Wave vs Notta
Notta is a transcription service at heart: broad language support, file uploads, live transcription, a meeting bot, and a bot-free desktop app, on web, mobile and Apple Watch. Wave is a conversation-capture tool: it records everywhere a conversation happens, including phone calls with no extra hardware, then layers transcripts, summaries, action items, and chat on top. Here's where the two overlap and where they don't.
Windows
ChromeNotta earned its user base on transcription fundamentals: upload a file or start a live recording on the web or mobile app, and get a transcript back in a wide range of languages. It also offers a bot that joins video meetings, a Mac and Windows desktop app that records with no bot, and an Apple Watch app.
Wave overlaps on the core (record, transcribe, summarize) but is built around a different question: where do your conversations actually happen? The answer shapes which tool fits.
How they capture audio
Notta records live audio in its web, mobile, and Apple Watch apps, transcribes uploaded audio and video files, sends a bot to Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex meetings, and records on your computer with no bot through its desktop app. For phone calls it sells the Notta Memo, a card that sticks to the back of the phone (Notta lists the Memo Pro at $189).
Wave records across every surface where a conversation can happen:
- In person: iPhone, Android, Apple Watch, or Wear OS; press record and capture the room.
- Phone calls: the Phone Bridge records incoming and outgoing calls on iPhone and Android with both sides transcribed, with no hardware to buy. It works on every plan; on Free, calls count toward the 30 minutes a month, and Wave Pro is unlimited.
- Video calls, with or without a bot: a calendar bot joins Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, or the Wave desktop app captures mic and system audio on Mac and Windows so nothing joins the call.
- Browser and files: a Chrome extension for tab audio, plus audio/video imports that get the same treatment.
After the recording
Both tools produce transcripts and AI summaries. Wave puts the summary at the center: speaker-labeled transcripts feed AI summaries and action items automatically, every recording lands in one searchable archive across your devices, and a chat feature answers questions about any past conversation with answers drawn from the transcript.
Notta’s strength is breadth of language support for the transcription step itself, plus translation. If your main deliverable is accurate raw transcripts across many languages, particularly from uploaded files, it’s a legitimate specialist.
Pricing
Notta’s free plan is 120 min/month, 3 min per recording. Pro is $97.99 a year ($8.17 a month) for 1,800 min/month, and Business is $199.99 a year; Notta shows only annual prices for these plans. Wave is free for 30 minutes a month with no per-recording cap; Pro is $80 a year on the web or $15 a month in the app stores, with unlimited recording.
Where each tool wins
Pick Notta if: your workload is mostly transcribing files or live audio in many languages, and meeting notes are a secondary concern.
Pick Wave if: you want one tool that captures phone calls, in-person conversations, and video meetings, and turns all of it into summaries, action items, and a searchable, askable archive. Start free, or browse the full list of Notta alternatives.
