Dalm as an Otter alternative, and where Otter is still better

Dalm and Otter both turn meetings into transcripts and summaries, and both can record a call without a bot. Otter keeps meetings in its cloud storage: its meeting agent can join calls from your calendar, you get a live transcript and a recording to play back, and it has apps for Mac, Windows, the web and phones. Dalm is a Mac app: the speech is recognised on your Mac and the audio is not sent anywhere, while the transcript syncs to our servers automatically, and there is no recording to play back. Otter fits a team that follows one live transcript; Dalm, people who want the audio to stay off every server. There is a Free plan.

Dalm and Otter at a glance

	Otter	Dalm
How it hears a call	A meeting agent that joins Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet from your calendar, or the desktop app with nothing joining	Your microphone and what your Mac plays, as two streams; nothing joins the call
Meetings in the room	Yes, from the desktop app	Yes, from the microphone, with the voices told apart
While the meeting runs	A live transcript, and chat about the meeting	A running draft; the finished transcript comes after you stop
The audio afterwards	Kept with the meeting in cloud storage on AWS, to play back; exports as MP3	Recognised on your Mac and not sent anywhere; no player and no audio export
The text afterwards	In Otter’s cloud storage	Synced to our servers automatically; a language model reads it for the summary
Questions across meetings	AI Chat across all your conversations	One meeting at a time; across all your recordings — in development
Dictation into other apps	Not found	Yes, with one key
Apps	Mac (macOS 12.3 or later), Windows, web, iPhone, Android	Mac with Apple Silicon · macOS 15.0 or later
Connected tools	Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack and more	Google Calendar

The audio is deleted once the text exists. “Not found” means Otter’s documentation we checked does not describe it, not that it does not exist. What Otter does is taken from its own pages, checked on 27 September 2026.

Where Otter is better than Dalm

• It can take the meeting off your hands. Connect a calendar and Otter’s meeting agent joins your Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet calls itself. Dalm asks “Record this meeting?” when a call app takes the microphone, and you press Record.
• Everyone can read along. Otter shows a live transcript during the call and answers questions about it while it runs; Dalm makes the transcript when you stop.
• The recording stays. You can listen to a moment again or export the audio as an MP3. Dalm keeps no audio to listen to.
• One question across everything. Otter’s AI Chat searches all your conversations, including ones shared with you; in Dalm you ask about one meeting at a time, and questions across all your recordings are in development.
• More places to use it. Apps for Windows, the web, iPhone and Android, and a Mac app that asks for macOS 12.3 or higher, where Dalm needs macOS 15.0 or newer on Apple Silicon.
• Your other tools. Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack and more connect to Otter; Dalm connects to Google Calendar.
• A lower yearly price. Otter Pro billed annually is $8.33 a month; Dalm Pro billed annually is $12 a month, so compare what each includes below (paid plans are not open yet).

Where Dalm is better than Otter

• The audio does not go to a server. Otter keeps meetings in cloud storage on AWS, and its privacy policy lists training its own AI technology on de-identified audio recordings and on transcriptions. In Dalm the speech is recognised on your Mac and the audio is not sent anywhere, so there is no recording of yours to train on. This point is about the audio only: the text does leave — the transcript syncs to our servers automatically, and a language model reads it to write the summary.
• Minutes, length and keeping. No plan puts a limit on recording minutes, on the length of a recording, or on how long anything is kept. Otter’s free plan stops at 300 minutes a month and 30 minutes a conversation.
• The summary starts from your notes. What you type during the meeting is what the summary grows from, and each point keeps a word-for-word quote. Every quote shows you where it was said — open it and the transcript opens at that place. Tasks and decisions from your meetings gather in two lists.
• Dictation in the same app. Hold a key and your words go into any app, with the same dictionary of names and terms as your meetings. Everything you say lands in one archive you can search: meetings, phone calls, conversations in the room, and what you dictate to a model. Asking one question across all of it is still in development.
• Recording without a network. Recording and transcription carry on without a network; summaries follow when you are back online.

Free plans and prices, side by side

	Otter	Dalm
Free plan	Basic: 300 transcription minutes a month, up to 30 minutes a conversation, 3 file imports in total	Free: a plan, not a trial
Paid, billed monthly	Pro $16.99 a month for each user; Business $30	Pro $16 a month
Paid, billed annually	Pro $8.33 a month; Business $19.99	Pro $12 a month
Longest meeting on the paid plan	Pro 90 minutes; Business 4 hours	See below

No plan puts a limit on recording minutes, on the length of a recording, or on how long anything is kept. The recording, the transcript and the summary of a meeting come with the Free plan. What the paid plans add is on the pricing page. For a group, Team is $40 a month for each member, or $32 a month billed annually: one dictionary, shared templates and tags, and dictations that stay visible to their author only — working as a team. Dalm needs a Mac with Apple Silicon · macOS 15.0 or later; while it is not public, the way in is the waitlist. Otter’s prices are its regular prices from its pricing page, not introductory offers, checked on 27 September 2026.

Bringing your Otter recordings over

Otter’s help describes exporting a conversation’s audio as an MP3. That file can come into Dalm: it takes audio or video from 0.3 seconds to four hours long, on the Free plan, and reads it where it is — “The file is processed on this Mac · the original stays where it was” — and the transcript made from it syncs to our servers like any other. When you bring it in, choose “Meeting (several voices)” so the voices are separated. Dalm brings in audio and video, so a transcript exported from Otter stays a document of its own. Turning a recording into text, step by step.

Which one fits the way you work

• Otter if your team lives in Salesforce or HubSpot, wants one live transcript on everyone’s screen, keeps recordings to share, or has people on Windows and phones. Otter AI is also the stronger pick when an assistant should join every call by itself.
• Dalm if you work on a Mac, your meetings happen on calls and across a table, the audio should not sit in anyone’s cloud, and you dictate as well as meet.
• Neither if you need both a recording to play back and audio that stays off every server: Dalm deletes it, Otter keeps it in the cloud.

Other note takers, compared by name

If Otter and Dalm are not the only two on your list, seven note takers, and where each beats us compares them by name, and the kinds of AI note taker explains how they differ before names come in. The same row-by-row comparison with a note taker that sends notes into your CRM. Where local and cloud transcription differ, step by step.