ai notetaker, no bot

An AI notetaker without a bot, that never joins your meeting

Most AI notetakers intrude in one of two ways. Some send a bot into the call, a visible participant that many IT and security teams now block. Others skip the bot but still stream your audio to a cloud server to transcribe and summarize it. Fireflies and Otter are bot-based by default; Fathom and Otter have added bot-free desktop capture, but all of them process your audio in the cloud and bill per seat.

Dimmy does neither. No bot ever joins your call, and nothing is sent to a third-party server. Dimmy records both sides of the conversation locally, your microphone and the system audio, then transcribes and writes the recap on your own machine. Open-source, native on macOS and Windows.

No botOn-deviceYou own the audio
Download Dimmy freeBack to Dimmy
side by side

Dimmy vs Otter / Fathom / Fireflies

FeatureDimmyOtter / Fathom / Fireflies
Does a bot join the call?
No, never. Records locally with no extra participant.
Fireflies and Otter use a bot by default; Fathom and Otter's desktop app can skip it.
Where audio is processed
On your device, fully offline.
Cloud. Even bot-free desktop capture uploads audio to their servers.
Works offline?
Yes. Recording, transcription and recap run locally.
No. All require an internet connection.
Free plan
Free from source, every feature, no caps.
Capped: Otter 300 min/mo + 25 conversations; Fireflies 800 min storage + 20 AI credits; Fathom limits AI.
Open source
Open-core, AGPL.
Proprietary, closed source.
History and search
Searchable local history, no time cap.
Cloud history; unlimited usually needs a paid plan.
Recap structure
TL;DR, decisions, action items, open questions, timestamps, type classifier.
Summaries and action items; advanced templates often paid.
Integrations
Notion, folder, Claude Desktop, MCP, included.
Notion, Drive, Slack, CRMs, MCP; many gated to paid tiers.
Price
Free from source, Pro €4.99/mo, €99 lifetime. Not per-seat.
Per-seat subscriptions, roughly $8 to $30/user per month for full features.
Platforms
Native macOS + Windows.
Mac, Windows and web.
included limited paid plan only not available
Competitor details verified on vendor sites in 2026 and may change. Recheck before relying on them.
why switch

Why switch to Dimmy

No bot ever joins the call. Your meeting looks exactly the same to everyone else, with no extra participant.
Everything runs on your device. Recording, live transcription, and the AI recap all happen locally, so it works offline.
You own your data. The audio, transcript, and recap stay on your machine in a searchable history, not in a cloud account.
Structured recaps you can act on: TL;DR, decisions, action items, open questions, and timestamps, with a type classifier.
A recording-consent gate each session keeps you in control and transparent with the room.
Open-core and AGPL, native on macOS and Windows, with exports to Notion, a folder, Claude, and an MCP bridge.
works with your stack

Send your text and recaps where you work

NotionObsidianGoogle DriveClaude DesktopClaude CLICodex CLIMCP server
Every integration is included free, no add-on tier.
frequently asked

Keep your meetings private: no bot, no cloud, fully on your device.

Yes. Dimmy never sends a bot into your call. It records both sides of the conversation locally, your microphone and the system audio, so there is no extra participant for other attendees to see or approve.
Yes. Dimmy records, transcribes, and writes the structured recap on your own machine, with no dependency on a cloud service, so you can capture and summarize meetings even with no internet.
No. Your audio stays on your device. Otter, Fathom and Fireflies process audio in their cloud, and even their bot-free desktop modes still upload it. Dimmy keeps the recording, transcript and recap local.
Fathom and Otter's desktop apps can skip the bot, but they still send your audio to their servers to transcribe and summarize. Dimmy removes both points of intrusion: no bot joins, and nothing is sent to the cloud.
A searchable local recap with a TL;DR, decisions, action items, open questions and timestamps, plus a meeting-type classification. You can export it to Notion, a folder, or Claude, or pipe it through the MCP bridge.
compare dimmy