Basil vs Top 5 AI Meeting Notetaker Apps: Complete 2025 Comparison Guide

Choosing an AI meeting notetaker? The market is crowded with options, each promising to save you time and boost productivity. But there's one critical difference that separates them all: privacy.

Basil AI is a privacy-focused AI notetaker and transcriber for iOS (with a web companion) that performs all transcription and summarization on-device. No audio or text is sent to the cloud, which means your meeting data stays private. This makes Basil stand out in the AI meeting assistant space, as most competitors rely on cloud processing.

In this comprehensive guide, we compare Basil with five of the most adopted AI notetaker apps (focused on iOS availability in the USA) – Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Avoma, MeetGeek, and Notta – covering their features, pricing, user reviews, ease of use, and how each stacks up against Basil.

Basil AI Overview: Private On-Device Notetaker

Before diving into the competitors, here's a brief overview of Basil's key features and unique value:

Key Features

• On-Device Transcription & Summaries: Basil uses on-device AI (leveraging Apple's iOS foundation models) to transcribe speech to text and generate meeting summaries entirely offline. It can even work in airplane mode, keeping data 100% on your device.
• Privacy & Security: Because nothing is uploaded, Basil ensures sensitive conversations remain confidential. Your voice and transcripts are never sent to any server or used to train external AI models. This design inherently complies with privacy regulations like GDPR/HIPAA since no external data processing occurs.
• Target Users: Basil is aimed at privacy-conscious users – e.g. executives, lawyers, doctors, journalists, and students – who need to record meetings or lectures without risking data leaks.
• Core Features: Real-time transcription with automatic punctuation, on-device speaker identification, and AI-generated summaries including action items and highlights. Basil organizes notes (searchable transcripts) and allows exports (to PDF, Apple Notes, etc.) all locally.
• Platform: Basil is available on iPhone, iPad and Mac as a universal app. The mobile app can capture both in-person audio and calls via the device's microphone. A web browser version also exists, which similarly runs entirely locally in the browser for transcription and summarization.
• Pricing: Basil offers a Free plan (up to 60 minutes of transcription per month) and a Pro plan for heavy users at $9.99/month or $99.99/year. The Pro plan unlocks unlimited transcription, cross-device iCloud sync, and other perks (e.g. no watermarks).

Basil vs Otter.ai

Otter.ai is often considered the "household name" in AI meeting transcription. It is a cloud-based note-taking service known for live transcription and meeting summaries, widely used for business meetings, lectures, and interviews. Otter has multi-platform support (Web, iOS, Android) and is heavily integrated with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams.

Features & Capabilities

Otter's OtterPilot AI assistant can automatically join virtual meetings (Zoom/Teams/Meet) to record and transcribe them in real time. It generates concise summaries of discussions and can identify speakers and highlight keywords. Otter also automatically captures action items and can even draft follow-up emails or notes from the meeting.

A newer feature, Otter AI Chat, lets users query their past meeting transcripts in natural language (e.g. "What did we decide about budget?") and get answers from the notes. Otter's transcripts are searchable and shareable, and it offers collaboration tools like commenting and editing shared meeting notes.

For sales teams, Otter provides conversation analytics and CRM integrations (syncing notes to Salesforce/HubSpot).

Pricing

• Free Basic plan: Up to ~300 monthly transcription minutes
• Pro plan: $16.99/month (or $8.33/month billed annually) - includes 1,200 minutes/month and advanced features
• Business plan: $20/user/month with higher limits and team collaboration features
• Enterprise plans: Enhanced security (SSO, admin controls) available

Otter's free tier is more generous than Basil's 60 min/month free, while Basil's Pro pricing ($8.33/mo annual) is comparable to Otter's Pro in cost.

User Reviews & Ease of Use

Users often praise Otter for its ease of use and reliable transcription for English. Its interface is clean and intuitive, making it easy to record and review transcripts.

G2 Rating: ~4.4/5 stars (400+ reviews)

Users highlight its accurate speech-to-text and time-saving summaries. Reviewers do note that Otter's summaries, while useful, aren't 100% accurate and may require manual editing for important meetings. One G2 user mentioned: "The summaries are vague and at times give inaccuracies… We find ourselves rewriting notes."

Privacy & Security

As a cloud service, Otter stores meeting data on its servers (not on-device). Otter has implemented security measures like SOC 2 Type II compliance, GDPR/CCPA alignment, and two-factor authentication. Deleted transcripts are auto-removed after 30 days.

Consideration: Otter is not EU-hosted (data likely stored in US). Users must trust Otter's policies that data won't be misused. Audio is uploaded and temporarily stored, which might raise compliance issues in certain fields (legal, medical) unless an enterprise agreement is in place.

Comparison with Basil

Fundamental difference: Cloud vs on-device.

Otter's strengths:

• Rich features and integration
• Automates meeting capture (auto-joining calls)
• Team collaboration and Q&A on transcripts
• Works across many platforms

Basil's advantages:

• No audio ever leaves your device, eliminating risks of data leaks or unauthorized access
• Ideal for confidential meetings where even Otter's compliance might not satisfy strict data policies (e.g. attorney-client discussions or patient data under HIPAA)
• Works offline (airplane mode)
• No account required

Summary: Otter is a powerful, widely-adopted AI notetaker with robust features, whereas Basil offers a trade-off: fewer integrations but superior privacy by keeping everything local.

Basil vs Fireflies.ai

Fireflies.ai is a popular AI meeting assistant known for transcribing and summarizing meetings with a strong focus on integration and collaboration. Fireflies can integrate with major web conferencing platforms and productivity apps, making it a versatile choice for many professionals.

Features & Capabilities

Fireflies works by either joining your online meetings as an automated participant (a bot named "Fred" by default) or by transcribing audio you record/upload. It creates a full transcript of the meeting and then provides AI-generated "Super Summaries" that include key points, an outline of the discussion, and action items.

Key features:

• Highlight important moments, add comments, and tag teammates on transcripts
• Powerful search and filtering – search keywords across all meetings
• Filter by metrics like speaker talk time, sentiment, or topics mentioned
• Conversation intelligence: tracking who spoke when, detecting tasks/questions, providing analytics
• Integrates with 40+ apps (CRM like HubSpot/Salesforce, Slack, project tools like Trello/Asana, Zapier, etc.)
• Supports transcription in 60+ languages

Pricing

• Free tier: Limited usage – up to 800 minutes of storage (free users cannot download transcripts)
• Pro: $18/user/month (or $10/user/month billed annually) – unlimited transcription for individuals, transcript exports, more integrations
• Business: $19/user/month (annual) with added collaboration features and unlimited storage
• Enterprise: $39/user/month with advanced admin controls

Fireflies' annual price ~$120/user/year vs Basil $100/year

User Reviews & Feedback

G2 Rating: 4.8/5 (700+ reviews)

Fireflies is highly regarded for its rich feature set. Users particularly praise its advanced capabilities (action item detection, comprehensive summaries) and ease of use. In expert reviews, Fireflies was picked as "best for advanced features" among AI notetakers.

Privacy & Security

Fireflies is a cloud solution – all recordings and transcripts reside on Fireflies' servers (hosted on AWS). Security features include data encryption, options to restrict meeting attendance to specific domains, and rules for not joining meetings unless invited.

Consideration: By design, Fireflies stores your meeting data (unless you delete it) to enable search and analytics. Organizations concerned about confidentiality might need to sign a BAA or enterprise agreement.

Comparison with Basil

Basil's key advantage: Privacy. With Basil, transcription and summary happen on your iPhone itself, and no meeting audio or text ever leaves your device. Fireflies uploads and stores audio in the cloud.

Basil is also bot-free: You don't add any participant to calls; you either use your phone's mic or the Basil web app to capture audio. More natural and less intrusive than Fireflies' bot approach.

Summary: Use Basil if you require maximum privacy or offline functionality; use Fireflies if you need deep integration with work apps, multi-language support, and collaborative AI note-taking.

Basil vs Avoma

Avoma is an AI meeting assistant and conversation intelligence platform primarily geared towards business teams (sales, customer success, product meetings). It records and transcribes meetings, but goes further by analyzing conversations to provide insights and coaching.

G2 Rating: 4.6/5 (1,300+ reviews)

Features & Capabilities

Avoma is an all-in-one platform that not only transcribes meetings but also analyzes them to help improve team performance.

Key features:

• Automatic transcription and summarization of meetings
• Speaker identification
• Tracking of topics, questions, and objections
• Sentiment analysis of calls
• CRM data filling
• Conversation intelligence: Dashboards show talk-to-listen ratios, common keywords, competitor mentions, coaching opportunities
• Analytics to "identify what's working and what's not on calls"
• Integrations with CRM systems (Salesforce, HubSpot), Slack, Google Calendar

Pricing

Avoma is a premium service with no fully free tier (aside from trial):

• Professional plan: ~$19/user/month (billed annually) – includes transcription, basic analytics, integrations
• Business/Enterprise: $40+ user/month – advanced analytics, custom reporting, admin controls

Avoma's pricing reflects its enterprise focus. For individual users: Basil Pro is $99/year vs Avoma ~$240/year minimum

Comparison with Basil

Basil and Avoma serve very different user needs:

Basil: Ideal for individual or small team needing straightforward transcription and summaries with ironclad privacy. For lawyers or doctors working solo, Basil gives simple transcripts without exposing client data.

Avoma: Aimed at organizations wanting to leverage AI to deeply analyze and archive meeting conversations. For sales teams or product teams, provides advanced workflows (talk time tracking, Salesforce auto-update, etc.)

Key differences:

• Privacy: Basil = local, Avoma = cloud
• Setup: Basil easier (no account, just install app); Avoma requires onboarding
• Cost: Basil low entry cost; Avoma significant investment per user
• Features: Basil covers basic transcription/summarization; Avoma provides robust analytics and team collaboration

Basil vs MeetGeek

MeetGeek is a newer AI meeting assistant that has gained positive attention for its user-friendly design and high-quality summaries. In some 2025 rankings, MeetGeek was rated as the #1 AI note-taker for its balanced features and usability.

Features & Capabilities

MeetGeek automatically records, transcribes, and summarizes meetings. One standout aspect is its AI-generated meeting notes templates.

Key features:

• Notes categorized into sections: Tasks, Decisions, Next Steps, Questions, etc.
• Detects meeting type (sales call vs. team sync) and applies suitable template
• Can join automatically based on calendar preferences
• Searchable meetings library
• Share snippets of calls and comment on notes
• Mobile app allows recording in-person meetings with AI summaries

Pricing

• Free plan: 5 hours of transcription per month + up to 3 months stored transcripts (includes AI summaries and integrations)
• Pro plan: ~$15/user/month (billed annually)
• Business plan: ~$39/user/month (annually)

MeetGeek's free 5 hours is more than Basil's free 1 hour. MeetGeek's Pro is pricier than Basil's $9.99 for full functionality.

User Reviews & Ease of Use

G2 Rating: ~4.6/5 (400+ reviews)

MeetGeek has been lauded for its ease of setup and high-quality output. One reviewer said: "MeetGeek offers the best AI meeting summaries I've seen" and provides "superbly structured meeting notes".

Comparison with Basil

Both cater to individuals and professionals, but prioritize differently:

MeetGeek focus: Streamlined meeting productivity – automates the whole workflow of capturing and producing easy-to-read summaries with next steps.

Basil focus: Privacy and simplicity – captures and summarizes, but leaves structure more to the user. All happens on your device.

Summary: Choose Basil when you need offline capability and data security; choose MeetGeek when you want maximum automation and polished meeting minutes for general business use.

Basil vs Notta

Notta is an AI-powered transcription and note-taking app that has gained traction especially among individuals, students, and multilingual users. It offers real-time transcription, AI summaries, and even translation features. Notta was featured as an App of the Day by Apple.

Features & Capabilities

Notta's core feature is highly accurate speech-to-text transcription, boasting up to 98.86% accuracy in ideal conditions.

Key features:

• Supports 58 languages for transcription
• Can translate transcripts into 42 languages on the fly
• AI summarization: instant summary or key points after recording
• Handles both live recording and file uploads
• Noise reduction – AI removes background noise for clearer audio
• Integrates with hardware: Notta Memo and other recorders

Pricing

• Free plan: VERY limited – only 3 minutes per recording (essentially a trial)
• Premium plan: $14.99/month or $114.99/year (~$9.58/month if annual)

Basil's paid plan is $99/year for unlimited minutes (English only). Notta's pricing slightly higher for annual plan and caps at 30 hours/month.

User Reviews & Feedback

App Store Rating: 4.0/5 (from ~1,000 ratings)
G2 Rating: ~4.4/5 (200+ reviews)

Pros: Transcription accuracy, translation feature, intuitive interface
Cons: Free tier too restrictive, occasional app bugs

Privacy & Security

Notta is cloud-based – sends audio to servers for processing.

Security: SOC 2 Type II certification, ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification

Comparison with Basil

Biggest differences: Privacy/offline capability vs. language/features breadth.

Basil hallmark: Privacy: never requires internet or uploading audio. Unrivaled for offline use and confidentiality.

Notta advantages: Multiple languages (Spanish, French, Chinese, etc.), instant translation of transcripts, generous cross-device sync.

When to choose:

• Basil: Privacy/offline mode (secure facility with no internet, Basil works and transcribes in real time)
• Notta: Multi-language support or advanced export/share options

Conclusion & Decision Guide

AI note-taking for meetings has evolved into a competitive space with many capable apps. In the USA, on iOS devices, the top contenders like Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Avoma, MeetGeek, and Notta each offer unique strengths – from Otter's well-known reliability to Avoma's deep analytics – but they all rely on cloud processing.

Basil positions itself differently by providing an on-device, privacy-first solution. For individuals, professionals (doctors, lawyers, journalists), or students who value confidentiality and control over their data, Basil offers peace of mind that none of their meeting content is leaving their personal device.

Quick Decision Framework

Choose Basil if:

• You often work offline
• You handle confidential information
• Privacy is paramount (legal, medical, journalism)
• You want simple, straightforward transcription without cloud dependency

Choose cloud alternatives if:

• You need richest AI summaries and cross-app integrations
• You're part of a sales organization needing analytics
• You require multi-language support
• Team collaboration is essential

Read Detailed Comparisons

• Otter vs Basil: Complete Comparison →
• Fireflies vs Basil: Complete Comparison →
• Avoma vs Basil: Complete Comparison →
• MeetGeek vs Basil: Complete Comparison →
• Notta vs Basil: Complete Comparison →

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