The local-first Otter.ai alternative
Otter.ai is one of the most familiar names in meeting transcription, and its mobile app is genuinely good. But Otter records by sending a bot into your call, stores every transcript on its own servers, and charges $16.99 per user per month. If any of those is the reason you're looking, Autorec is built the other way around.
People rarely leave a meeting notetaker because it stopped working. They leave for three reasons, and Autorec was built to fix all of them.
A bot in the call is awkward
Otter's bot shows up in the participant list with its own name. On a client call or an interview, that prompts the "who is OtterPilot?" question every time. Autorec records the meeting window from your desktop, so the only people in the call are the people in the call.
Every call ends up in someone else's cloud
Every Otter recording and transcript is uploaded to Otter's cloud and tied to your account. Autorec writes the video and the transcript to your own disk, and there is no telemetry. The optional AI summary is the one exception: it sends the transcript text to the LLM you configure, which can be a local Ollama or LM Studio server, and it is off by default.
The per-seat bill keeps climbing
Otter bills per user per month, so the cost grows every time someone joins the team and never stops. You pay for Autorec once per major version. There is also a free tier: 3 recordings per 24 hours, 40 minutes each.
Side by side
| How it works | Autorec | Otter.ai |
|---|---|---|
| Recording method | Records the meeting window from your desktop. No bot joins the call. | A bot joins the call as a visible participant. |
| Where recordings live | On your disk. Nothing is uploaded. | Uploaded to the vendor's cloud. |
| Transcription | On-device with whisper.cpp. Writes .txt and .srt. Optional AI summary through an LLM you configure. | Processed in the vendor's cloud. |
| Pricing | One-time purchase per major version. Free tier: 3 recordings / 24h, 40 min each. | $16.99/user/mo |
| Works offline | Yes. Recording and transcription run with no internet connection. | No, needs an internet connection. |
Where Autorec is the wrong choice
Autorec is single-user. There is no team admin, no shared library, and no analytics dashboard. It has no mobile app and no CRM integrations, and it doesn't do anything live during the call. If your team needs a shared searchable archive or CRM sync, a cloud tool is the better fit, and this page is not trying to talk you out of it.
Common questions
Can Autorec do everything Otter.ai does?
No. Otter has a shared team workspace, a mobile app, and live in-meeting captions that Autorec does not. Autorec covers the core job, which is to record the call and transcribe it on-device, for a single user on Linux, Windows, or macOS.
Will my transcripts still be searchable?
Autorec writes a plain .txt transcript and an .srt subtitle file next to each recording. They sit in a normal folder, so any file search or note app on your computer can index them. There is no separate cloud search box.
Does Autorec auto-join my Zoom and Teams calls like Otter does?
It auto-detects them. Autorec watches for Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet calls and starts recording on its own, but it does this from your desktop instead of sending a bot into the meeting.
Is there a free way to try it?
Yes. The free tier allows 3 recordings every 24 hours at up to 40 minutes each, with no account and no card. The one-time license removes those limits.
See for yourself
Download the free tier and record your next call. 3 recordings every 24 hours, 40 minutes each, no account needed. The full version is a one-time purchase.
Download Autorec