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FocusBae vs Otter

Otter is one of the best-known meeting transcription services. Its Notetaker joins your calls as a participant, and everything is transcribed and stored in Otter’s cloud. FocusBae records on your Mac with no bot, keeps the transcript on your Mac, and focuses on the action items: who promised what, in their own words, and whether it got done.

Feature	FocusBae	Otter
How it records	On your Mac: microphone, system audio or both. No bot joins.	Otter Notetaker joins the call as a participant. The desktop app and Chrome extension can also record without it.
Where audio is transcribed	On your Mac by default. Team admins can choose cloud transcription for their workspace.	In Otter’s cloud, including recordings made without the bot.
Where notes are stored	On your Mac. Pages you share with a team sync to FocusBae for teams.	Otter’s cloud.
Account needed	No. The Mac app works without signing in.	Yes.
Works offline	Yes, once the speech models are downloaded.	No. Transcription happens in Otter’s cloud.
AI meeting notes	No. You write the notes; FocusBae suggests action items from the transcript.	Yes. AI summaries and chat across meetings.
Action items	Suggested from the transcript with the exact quote, owner and due date. You accept or dismiss each one.	Listed in each meeting’s summary.
Following up	One Actions list across all meetings, and a page per person: what you owe them and what they owe you.	Per meeting, with search and chat across meetings.
Open source	Yes, MIT licence. The code is on GitHub.	No.
Devices	Mac with Apple Silicon, macOS 26 or later. Teams can read and comment on the web.	Web, Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android.
Price	Free. FocusBae for teams is in a free pilot.	Free with 300 minutes a month. Pro $16.99 a month ($8.33 billed yearly). Business $30 per user ($19.99 billed yearly).

Checked October 31, 2026. Prices and features change, so check Otter’s own pages before deciding. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we’ll fix it.

Choose Otter if

You want a bot to record meetings you can’t attend.
You want AI summaries and live transcripts shared with everyone in the call.
You use Windows, Android or mostly the web.
You need many languages transcribed well. On-device transcription in FocusBae works best in English.

Choose FocusBae if

You don’t want a bot in your client or team calls.
You don’t want meeting audio and transcripts stored on someone else’s servers.
You care most about what people promised and whether it got done.
You want it free, with no minute limits and no account.

Get FocusBae for Mac

Sources

FocusBae details come from the current Mac release and its source code. See all comparisons.