Otter.ai is good.
It's also $204 a year.
You don't need it.
Here's what I use instead.
Two free, open-source Mac apps and one small AppleScript:
- MeetingBar — sits in your menu bar, watches your calendar, triggers automations
- Meetily — records, transcribes and summarises your meetings locally
Together they cover everything Otter.ai does for a typical solo user.
No subscription. No cloud bot joining your calls. Your audio stays on your machine.
Setup takes about ten minutes.
Why I made the switch
I counted five subscriptions in my stack that each looked cheap on their own.
Together they weren't.
Meeting notes was one of them.
Otter.ai leads the category, commanding an estimated 41% of branded search demand among AI meeting notetakers. It's a good product.
But $16.99 a month is $204 a year to record meeting conversations.
I started replacing those subscriptions with open source solutions one by one.
This was one of the easiest swaps.
The two free apps you need
MeetingBar
MeetingBar is a free, open-source macOS menu-bar app.
It connects to your calendar and shows your next meeting at a glance.
It supports Google Calendar, macOS Calendar and 50+ meeting platforms: Zoom, Google Meet, Teams.
The feature that makes this setup work: MeetingBar can run an AppleScript hook automatically when a calendar event starts.
That means it can tell another app to start recording.
Meetily
Meetily is a free, open-source AI meeting assistant.
Download it, open it, pick your models. No command line. No setup outside the app.
Transcription runs on Whisper, built into Meetily. Pick a model size — Small (466MB) up to Large V3 (3GB) — click Download, and it's ready. Your audio never leaves your Mac.
Summaries use the same approach. Meetily ships with Qwen 3.5 and Gemma 3 in multiple sizes, all downloadable with one click inside the app.
Ollama is an option if you want to bring your own models. You don't need it.
No bot joins your call. No audio upload required. The whole thing runs on your Mac.
How to set it up
Step 1. Install both apps
Download MeetingBar and Meetily from the GitHub links above.
Open MeetingBar and connect your calendar. Your meetings should appear in the menu bar within seconds.
Open Meetily and configure your transcription model. Run a short test recording. macOS will ask for microphone and system audio permissions — approve them.
Step 2. Add the script to MeetingBar
Open MeetingBar and go to Preferences → Advanced.
Under AppleScript Hooks, check Run AppleScript when joining a meeting.
Click Edit script. An editor opens inside MeetingBar.
Paste this:
Click Save.
I tested this on Meetily Community Edition v0.4.1. It uses the menu command, not a screen position, so it's reliable across window states.
Step 3. Grant Accessibility permissions
Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility.
Enable Script Editor. If it's not listed, add it with the + button.
This lets AppleScript interact with other applications.
One thing to know
The script starts recording. It doesn't stop it.
You stop the recording manually at the end of each call.
Also: the script doesn't check whether a recording is already running. Don't trigger it twice on the same meeting.
Why local recording matters
Most AI meeting notetakers send a bot into your call.
It shows up in the participant list. Everyone sees it. Your audio gets uploaded to a third-party server for processing.
Meetily captures audio directly from your Mac. No bot. No mandatory upload.
You still need to tell participants you're recording. You still have consent obligations regardless of where the audio lives.
But your audio doesn't have to leave your computer to get a useful transcript.
Free vs paid
This setup won't replace Otter.ai for teams.
You lose shared workspaces, searchable libraries, speaker identification and built-in integrations.
If you need those things, pay for them.
If you don't (and most solo users don't), here's the comparison:
ㅤ | Paid AI meeting SaaS | MeetingBar + Meetily |
Record meetings | Yes | Yes |
Transcription | Yes | Yes |
AI summaries | Yes | Yes |
Auto-start recording | Often built in | AppleScript |
Fully local | Provider-dependent | Yes |
External bot in call | Provider-dependent | No |
Team features | Often available | No |
Monthly cost | From $16.99 | Free |
Support the builders
Open source isn't free to build or maintain.
If MeetingBar or Meetily earns a place in your daily workflow, consider supporting their maintainers.
Star the repo. File a bug report. Contribute documentation. Or donate if you can.
Want more setups like this?
For every subscription you pay, ask whether it solves a problem you can't solve any other way.
Sometimes the answer is yes. Sometimes two free apps and ten minutes is all you needed.
I write about open-source tools, automation and AI: practical ways to own your workflows instead of renting them.
If that's useful, subscribe below.
FAQ
Is there a free alternative to Otter.ai on Mac?
Yes. MeetingBar and Meetily are both free and open-source. Together they cover recording, transcription and AI summaries. Meetily runs entirely locally. No cloud upload required for transcription.
Does this work with Zoom, Google Meet and Teams?
Yes. Meetily records system audio and microphone input directly on your Mac. It doesn't join calls as a bot. It works with any meeting platform you can hear through your computer.
Does Meetily upload my audio to transcribe it?
No. Transcription runs locally on Whisper. Your audio stays on your Mac.
Can I transcribe recordings without being in a live meeting?
Yes. Meetily lets you import audio files and transcribe them locally.
Is MeetingBar free?
Yes. Free, open-source, Apache-2.0 licensed. macOS only.
What's the catch compared to Otter.ai?
Setup takes about ten minutes. Local AI models use your Mac's processing power. No shared team features, searchable library or built-in integrations. For solo use, those trade-offs are usually worth it.
Does recording start automatically without clicking anything?
Almost. When you click Join on a meeting in MeetingBar, the script fires and Meetily starts recording. One click instead of switching apps and pressing record manually.
