Donna vs Otter.ai
Donna or Otter? Pick Otter if you want live captions and real-time transcription during the call. Pick Donna if you want analysis beyond summaries — six lenses, verbatim receipts, tensions, position shifts, and the room read — from a Flocci product that treats sharing as a decision.
Otter is where most people first meet AI transcription, and its live-caption experience is still excellent. Donna is for the team that already knows what was said and needs to know what happened: six lenses, receipts with timestamps, and a private Flocci archive behind Google sign-in.
Side by side, structurally
| Axis | Otter.ai | Donna |
|---|---|---|
| How it attends meetings | OtterPilot bot joins your calls | Joins Google Meet as a visible participant — on demand, or auto-joined from your calendar |
| Meeting video capture | Captures shared slides/screens | Yes — screen video and audio, compressed after the call |
| Transcription | Proprietary, vendor-managed | Flocci Speech Recognition, with real speaker names from Meet captions |
| What you get after the call | Live transcript, automated summary, action items | Meeting intelligence through one of six lenses: decisions with tradeoffs, exact-quote receipts, tensions, what nobody said, position shifts, the room read, and orders |
| Pricing | Free tier with monthly minute caps; per-seat subscriptions above it | Credits by usage — no per-seat fee |
Where Otter genuinely wins
- Real-time captions during the call — Donna’s full report lands after the meeting, not live.
- Polished mobile apps and years of consumer brand recognition.
- A household name: most people already know how to start Otter.
Where Donna wins
- Otter meters minutes on a per-seat plan. Donna meters work in credits — meetings attended, minutes transcribed, reports delivered — so a teammate who rarely meets costs nothing.
- Otter’s output is a transcript with a summary. Donna reads the room through six analysis lenses: who committed to what in their exact words, where the tension was, and what nobody said.
- Your Donna archive is private to your Flocci account: Google sign-in, explicit sharing, no default public publishing. Otter is a notetaker cloud built to hold the corpus.
The read, since summaries are not the product
Otter: Live transcript, automated summary, action items. Donna: Meeting intelligence through one of six lenses: decisions with tradeoffs, exact-quote receipts, tensions, what nobody said, position shifts, the room read, and orders. For boards, client work, hiring, negotiations, and one-on-ones, that line is usually the whole decision.
What each one charges
| Otter | Donna | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | 300 transcription minutes per month | One-time credit grant plus a monthly free allowance |
| Paid | Pro $16.99/user/month monthly or $8.33 annual; Business $30 monthly or $19.99 annual; Enterprise custom | Credit-metered usage — meetings attended, minutes transcribed, reports delivered. No seat licence. |
Otter’s figures were read from their own pricing page on 29 July 2026; check it before you buy, because plans change without notice. Donna’s current credit costs live on your billing page at account.flocci.in.
Questions, answered straight
Is Donna an alternative to Otter.ai?
Yes for Google Meet. Donna joins as a visible attendee, transcribes with real speaker names, and files a six-lens intelligence report in your private Flocci archive. There are no per-seat fees or minute caps — usage is metered in credits.
Does Donna transcribe in real time like Otter?
Partly. While Donna is in the room, her dashboard shows a live, speaker-attributed caption feed; the definitive Flocci Speech Recognition transcript and the full intelligence report land right after the call. Otter’s polished in-call caption experience is still its home turf — Donna’s edge is what you hold afterward.
Which is cheaper for a team, Otter or Donna?
Otter charges per seat per month; costs scale with headcount. Donna has no seat pricing — you pay credits for meetings she actually attends, minutes transcribed, and reports delivered.
Put Donna in your next meeting
Access is open — sign in with your Google account and she’s in your dashboard in minutes. Rolling out to a whole team, or want a hand with the server setup? We’re glad to help.