Fireflies vs Otter for recruiting: bot-free capture, ATS sync and plan limits compared

Fireflies.ai and Otter.ai are both general-purpose meeting note-takers that recruiters use for interviews, and they cost about the same: $10 and $8.33 per user per month on their yearly Pro plans, as of October 2026. For recruiting, Fireflies has two practical advantages: it names Greenhouse and Lever for sending notes and transcripts, and its bot-free desktop app covers Microsoft Teams and phone calls. Otter is a little cheaper, has a Recruiting Agent with interview prep and Greenhouse sync, and records Zoom and Meet without a bot.

Every vendor fact below was checked on Fireflies' and Otter's own sites and help centers in October 2026 and is linked. For deeper single-product reviews, see Fireflies.ai for recruiting and Otter.ai for recruiting.

How do Fireflies and Otter compare for recruiting?

Sources: Fireflies pricing, Fireflies bot-free desktop guide, Fireflies joining FAQ, Fireflies for recruiting; Otter pricing, Otter desktop, Otter dialers, Otter Recruiting Agent. All as of October 2026.

Which one records interviews without a bot?

Both now offer a desktop app that captures the call from your own computer, so nothing joins the meeting. The coverage differs, and for recruiters the difference is Teams and phones.

Fireflies' desktop guide says recording without a bot "captures your meetings and calls using your computer's system audio," on Windows and Mac, and lists Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, Aircall, FaceTime, Discord and phone calls. It also lists three limits that matter in interviews: speakers appear as "Speaker 1 / Speaker 2" rather than names, no audio or video file is saved, and you cannot switch to the bot mid-session.

Otter's desktop page says you can "record any conversation without a bot across Slack Huddles, Zoom, Google Meet, and in-person," on Mac and Windows. Teams is not on the list, so a Teams interview with Otter means its Notetaker joining the call.

If your interviews are mostly on Teams, Fireflies' desktop app is the only one of the two documented to stay out of the meeting. Our guide to AI note-takers without a bot compares more options.

Which one handles phone screens?

Fireflies' desktop guide describes phone capture on both systems: on macOS, iPhone calls work when "Calls from iPhone" is enabled in FaceTime settings on both devices; on Windows, Android and iPhone calls work when the phone is paired through Microsoft's Phone Link app. That suits a recruiter who already takes calls on the laptop, and it needs a one-time setup per person.

Otter's dialer integrations cover Zoom Phone and RingCentral (plus sales tools Outreach and Salesloft), each behind "Contact sales," and its pricing page lists custom dialer integrations under Enterprise. For a recruiter screening from a personal mobile, Fireflies' route is the more practical one of the two.

Which one sends notes to an ATS?

Fireflies' recruiting page says it can "send meeting notes and transcripts to Greenhouse, Lever and others." Its Greenhouse integration page says transcripts and summaries are logged under the candidate profile in Greenhouse, and that if a candidate does not exist, Fireflies creates a new profile. Check that behavior in a trial: an auto-created profile for a referral you have not yet entered can confuse your source reporting.

Otter's Recruiting Agent page says it syncs with Greenhouse; its integrations page lists CRM and sales tools, Zapier and Slack, but no other ATS. If you are on Workday, iCIMS, Bullhorn or Ashby, neither tool names a direct link, and the notes will move by copy, export or Zapier.

What do the free plans and paid plans actually allow?

As shown on each pricing page in October 2026:

• Fireflies Free: unlimited transcription, limited AI summaries, 400 minutes of storage per team, 20 AI credits, the desktop app, mobile apps and Chrome extension.
• Fireflies Pro ($18 monthly, $10 billed yearly): unlimited summaries, 8,000 minutes of storage per seat, video recording, downloads and unlimited integrations.
• Fireflies Business ($29, or $19 yearly): unlimited storage, conversation intelligence, team analytics. Enterprise is $39, yearly only.
• Otter Basic: 300 minutes per user per month, 30 minutes maximum per conversation, three lifetime file imports.
• Otter Pro ($16.99 monthly, $8.33 yearly): 1,200 minutes, up to 90 minutes per meeting; the comparison table caps Pro at 5 billed users.
• Otter Business ($30, or $19.99 yearly): unlimited meetings up to 4 hours each, up to 25 billed users.

As an example, a 45-minute interview would hit Otter Basic's 30-minute cap, and around eight such interviews would fill Fireflies Free's 400 minutes of team storage. For a recruiter doing five interviews a day, both free plans are trials. At ten recruiters billed yearly, Fireflies Pro is 10 × $10 × 12 = $1,200 a year; Otter Pro stops at five users, so the same team on Otter Business is 10 × $19.99 × 12 = $2,398.80. More comparisons are in our note-taker pricing guide.

Which AI features should recruiters avoid?

Both vendors market features that score something other than job criteria. Fireflies' recruiting page lists a "Culture Fit Extractor" and a "Candidate Sentiment Analyzer." Otter's Recruiting Agent page says it "analyzes the candidate's emotional tone and sentiment." Neither tone nor a model's idea of culture fit is a competency, and both are easy routes for bias into a hiring decision. Turn them off for interviews, or at least keep them out of scorecards; our guide to assessing values without culture-fit bias explains what to measure instead.

How do they tell the candidate?

Fireflies' joining FAQ says its Notetaker "is always visible in the participant list" and offers a Meeting Compliance setting that shows a pre-meeting disclaimer. Its desktop guide says consent options are on by default: an auto-played audio consent message on both systems, plus a meeting chat notice on Mac and a camera notice on Windows. Otter's help center describes a "Send pre-recording emails" setting and a default audience for shared notes; choose "Don't Share" so candidates do not receive your notes (Otter help). Either way, ask the candidate yourself; our consent script has wording. This is general information, not legal advice.

What should you test in a one-week trial?

Both tools have free plans, so a side-by-side trial costs nothing but time. Run the same three interviews through each, with a colleague playing the candidate, and score the results on paper:

1. A Teams interview in bot-free mode. Does anything appear in the participant list? Is the transcript usable when speakers show as "Speaker 1" and "Speaker 2"?
2. A phone screen from your real phone setup. Count the setup steps, and check whether both voices are captured.
3. A 50-minute video interview. Does the free plan cut off? Is the summary shaped around your questions or around generic meeting topics?

For each, check three facts against what was said: current salary, notice period, and one number from a project example. Then time how long it takes to get the notes into your ATS or scorecard. On security paperwork, Fireflies' recruiting page lists SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and ISO 42001, with a HIPAA agreement on Enterprise; Otter's pricing page puts SSO and SCIM on Enterprise with a 100-user minimum. Ask each for its current security documents before candidate data goes in.

Which should you pick?

• Fireflies, best for: agency and in-house recruiters who interview on Teams or screen by phone from the laptop, and teams on Greenhouse or Lever.
• Otter, best for: hiring managers and small teams on Zoom or Meet who want résumé summaries and question prep before the call, at the lowest per-seat price for up to five users.
• Neither, if: you need structured scorecards or submittals; both produce meeting summaries you will reshape by hand.

We make Interview Signal, a desktop app built for that last case (question guide from the job description, scorecard with the candidate's quotes, submittal in your template, no bot); everything about Fireflies and Otter on this page comes from their own sites, linked and dated. For other pairings, see Fathom vs Fireflies for recruiting and Metaview vs Otter.