Scroll tables sideways to compare both products.
Otter vs Fireflies vs ScreenApp
Consider Otter if price matters most and you mainly record live meetings. Otter Pro has the lowest listed Pro price of the three. Its free Basic account accepted our uploaded meeting and answered both prompts. Uploads are where it is tight: Basic allows 3 file imports for the life of the account, and our single upload left 2.
Consider Fireflies if you want uploads and AI notes on a free account. Fireflies Free accepted the same file and returned a transcript, a native summary and answers to both prompts. Its Pro price sits between the other two. Its action-item answer was the odd one out: it found no assigned task where Otter and ScreenApp each found one.
Consider ScreenApp if you want the recording, the transcript and the AI answers in one place, or you ask questions across many recordings. Pro accepted the file on both test days and returned an assigned task with an owner label and a timestamp each time. It is the most expensive Pro plan here, and on one day its answer searched the whole library instead of the one file.
All three completed the upload workflow. The rest of this page is the prices, the plan limits and what each tool returned from the same file and the same two prompts. Nothing here establishes which is more accurate or faster.
Quick Comparison
“Observed” means we saw it happen in the upload test. “Documented” means the vendor lists it and we did not exercise it.
| What We Checked | Otter Basic | Fireflies Free | ScreenApp Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Same MP4 upload | Observed: accepted on 22 September | Observed: accepted on 23 September | Observed: accepted on both days |
| Transcript | Observed: text saved | Observed: 23 paragraphs, ending at 7:45 | Observed: text saved, ending at 7:51 on 23 September |
| Identical summary prompt | Observed: answer returned, length not counted | Observed: 168 words | Observed: 168 words on 23 September |
| Identical action-item prompt | Observed: one task, owner not stated, timestamp 0:00:00 | Observed: no assigned task, 5 proposed tasks | Observed: one task, a role label as owner, timestamp 6:32 |
| Meeting platforms | Documented: Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet | Documented: Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams | Documented: Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams |
| Recording without a bot | Documented: desktop app records without a bot joining the call | Documented: Chrome extension recording without the Fireflies bot | Documented: recording from the web app, Chrome extension, Mac and Windows apps, or iOS and Android apps |
| Transcription languages | Documented: 6 | Documented: 100+ | Documented: 100+ |
| Live meeting capture | Not tested | Not tested | Not tested |
| Accuracy and speed | Not established | Not established | Not established |
Sources, checked 2026-09-28: otter.ai/pricing, screenapp.io/alternatives/otter-vs-fireflies-vs-screenapp#test-results, Fireflies comparison methodology, otter.ai/otterpilot, fireflies.ai/integrations, ScreenApp meeting bot repository, Fireflies pricing, ScreenApp desktop apps, guide.fireflies.ai/articles/4027724828-learn-about-the-fireflies-free-plan, screenapp.io/accuracy#languages
Sources for the documented rows: Otter plans and Fireflies plans, prices checked 28 September 2026 and feature lists checked between 12 and 23 September 2026, and ScreenApp plans. The observed rows come from our own upload runs.
Strengths and Trade-offs
Otter
The lowest listed Pro price of the three. Basic produced transcript text, a native summary and answers to both prompts without a payment.
Imports are the catch. Basic lists 3 lifetime file imports and Pro lists 10 a month, so a library of old recordings does not fit the free plan. Its action answer pointed to the very start of the recording, which needs checking against the audio.
Fireflies
Free accepted the upload and returned everything we asked for: transcript, native summary and both prompted answers. Pro is priced per seat and sits between Otter and ScreenApp.
Its action answer classified the VS Code task as unassigned, even though its own transcript has a speaker volunteering for it at 6:31. Video recording is documented from Pro, not on Free.
ScreenApp
Recording, transcript and prompted answers open together. Both action answers named the task, an owner label and a supporting timestamp, and separated proposed work.
Two things went against it. The owner label changed between days, Developer on 22 September and Product Designer on 23 September, for what reads as the same speaker. And the 23 September answer reported 13 library matches, so it was not confined to the one file. Pro also costs more than the other two Pro plans.
Price Comparison
Standard USD prices, checked 28 September 2026 on each vendor’s pricing page. Annual columns show the monthly equivalent with annual billing. Otter and Fireflies charge per user or seat; ScreenApp lists subscription prices without that label. Otter’s page also showed a promotional annual rate, which is excluded here. Confirm checkout totals, taxes and team terms before buying.
Sources, checked 2026-09-23: otter.ai/pricing, Fireflies pricing, ScreenApp pricing
We tested Otter Basic, Fireflies Free and ScreenApp Pro. The Pro and Business rows are here for the subscription decision, not because we tested those plans. Enterprise tiers are on each vendor’s page: Otter, Fireflies and ScreenApp.
Allowances and Limits
The three vendors count different things. Otter counts minutes and imports, Fireflies counts storage and file size, ScreenApp counts transcriptions and uploads. The table puts the published figures side by side; do not read across a row as if the units matched.
| Allowance | Otter | Fireflies | ScreenApp |
|---|---|---|---|
| File uploads on the free plan | 3 imports for the life of the account | Video files up to 100 MB, within 400 minutes of storage | 3 trial uploads and 2 transcriptions |
| Free transcription allowance | 300 minutes a month | Counted as storage, not minutes transcribed | Counted as transcriptions, not minutes |
| Longest recording on the free plan | 30 minutes per conversation | Uploads up to 150 minutes | 45 minutes per recording |
| Paid plan recording and upload limits | Pro: 1,200 recording minutes a month, 90 minutes per conversation, 10 file imports a month | Paid plans: video files up to 2 GB | Pro: 50 transcriptions and 500 uploads a month, 2 hours per recording. Max: unlimited, 3 hours per recording |
| AI questions on the free plan | 20 a month | 20 credits a month | 10 a month |
| What our one upload used | One import, leaving 2 | Free meetings label went from 3 to 2 | One Pro upload each day; allowance not reached |
Sources, checked 2026-09-28: otter.ai/pricing, screenapp.io/alternatives/otter-vs-fireflies-vs-screenapp#test-results, Fireflies pricing, guide.fireflies.ai/articles/4027724828-learn-about-the-fireflies-free-plan, ScreenApp pricing, Fireflies upload guide, screenapp.io/help/how-many-minutes-can-i-record, help.otter.ai/hc/en-us/articles/17016733191703-Otter-AI-Chat-FAQs
Sources: Otter plan allowances, checked 28 September 2026; Fireflies plans, checked 28 September 2026, and the Fireflies upload guide, checked 23 September 2026; ScreenApp plans. The last row is our own observation from the test accounts.
Test Results
One File, Two Prompts, Two Days
We used the same trimmed Product Marketing Meeting recording every time: 480.04 seconds long and 12,341,615 bytes, with its SHA-256 hash recorded before each upload so the bytes were identical. It went to Otter Basic and ScreenApp Pro on 22 September 2026, and to Fireflies Free and ScreenApp Pro on 23 September 2026. ScreenApp therefore appears twice in the results, once per day, and the two ScreenApp runs did not return identical answers.
After each upload we asked the same two questions in each tool’s own AI chat, summary first, then action items.
Read the Identical Test Prompts
Summary: Summarize this meeting in no more than 180 words. Use headings Discussion, Agreed Decisions, and Unresolved Proposals. Include only information supported by the transcript. Do not invent decisions, owners or deadlines.
Action items: List only explicitly assigned action items from this meeting. For each, give the task, owner, deadline including timezone if stated, and supporting timestamp. Write "Not stated" for missing details. Separately list proposed or unassigned work. Do not invent commitments.
Measured Results
| Result | Otter Basic, 22 Sep | Fireflies Free, 23 Sep | ScreenApp Pro, 22 Sep | ScreenApp Pro, 23 Sep |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upload accepted | Yes, after file-picker retries | Yes, on the second attempt | Yes | Yes |
| Transcript reached the end | Text saved | 23 paragraphs, last at 7:45 | Text saved | Last passage at 7:51 |
| Summary length | Not counted | 168 words | Not counted | 168 words |
| Assigned tasks found | One | None | One | One |
| Proposed or unassigned tasks | Listed, not counted | 5 | Listed, not counted | Listed, not counted |
| Owner given for the task | Not stated | No task to assign | Developer, a transcript role label | Product Designer, a transcript role label |
| Supporting timestamp | 0:00:00 | None; its transcript places the offer at 6:31 | 6:32 | 6:32 |
| Deadline given | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated |
| Where the answer looked | The one conversation | The one meeting | The one recording | The whole library, 13 matches |
| Processing time | Not measured | Not measured | Not measured | Not measured |
| Accuracy against a checked reference | Not scored | Not scored | Not scored | Not scored |
Sources, checked 2026-09-28: screenapp.io/alternatives/otter-vs-fireflies-vs-screenapp#test-results, Fireflies comparison methodology
Word counts use whitespace splitting on the isolated response text, headings included. Timestamps and labels are copied from the responses. None of these figures has been checked against a full listen to the audio.
What the Answers Said
The recording contains a passage where one speaker offers to add VS Code to the announcement list. That single moment produced three different readings. Otter and ScreenApp both reported it as an assigned action item. Fireflies listed it as proposed work and reported no assigned tasks at all, even though its own transcript shows the offer at 6:31. Whether a volunteered offer counts as an assignment is a judgment call, and a human listen is the only way to settle whether either reading misrepresents the meeting.
The supporting timestamps diverged too. Otter cited 0:00:00, the start of the recording. ScreenApp cited 6:32 on both days, close to where the Fireflies transcript puts the offer. That makes Otter’s citation the outlier, but we have not confirmed the exact moment in the audio.
Owners were the third difference. Otter wrote “Not stated”. ScreenApp named a role label from its transcript, and that label was Developer on 22 September and Product Designer on 23 September for the same recording. A generated role label is not a verified identity, and the fact that it changed between uploads is a weakness worth knowing about before you rely on ScreenApp’s owner field.
On the summaries, Fireflies and ScreenApp both followed the three requested headings and landed on the same length. They disagreed on one point: Fireflies put a monthly-active-users measurement under agreed decisions, while ScreenApp left it under unresolved proposals. Otter’s summary and ScreenApp’s 22 September summary both covered grouping announcements into themes, reusing launch material and the uncertainty about measuring excitement. None of the four summaries has been scored for omissions.
Otter Action Items, 22 September
Fireflies Action Items, 23 September
ScreenApp Action Items, 22 September
ScreenApp Action Items, 23 September
What We Did Not Test
Live meeting capture, calendar sync, the meeting bots, integrations, export file contents, sharing to another person, languages other than English and speaker identity accuracy. We did not test Otter Pro or Fireflies Pro, and we did not measure processing time on any tool. No word error rate exists for these runs because nobody has yet listened to the whole clip and corrected a reference transcript.
How We Tested
Dates: 22 September 2026 for Otter and ScreenApp, 23 September 2026 for Fireflies and ScreenApp. Input: the identical MP4 described above, previously processed by ScreenApp, so caching may have helped ScreenApp and no timing is reported. Environment: Chrome incognito on macOS in Sri Lanka, on the same machine. Accounts: Otter Basic set to English (US), Fireflies Free set to English (Global), ScreenApp Pro on its default transcription settings with library-wide chat left on.
Method: assisted browser interaction in our own test accounts. Otter’s first file-selection attempts did not start an upload and the Browse Files route then accepted the file; those retries are in the internal record. A manual Fireflies attempt was left unconfirmed when its lists appeared empty, and an assisted upload then completed. Fireflies’ terms restrict automated access; running the assisted upload was our decision in our own account and does not imply Fireflies’ consent. We saved native summaries before asking the identical prompts, then saved the responses as text and as cropped screenshots. No continuous screen recording was made.
Records: each run has a folder with the file hash, the prompts, the saved responses, screenshots and an attempt log. The source video is not republished, and the screenshots exclude account details.
Limitations: three different plans; one accepted upload per product per day rather than repeated trials; a reused file; no controlled timing; no human audio-verified reference; no word error rate. ScreenApp’s 23 September answer was not confined to the test file. Otter’s and ScreenApp’s 22 September summaries were not word-counted. Prices were checked on 28 September 2026 and the feature facts between 12 and 23 September 2026.
ScreenApp Pty Ltd publishes this page and sells ScreenApp. Read the results with that in mind, and check the details against your own recording.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which of the Three Is Cheapest?
Otter Pro has the lowest listed price of the three Pro plans at both billing frequencies, Fireflies Pro is next, and ScreenApp Pro is the highest. All three have a free tier, but the free tiers ration different things: imports on Otter, storage and file size on Fireflies, transcriptions and uploads on ScreenApp. See the price table and the allowances.
Which Is the Most Accurate?
We do not know. All three produced a transcript from the same file, and we saved all of them, but none has been scored against a reference that a person corrected after listening to the whole recording. The action-item differences on this page are discrepancies to check, not an accuracy ranking.
Which Is the Fastest?
Not measured. Otter needed file-picker retries, Fireflies needed a second attempt, and ScreenApp had processed the file before. Any timing from these runs would be misleading, so we do not publish one.
Can All Three Transcribe an Uploaded Video?
Do They All Join Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams?
All three document a meeting assistant for Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, and all three document a way to record without a bot joining the call. We tested none of this. This page covers uploaded files only.
Why Does ScreenApp Appear Twice in the Results?
Because the Otter and Fireflies runs happened on different days, and the file was uploaded to ScreenApp again on each day as the comparison partner. Keeping both runs visible is more honest than merging them, and it exposed the owner-label change described above.
Where Are the Screenshots and Recordings?
The action-item and summary responses are on this page as cropped, privacy-reviewed screenshots. The Otter screenshots were captured after the run from the saved conversation. The source meeting video is not republished, and no screen recording of the uploads exists.
Try the Same File Yourself
Open ScreenApp, explore Otter or explore Fireflies. Upload one recording to each, ask the same two questions, and check the owners, timestamps and decisions against the audio before you trust any of them.