Astrid Legal vs Otter.ai
Competitor details last checked
Otter.ai is a general meeting assistant for teams in sales, education, media and recruiting. Astrid is built for law firms: it captures client calls and meetings, drafts the file note in the firm's format, holds it for attorney approval, files it to the case management system and drafts a client recap. If you mainly want low-cost transcripts and summaries of meetings, Otter's free and lower-priced plans may be enough. If the output has to become an approved record on a matter, that is the job Astrid is built for.
At a glance
| Feature | Astrid | Otter.ai |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Law firms in any practice area, including plaintiff, family law, criminal defense, civil litigation, estate planning, real estate, corporate and business law, and IP. | Any team that holds meetings. Its site lists sales, education, media and recruiting. No law firm page found. |
| Phone calls | Zoom Phone, plus a dial-in bridge for any carrier. | Its integrations page lists Zoom Phone and the dialers RingCentral and Salesloft. We did not find a dial-in or landline capture feature on its public pages. |
| Video meetings | A notetaker bot joins Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet. | Calendar-based bot for Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet, plus a bot-free desktop app for Mac and Windows. |
| In person and files | Record in person from your phone using the Astrid web app in the phone's browser, with no app to install, or from a computer browser. You can also upload a file. | iOS and Android apps, a Chrome extension and file import. |
| Mobile apps | There is no iOS or Android app yet, and both are planned for release before December 2026. Until then Astrid works in the phone's browser, with recording and the call screens built for phones. Some other screens are not yet laid out for small screens. | iOS and Android apps. |
| Desktop app | A Windows desktop app records without a bot in the meeting. A Mac app is coming. | A bot-free desktop app for Mac and Windows. |
| Case management filing | Clio Manage, 8am MyCase, 8am CasePeer, Smokeball and Lawcus. | Not listed. No practice management system appears on its integrations page. |
| What is synced to the case management system | Matters are searched live by client name or phone, and the client's contact details are read in. After an attorney approves the note, the note and each follow-up task are filed to the matter, as a Clio phone log, a Smokeball memo, a CasePeer case note, a MyCase note or a Lawcus interaction. A recap the firm sends is filed to the matter too. Task filing to MyCase is not live yet, and filing time entries to Clio and Smokeball is rolling out to select firms. | None. No practice management system is listed. It lists Zapier and cloud storage services. |
| Attorney approval before a note is final | Drafted in the firm's own note format. An attorney approves it before it becomes the record, and each approval is stored with who approved and when. | Not described on its public pages. |
| Client recap | A written recap is drafted for the client and sent by the firm. | Not stated. Its pages describe summaries and action items for meeting participants. |
| AI chat on a matter's calls | Ask Astrid answers questions about one matter or client using only that file's transcripts, approved notes and recaps, and cites the call and timestamp behind each answer. Calls marked privileged are left out for anyone without access. It is available on laptop and tablet screens, not on a phone. | Its help center refers to an AI Chat feature for meeting content. Limiting it to one client's or matter's calls is not stated. |
| Recording consent | The firm sets a recording consent mode, and each call keeps a consent record. Bot-joined meetings play an audible disclosure. | No all-party-consent feature found on its public pages. Its privacy policy says users need permission from third parties before sharing their personal information. |
| Security and training | Your firm's content is not used to train models. No SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification and no independent penetration test yet. The security page says what is and is not in place. | SOC 2 Type II. HIPAA is listed as an Enterprise add-on. Its privacy policy says it trains its models on de-identified audio recordings and transcriptions. |
| Price | $40 per person per month billed monthly, or $400 per person per year billed annually, which is 2 months free. 14-day free trial. No per-call or per-minute charges. | Free plan with 300 minutes a month. Pro $16.99 per user monthly or $8.33 annually. Business $30 monthly or $19.99 annually. Enterprise is custom. |
What Otter.ai is
Otter.ai describes itself as a conversational AI platform that turns meetings into searchable transcripts, summaries and action items. Its site lists sales, education, media and recruiting as use cases. We did not find a law firm page or a legal feature on its public pages.
It can join Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet meetings from a calendar, record from a bot-free desktop app on Mac and Windows, record in person from iOS and Android apps, and import files. Its integrations include Slack, Salesforce, HubSpot, Notion, Zapier and cloud storage services.
When Otter.ai is the better fit
- You want transcripts and summaries of many kinds of meetings across a whole organization, not only client matters.
- Price is the deciding factor. Otter has a free plan and lower list prices than Astrid.
- You want a wide set of business integrations such as Slack, Salesforce and Notion.
When Astrid is the better fit
- Calls and meetings need to end up as an approved note in Clio, MyCase, CasePeer, Smokeball or Lawcus.
- Most of your client contact is on the phone rather than in scheduled video meetings.
- You want the note held for an attorney to approve, and a written recap drafted for the client.
- You do not want your clients' conversations used to train models.
Questions to ask any vendor
- Can I see it capture a real phone call from my own phone system, not a recorded demo?
- What happens to a note before it is filed to the matter or sent to anyone? Who has to approve it?
- Which case management systems are live today, and what exactly gets filed to each?
- How are recording notice and consent handled for a state that requires every party to agree?
- Is my firm's content used to train any model, under what terms, and can that be switched off?
- After a call, who receives the summary by default, and can that be turned off for the whole workspace?
Frequently asked questions
Can a law firm use Otter.ai?
Firms do use general meeting tools. The points to check are where the content is stored and used, whether it is used to train models, who receives the summary afterward, how consent is handled on calls with clients, and whether anything files the result to your case management system. Otter lists no practice management integration, so filing to a matter would be manual or through a custom connection. This is not legal advice.
Does Otter.ai file notes into Clio, MyCase or Smokeball?
Its integrations page does not list Clio, MyCase, Smokeball, CasePeer or any other practice management system. Zapier is listed, so a custom connection may be possible, but Otter does not describe one for legal systems.
Is Astrid cheaper than Otter.ai?
No. Otter's list prices start lower and it has a free plan. Astrid is $40 per person per month billed monthly, or $400 per person per year billed annually, and it does not charge per call or per minute.
Where this comes from
- Otter.ai pricing
- Otter.ai integrations
- Otter.ai notetaker and desktop recording
- Otter.ai privacy policy
- Otter.ai privacy and security
- Otter.ai HIPAA announcement
This page compares what each company says on its own public website on the date shown above. It is not a hands-on test of the other product, and products change. Where a page says a feature is not stated, that means we did not find it on the vendor's site, not that it does not exist. Confirm current capabilities and pricing with each vendor before you decide.