Wave vs Krisp
Krisp is best known for its AI noise cancellation, with bot-free meeting recording, transcription, and notes built on top, plus iPhone and Android apps. Wave is a dedicated AI note taker built around capture-anywhere recording (iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows, Apple Watch, Wear OS) with speaker-labeled transcripts, summaries, and a searchable archive as the main event.
Windows
ChromeKrisp earned its reputation by solving one painful problem brilliantly: background noise on calls. It sits at your computer’s audio layer, cleans up your mic and speaker audio across any calling app, and, because it’s already listening at that layer, added meeting recording, transcription, and AI notes without needing a bot in the meeting. It has since added iPhone and Android apps.
Wave approaches from the opposite direction: it’s a note taker first. The product is built around capturing every conversation you have and turning it into notes you can use, not around cleaning up call audio.
How they capture audio
Krisp’s desktop apps for Mac and Windows record calls with no bot, and it offers an optional bot for platforms like Zoom. Its mobile app records in-person meetings, accepts uploaded audio files, and lets you place outgoing calls through Krisp with recording, for US phone numbers only. There is no watch app.
Wave records five ways:
- In person, on your phone or watch. Press record on iPhone, Android, Apple Watch, or Wear OS and capture the room: meetings without a join link, interviews, lectures, site visits.
- Phone calls. The Phone Bridge records incoming and outgoing calls on iPhone and Android, in any country Wave supports, both sides transcribed. It works on every plan; on Free, calls count toward the 30 minutes a month, and Wave Pro is unlimited.
- Calendar meeting bot. A Wave bot auto-joins your scheduled Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams calls via your Google or Outlook calendar.
- System audio on the desktop. Wave for Mac and Windows captures mic and system audio directly, the same bot-free approach Krisp uses.
- Imports. Audio and video files, YouTube links, and podcasts go through the same transcript and summary pipeline.
Where each tool wins
Pick Krisp if: noise cancellation is the main thing you need, or you want accent conversion. Nothing else in this category touches it there, and its meeting notes are a capable bonus.
Pick Wave if: the notes are the point. Wave gives every recording a speaker-labeled transcript, an AI summary with action items, and a searchable archive you can ask questions about later, and it covers incoming calls, calls outside the US, and recording from your wrist, which Krisp does not.
Platform coverage at a glance
| Surface | Wave | Krisp |
|---|---|---|
| No-bot desktop capture | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI noise cancellation | — | ✓ |
| iPhone / Android recording apps | ✓ | ✓ |
| In-person meetings | ✓ | ✓ (mobile app) |
| Phone calls | ✓ Incoming and outgoing | Outgoing only, US numbers |
| Apple Watch / Wear OS capture | ✓ | — |
| Meeting bot (Zoom / Meet / Teams) | ✓ | Optional |
| Import audio files | ✓ | ✓ (mobile app) |
| Free plan | 30 min/month | 7 days trial |
Pricing
Krisp Core is $8 a user per month billed yearly ($16 monthly), and Advanced is $15 billed yearly ($30 monthly), after a 7 days free trial. Wave is free for 30 minutes a month; Pro is $80 a year on the web or $15 a month in the app stores, with unlimited recording.
The bottom line
Krisp is the best noise-cancellation tool, and its notes and mobile app now make it a real note taker too. Wave is the broader recorder: incoming and international phone calls, watches, a calendar bot, and an archive built for finding what was said. Plenty of people run Krisp for clean call audio and Wave for the notes. See the best Krisp alternatives or the Wave desktop app for Mac and Windows.
