Is there a Read.ai alternative without engagement scoring?

Yes — most alternatives skip it. Wave, Fathom, Otter, and Granola all focus on transcripts and summaries without scoring participants’ engagement or sentiment. Wave adds phone-call and in-person capture on top.

Which Read.ai alternative records in-person meetings and phone calls?

Wave is the one that does both: it records in-person conversations from iPhone, Android, Apple Watch, and Wear OS, and its Phone Bridge records incoming and outgoing calls on iPhone and Android on every plan (Free minutes are shared; Pro is unlimited). Read AI, Otter, and Fireflies record in person from their mobile apps (Fathom on iPhone only), but none of them records a regular phone call. See the best AI note takers for in-person meetings.

What is the best free Read.ai alternative?

For video calls only, Fathom’s free plan is the most generous: unlimited recordings and AI summaries. Read AI’s own free plan covers 5 meeting transcripts a month. Wave’s free plan includes 30 minutes a month shared across recordings, phone calls, and bot-recorded meetings; Pro is unlimited. Importing audio or video files into the Wave app needs a subscription; the free file transcription tool on the website is separate.

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Josh Mohrer·Published July 2, 2026·Updated November 3, 2026

The 5 Best Read.ai Alternatives in 2026

Read AI pairs meeting summaries with engagement scores, sentiment, and coaching metrics. That's exactly why some teams pick it, and exactly why others go looking for an alternative. If you want the notes without the scoring, a roomier free plan, or phone calls captured too, these are the tools to consider.

352,143 people use Wave30 minutes free every month. No credit card.

The best Read AI alternative for most people is Wave AI: it records Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams with or without a bot, records phone calls on iPhone and Android, and records in person from phones and Apple Watch or Wear OS watches, with summaries and no engagement scoring. Fathom is the best free option for video calls, Otter.ai the most established, Fireflies.ai the pick for CRM-heavy teams, and Granola the quietest.

Read AI-alternative searches tend to come from two places. Some teams find the engagement and sentiment analytics uncomfortable: being scored in every meeting changes how people behave. Others hit the free plan’s limit of 5 meeting transcripts a month, or need a phone call recorded, which Read AI does not list.

Here are the five best alternatives, starting with the one that covers the most conversation types.

1. Wave — best overall Read.ai alternative

Wave matches the core meeting-bot workflow — auto-joining Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams calls from your Google or Outlook calendar — and extends capture to phone calls and watches:

In-person recording. iPhone, Android, Apple Watch, and Wear OS apps that capture the room directly, no join link needed.
Phone calls. The Phone Bridge records incoming and outgoing calls on iPhone and Android, both sides transcribed and summarized, on every plan (on Free, calls count toward the 30 minutes a month; Wave Pro is unlimited).
No-bot desktop capture. The Wave desktop app on Mac and Windows records mic + system audio directly, so nothing visible joins the call.
Notes without scoring. Speaker-labeled transcripts, AI summaries, action items, and a chat that answers questions from any recording — no engagement grades on your teammates.

Free plan: 30 minutes of recording per month; paid plans from$80 a year or $15 a month. For the direct matchup, see Wave vs Read.ai.

2. Fathom — best free option for video calls

Fathom’s free plan covers unlimited recordings, transcription and instant AI summaries for Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams calls, with none of Read AI’s scoring layer. It joins with a bot by default (bot-free is a Mac beta), records in person only on iPhone, and does not record phone calls.

3. Otter.ai — most established bot-and-web workflow

Otter is the best-known name in meeting transcription, with real-time transcripts, a meeting bot, and iPhone, Android, and web apps that record in person. It stays focused on notes rather than analytics; the free plan gives 300 min/month, capped at 30 min per conversation.

4. Fireflies.ai — best for CRM-heavy teams

Fireflies records with a bot, a desktop app, or a Chrome extension, and its mobile app records in person. It is strong on team workflows: CRM integrations, shared meeting libraries, and conversation search. Pro is $10 a seat per month billed yearly.

5. Granola — best quiet capture

Granola records your computer’s audio with no bot and turns your rough notes into clean ones. It runs on macOS, Windows, iOS, Android with an Apple Watch app, but keeps no audio to replay, and its free plan keeps 30 days of meeting history. See Wave vs Granola.

At a glance

Tool	Best for	Main limitation
Wave	Every conversation type, notes without scoring	Free plan capped at 30 min/month
Fathom	Free video-call recording	Bot by default; no phone calls
Otter.ai	Real-time transcription, known quantity	30-min free conversation cap; no phone calls
Fireflies.ai	CRM and team meeting libraries	Team-priced; no phone calls
Granola	Quiet no-bot notes	No saved audio

The bottom line

If meeting analytics are the point, Read.ai is good at them. If the point is reliable notes from every conversation — including the ones that never had a calendar invite — Wave is the alternative built for that, without putting a score on anyone. For bot-free options side by side, see the best AI note takers without a bot.