The short answer
Otter.ai is a cloud service: it records and transcribes your meetings on its servers, with strong real-time transcription, summaries and integrations with Zoom, Google Meet and Teams. MeetIT does the same core job — record, transcribe, write minutes — but locally on your own machine, so nothing is uploaded.
If your priority is cloud collaboration and live integrations, Otter is excellent. If it’s privacy, data ownership and working offline, that’s where a local-first tool wins.
What Otter.ai is good at
Otter is mature and easy: real-time transcripts you can share, automatic summaries, speaker labels, and bots that join your video calls to capture them. Its collaboration features and integrations are a genuine strength for teams that live in the cloud.
The trade-off is inherent to the cloud model: your meeting audio and transcripts are processed and stored on a third party’s servers, on a subscription, and you need a connection.
How MeetIT is different
MeetIT records mic and system audio and transcribes on your own device by default. Your recordings, transcripts and minutes are files you own, stored locally — no AI company trains on your meetings, and sensitive conversations never leave the laptop. It works offline, and there’s no account required to start.
It also writes structured minutes with decisions and action items, and can turn a recording into study materials — useful if you record lectures as well as meetings. In return, it isn’t a cloud collaboration hub the way Otter is; it’s built around your own machine.
Which should you choose?
Choose Otter.ai if you want cloud sharing, live call-bot integrations and team collaboration above all.
Choose MeetIT if you want your meetings to stay private and on your device, prefer owning your files over a subscription, or need it to work offline. For many people handling confidential or regulated conversations, local-first isn’t a preference — it’s a requirement.
Frequently asked questions
Is MeetIT a free Otter.ai alternative?
MeetIT runs locally and lets you record and transcribe on your own device. It uses a licence model rather than a subscription, and there’s no account needed to get started.
Does MeetIT upload my meetings like Otter does?
No. Transcription and AI run on-device by default, so your audio, transcripts and minutes stay on your machine and are never uploaded.
Does it work offline?
Yes. Because transcription runs locally, MeetIT works without a connection — unlike cloud services that need to reach a server.