The Otter alternative that never leaves your Mac.
Otter, Fireflies and Krisp promise not to misuse your meeting data. Zumbo never receives it. There is nothing to retain, train on or subpoena.
The promise, and the thing underneath it
Every meeting transcription service has a page about how seriously it takes your data. Those pages are usually sincere and often detailed, and they are all answering a question that only exists because the recording went to them in the first place. A retention policy is a description of what a company will do with something it holds.
The alternative is not a better policy. It is not holding it. Zumbo has no server for your voice, no account and no network request needed to transcribe, so there is no version of your meeting anywhere except the Mac you were sitting at.
Nothing joins the call
The usual shape of a meeting assistant is a participant: you invite it, it appears in the attendee list, it records, and afterwards everyone can see that it was there. That is a social problem as much as a technical one. You are asking the room to accept a recorder, every time, and sometimes the answer should be no.
Zumbo does not attend. Turn Meeting mode on and it transcribes the room through your Mac's microphone, which is the same thing your own ears are doing. Nothing appears in the attendee list because nothing joined.
How it actually works
10:32Speaker 1We are holding the release until the migration lands.
10:33Speaker 2Then the changelog goes out Thursday, not Tuesday.
10:33Speaker 1Agreed. I will move the announcement.
- Turn on Meeting mode in the notch.
- It listens through the microphone and writes the transcript as the meeting goes, a timestamp for each paragraph.
- Each speaker is labelled. The labelling model is an optional add on of about 220 MB, downloaded once; everything else already ships inside the app.
- On a call, use the speakers rather than headphones so the other side is picked up too.
- The finished transcript stays in Zumbo's history on the Mac, searchable.
Where this matters most
Anywhere the content of the meeting belongs to somebody who did not agree to a third party holding it. A client conversation under an engagement letter. A one to one about a person. Anything covered by a confidentiality clause that was written before meeting assistants existed and therefore says nothing helpful about them. A hospital, a law firm, a company with a security review that takes six weeks.
In all of those the question is not whether the service is trustworthy. It is whether you are permitted to make that decision on behalf of everyone in the room. With nothing leaving the Mac, you are not making it.
What you give up
Be clear about this. Zumbo does not join calls you are not in, so there is no recording of the meeting you skipped. There is no shared team workspace, no comment threads on a transcript, and no integrations that push notes into other tools. It is one person's transcript on one person's machine.
If what you need is an assistant that attends on your behalf and shares the result with a team, Otter is built for that and Zumbo is not.
What it costs
Fifteen dollars once for one Mac, twenty for three, seventy nine for ten. No monthly fee, no per seat pricing and no minutes counted, because there is no service on the other end to meter. Three day trial with everything unlocked and no card.
Related: local meeting transcription with speaker labels, how Zumbo keeps your voice on your Mac, and dictation with the Wi-Fi off.
What is the main difference?
Where the audio goes. Otter is a service: the meeting is uploaded, transcribed on their systems and kept in your account. Zumbo transcribes on your Mac and there is no account for it to be kept in.
Does a bot join my meeting?
Not with Zumbo. There is nothing to invite and no participant that appears in the call. It listens through your microphone from the machine you are already sitting at.
Does it label who said what?
Yes. Each speaker is labelled and each paragraph carries a timestamp. The labelling model is an optional add on of about 220 MB, downloaded once.
How does it hear the other side of a call?
Use the speakers instead of headphones. The microphone picks up the room, which includes whatever the call is playing, and it all goes into the same transcript.
Can I search old meetings?
Yes, they stay in Zumbo's history on the Mac, searchable, along with everything else it has written.
What does Zumbo not do that Otter does?
It does not join a call as a participant, it does not record meetings you are not in, and it does not share a workspace with your team. If you need a meeting assistant that attends on your behalf, Otter is the product and this page will not pretend otherwise.
Free for 3 days, everything unlocked. Then $15 once. macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon.