Fireflies vs Otter vs Sonix: Which AI Transcription Tool is Best For You?

There are many accurate, affordable, and user-friendly transcription services to choose from. Having so many options can make finding the right transcription service difficult. They might look the same on the surface, but have notable differences in terms of functionality and features, benefits, ideal usage cases, and more.

Both Otter and Fireflies are excellent choices as far as creating transcripts and summaries of meetings and recorded audio are concerned. They’re simple to use, intelligent, and take away a lot of the burdening tasks off your shoulders. However, despite being good, they’re not perfect and lack some core features and functionality that services such as Sonix do offer with the same price tag.

This is an in-depth Fireflies vs Otter vs Sonix comparison to determine which of the three is the best option for you. With varying accuracy levels, price points, features, and intended purposes, each is a reputable transcription service worth considering. But, we’re here to find out which one stands out above the pack as the number one AI transcription service in the market.

Key Takeaways

• Fireflies features a transcription accuracy rate of roughly 90%, with Otter having an accuracy rate of 83%.
• Both Fireflies and Otter are ideal for transcribing live meetings and conversations, with Fireflies being best for note-taking. However, both of these are practically limited to transcribing meetings.
• Both services leave something to be desired, especially in terms of overall transcription accuracy, with Sonix being the much better option on these fronts with a whopping 99% accuracy.

Fireflies vs Otter vs Sonix at a Glance

Sonix Overview

Sonix is a state-of-the-art service that focuses heavily on AI transcription, subtitling, captioning, and translation. Impressively, the 99% accuracy rate that Sonix is able to achieve in its transcriptions rivals any other service out there, whether AI or human.

Thanks to its wide range of AI Analysis features, Sonix is suitable for a range of applications and professionals. It’s especially adept for multimedia professionals, video and audio editors, content creators, captioning, and anyone who needs accurate transcripts and translations in over 39 languages. 

Quality isn’t the only selling point of Sonix, because the speed of its transcription is just as notable. It’s an ideal solution for those requiring highly accurate transcripts at remarkable turnaround times. Thanks to the plentiful features that Sonix comes with, it’s currently an industry-leading transcription service.

Features

There are a ton of powerful features you get with Sonix, with the ones below being the most valuable ones.

High Transcription Accuracy

With accuracy rates ranging from 97% to 99%, Sonix is as close as you’ll get to 100% accuracy without the need for human editing. Transcripts created by Sonix rarely require heavy human editing, allowing transcripts to be put to use much faster than with other services.

By using advanced speaker recognition and generative artificial intelligence, Sonix can create highly accurate transcripts in record time. Speed is another selling point, with Sonix being able to create transcripts out of several hours of content in just a few minutes.

Language Capabilities

An impressive feature of Sonix is that it has advanced language capabilities. It’s able to create highly accurate transcripts in over 39 languages. This makes it suitable for a wide range of applications, as its many supported languages allow users to reach a much larger audience with their content.

Advanced Security Features

Perhaps one of the biggest selling points users get with Sonix is its advanced security features. When it comes to enterprise-grade security, Sonix is at the forefront of the industry with state–of–the–art technology. 

With security systems in place such as two-factor authentication, enterprise-grade security file storage, at-rest encryption, SSL encryption, TLS data encryption, a dedicated security team, strict password policy enforcement, SOC 2 Type 2 compliance, and more, businesses of all sizes can take peace of mind in knowing that their data is secure.

AI Analysis

Sonix is at the forefront of the recent AI boom, with a variety of AI tools to make the transcription process better and more efficient. One such feature is the automatically generated summaries feature that generates short summaries of long transcripts to help save users time.

These summaries are created using a variety of tools, including sentiment analysis, thematic analysis, speaker labeling, and more. This means that summaries include vital information about the transcript, such as the sentiment and emotional tone of each speaker, clear labeling of who said what, and what the main themes and topics of the discussion are.

Integrative and Collaboration Features

Sonix integrates an array of tools and applications to make your workflow smoother and the transcription process as efficient as can be. It includes a variety of research, media, and productivity integrations. Just some of these include Adobe Premiere, Dropbox, Zoom, Evernote, Dropbox, OneDrive, Zapier, Google Drive, and YouTube.

Sonix also makes it much easier for teams to work together, with the collaborative features being particularly suitable for enterprise solutions. The live editor allows for real-time editing by multiple team members at the same time.

This editor also allows users to choose from a variety of security settings, create shared folders, choose advanced security settings, and even change permissions at a granular level.

Pricing

Another attractive feature of Sonix is that it’s suitable for both individual and business needs alike. It features a pay-as-you-go plan that is suitable for single transcriptions, as well as subscriptions that are suitable for long-term and steady use.

• Basic Pay-As-You-Go Plan: $10 Per Hour
• Premium Plan: $5 Per Hour, Plus an Additional $22 Per User
• Enterprise Plan: You will need to contact Sonix directly for teams that require high volumes.

If high accuracy rates, fast turnaround times, and advanced AI tools are what you’re looking for in a transcription service, along with advanced language capabilities for great global outreach, Sonix is absolutely worth considering as one of the top services in the world.

Looking to try out Sonix’s long list of features? Sign up for a free trial today to get 30 minutes of free transcription. No credit card required. 

Fireflies Overview

Fireflies AI is a top competitor in the world of transcription and is primarily in the market to help people record meetings.

If you are in an industry where meetings, lectures, and conversations need to be recorded, transcribed, and analyzed, then Fireflies may be an ideal choice for you.

Not only does Fireflies produce transcripts, but it also comes packed with analytical features that provide you with in-depth insights into your conversations and meetings. As far as integrations are concerned, Fireflies is geared specifically towards video conferencing tools.

Features

Fireflies has a number of features that make it an appealing option for those who need a tool to record and transcribe online meetings.

Recordings

Fireflies is able to record video and audio from online meetings, which can then be analyzed for future purposes.

Transcripts

Perhaps the leading feature of Fireflies is its capability to create real-time conversation transcripts from meetings, lectures, and conversations from many video conferencing applications.

Integrations

To that end, Fireflies integrates with many of the most popular video conferencing tools used by individuals and businesses alike, such as Zoom and Google Meet.

AI Summaries and Analysis

Fireflies is able to use its advanced learning capabilities to create summaries of meetings and conversations, which contain valuable insights and the most crucial talking points that require extra attention.

This summary feature is also able to extract the main keywords and topics from transcripts while also allowing users to search for key terms within a transcript.

Its ability to detect both decisions and actions made within a meeting or conversation can be pretty helpful as well.

Pricing

An appealing feature of Fireflies is that it comes with one of the best free plans in the industry, with 800 minutes of storage and unlimited transcriptions. However, the free plan doesn’t have most of the features that make it such a great tool. If you want to access the entire suite of Fireflies’ features, you’ll have to get the paid tiers.

• Pro: $18 per Seat/Month – Unlimited Transcription + 8,000 Minutes of Storage
• Business: $29 per Seat/Month – Unlimited Transcription + Unlimited Storage
• Enterprise: $39 per Seat/Month – Unlimited Transcription + Unlimited Minutes of Storage (and Enterprise exclusive features)

Otter Overview

Otter, or Otter.ai, is another popular transcription service geared toward industry professionals that require their meetings, lectures, and online conversations to be transcribed in real time. Anyone needing live sessions to be transcribed and condensed for ease of readability should consider Otter.ai.

An important part that we should probably clarify here is that Otter is not the best tool when it comes to language or accuracy. Otter is only able to create transcriptions of conversations in English, along with an average 85% accuracy rate, with both of these being drawbacks that leave something to be desired.

Features

Otter.ai has a few standout core features that make it an attractive option for those who need fast and reliable transcripts of real-time conversations.

Integrations

To allow for meeting transcription, Otter integrates with an array of video conferencing tools, mainly Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams.

OtterPilot

To that end, Otter features the OtterPilot, a feature that allows it to join Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams meetings automatically whenever one takes place. It is also able to transcribe those meetings automatically in real-time. It’s a useful feature for teams that need their meetings recorded and documented.

Otter Workspaces

Otter Workspaces is ideal for large teams and businesses that need to work together to edit and analyze transcripts. 

It’s one of the best collaborative features in the business, as it allows users to edit transcripts simultaneously, share conversations with team members, categorize them, highlight important points, and more.

Users can also centralize billing, manage all team members, get access to analytics and reporting, and more. That said, the majority of these features are exclusive to the enterprise solution, which can be quite costly.

Summaries and Follow-Ups

Otter uses a variety of artificial intelligence features to create summaries of transcripts, allowing users to gain insights from a conversation without having to read the entirety of it.

These summaries feature the most important points highlighted and condensed into simple notes, and then even send a follow-up email to all team members involved in the conversation.

That being said, some current or former users have noted that this feature isn’t quite as dependable as one would like.  

Pricing

Many people like Otter due to its attractive price scale, including a free plan that rivals its competitors. However, there are many customers who complain about Otter’s tendency to change pricing without notifying its customers. So, it’s important to note here that the prices mentioned above can be changed in the future.

• Basic Plan: Free of Cost – 300 Transcription Minutes and Up to 30 Minutes per Conversation
• Pro Plan: $16.99 per Month – 1,200 Transcription Minutes and up to 90 Minutes per Conversation
• Business Plan: $30 per Month: 6,000 Transcription Minutes and up to 4 Hours per Conversation
• Enterprise: You’ll Need to Contact Otter for Pricing and Details

Find out how Otter stacks up against Sonix right here.

Fireflies vs Otter vs Sonix: Accuracy

If accuracy is your number one concern, Sonix is the best option in the market. Its advanced learning capabilities and range of AI tools allow for transcription accuracy rates as high as 99%, making it the best in class. Transcripts from Sonix rarely require heavy human editing, if any at all.

Otter, on the other hand, comes in at roughly 85%, with Fireflies rarely getting above 90%. While they’re both fairly accurate as well, they require a good amount of editing to make the transcripts usable.

Fireflies vs Otter vs Sonix: Security Measures

Let’s not mistake both Fireflies and Otter for lacking in the security department. Otter comes with the 265-bit AES standard, two-factor authentication, AWS SSE, and more, with Fireflies featuring many of the same security measures. They aren’t bad by any means, but when compared to leading competitors such as Sonix, they certainly lag behind.

Sonix has one of the most extensive lists of security features of any transcription service, which includes, but is not limited to, a dedicated security team, SSL and at-rest encryption, TLS data encryption, enterprise-grade security file storage, SOC 2 type 2 compliance, two-factor authentication, and password policy enforcement.

Fireflies vs Otter vs Sonix: Speed of Transcription

Sonix isn’t just accurate; it’s fast as well. It takes just minutes to process hours of content, making it ideal for those who are in a hurry. Otter and Fireflies are both quick as well, especially in terms of real-time meeting transcriptions.

While all three tools are fairly quick, it’s important to keep accuracy in mind as well. Fireflies and Otter have 90% and 85%, respectively. Meanwhile, Sonix’s accuracy goes up to 99%. This means that if you take editing times into account, the transcript from Sonix will be ready to deliver in much less time.

Fireflies vs Otter vs Sonix: Integrations

Both Otter and Fireflies are designed to integrate with various video conferencing and meeting tools. Although they have a select few integrations, the focus with both is heavily on conferencing tools.

Sonix, while also being able to integrate with a range of video conferencing tools, also has plenty of other integration capabilities, ranging across multimedia, research, analysis, and productivity integrations, dozens of them. When it comes to creating a smooth workflow, Sonix is the industry standard.

Fireflies vs Otter vs Sonix: Language Support

Otter only functions in English, which is a definite drawback. We then have Fireflies, which supports over 60 languages, making it one of the best video-conferencing transcription tools for those who need a single tool for conversations in multiple languages.

Sonix is not far behind on this front, as it supports 39+ languages. While that number isn’t as high as Fireflies, it’s much more than what most people are looking for. You can take a look at the languages Sonix supports here.

Another factor that we want to emphasize here is that more languages do not necessarily make one tool better than the other. The main factor here is still accuracy. As we mentioned earlier, Fireflies’ transcriptions rarely go over 90% accuracy, while Sonix’s transcripts are regularly in the 97-99% accuracy range. So, even if you’re using a language that Fireflies supports and Sonix doesn’t, it’s going to produce results with a lower accuracy. An accuracy that, in some cases, will be worse than English.

Fireflies vs Otter vs Sonix: Plans and Costs

Sonix has a great pay-as-you-go option that makes it suitable for individual and singular needs while being fairly affordable. Both the premium and enterprise solutions are reasonably priced as well. There may be cheaper options out there, but you get what you pay for, and with Sonix, quality is always at the forefront.

Otter also appears to have a suitable range of plans to choose from, all with reasonable prices, but appearances can be deceiving. Otter’s tendency to change pricing and move features to higher tiers has turned the tool into a bit of a black sheep.

If a free plan is what you want, then Fireflies is a great option, particularly if you just want a lot of free transcription minutes. The free plan needs to be improved as far as the available features are concerned, but it’s still a steal.

Fireflies vs Otter vs Sonix: Which Should You Choose?

Fireflies vs Otter vs Sonix: The Bottom Line

With all of the transcription services out there, making a choice can be difficult. When it comes to three leading competitors, Fireflies, Otter, and Sonix, each has its advantages and drawbacks. 

However, if what you are looking for is the best bang for your buck, high accuracy rates, fast turnaround times, and vast AI capabilities, there’s no arguing that Sonix comes out on top.

If you’re looking to try it out, Sonix has a free trial with 30 minutes of transcription available. No credit card required!

Fireflies vs Otter: Frequently Asked Questions

Let’s go over some of your most frequently asked questions about Fireflies vs Otter vs Sonix.

Which Platform Offers Better Accuracy for Transcription?

Although both Otter and Fireflies are useful for real-time meeting transcriptions, their accuracy leaves something to be desired, coming in at roughly 83% and 90%, respectively. 

Sonix, thanks to its advanced machine learning capabilities, sits at between 97% and 99%. Sonix is adept at dealing with background noise and heavy accents, which most other AI transcription services are not.

Is There a Free Version Available for Fireflies or Otter?

Yes, Fireflies has a free version that comes with 800 minutes of transcriptions, and Otter comes with 300 monthly transcription minutes free of cost.

Can I Integrate Fireflies and Otter with Other Tools?

Both Otter and Fireflies are designed specifically to integrate with a wide variety of video conferencing tools, as recording and transcribing live meetings and conversations is their primary purpose.