.
Offline mode exists. Record locally, transcribe when you’re back online. Simple, but surprisingly rare.
Speaker identification is solid. In my testing with 5-6 person calls, Echosum correctly identified speakers about 90% of the time. Not perfect, but better than Otter in group settings.

Where Echosum Falls Short

Fewer integrations than competitors. Echosum has webhooks and connects to major tools via Zapier/Make, but it doesn’t have the native CRM depth of Fireflies. If you need automatic Salesforce logging, you’ll need to build that workflow yourself.
Smaller user base. It’s a newer product, which means less community content, fewer tutorials, and a smaller team behind it. That’s improving, but it’s a real consideration.
No native mobile app. Echosum offers desktop apps for both Mac and Windows, plus a full web app you can access from any browser. However, there’s no dedicated mobile app yet—if you need to record in-person meetings from your phone, you’ll need to use the web version or another tool.
Learning curve for templates. The custom template system is powerful but takes time to set up properly.

Echosum Pricing (2026)

  • Free trial: Full features, limited time
  • Starter: ~$20/month per seat – core features, translation
  • Professional: ~$40/month per seat – custom templates, priority support
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing – dedicated support, custom onboarding
Pricing is per-seat with team discounts available. 

Echosum is right for you if:

✅ You have meetings with non-English speakers (or you’re non-English working with English speakers)
✅ You want meeting capture without bots joining calls
✅ You need different summary formats for different meeting types
✅ You care about EU data residency and GDPR compliance

Echosum isn’t ideal if:

❌ You need native CRM integrations out of the box
❌ You need a dedicated mobile app today
❌ You prefer established tools with large user communities

Feature Comparison Table

What Real Users Say
I reached out to a few people currently using each tool. Here’s what they said:

Otter user (Marketing Manager, 50-person company):
“It’s fine for basic transcription. We stopped relying on the speaker labels because they were wrong too often. Now we just use it as a searchable recording.”
Fireflies user (Sales Director, SaaS startup):
“The HubSpot integration is why we picked it. Calls get logged automatically. The bot joining is awkward sometimes—I had a prospect ask ‘who’s Fred?’ once—but the time savings are worth it.”
Echosum user (Consultant, works with Nordic and DACH clients):
 “The translation thing is why I switched. I was doing calls with German clients through an interpreter before. Now I just… have the meeting. It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough that we don’t need a human translator for routine calls anymore.”

The Bottom Line

Choose Otter AI if you want a mature, simple transcription tool and don’t need bells and whistles. The free tier is genuinely useful, and it’s good enough for basic meeting documentation.
Choose Fireflies if you’re a sales team living in your CRM and want meeting data to flow there automatically. Accept that a bot will join your calls and that you’re paying per seat.
Choose Echosum if you work across languages, want bot-free recording, or need more control over how your meetings are summarized. Accept that it’s newer and has fewer integrations.
None of these tools paid for inclusion in this comparison. I tested all three on personal and team accounts over a six-month period.
What’s your experience with AI meeting assistants? Drop a comment below or reach out on LinkedIn—I’m curious what’s working (or not working) for other teams.
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