6 tl;dv Alternatives for 2026, From Phone to Desktop

Marcus sells commercial flooring, and he started hunting for a tldv alternative in September. His Zoom calls with architects end with a tidy tl;dv summary in his inbox. His site walks with contractors end with a notebook page he can barely read in the truck.

Last month he installed tl;dv's new mobile app and recorded a walkthrough on a jobsite. The recording uploaded fine. The summary waited for him on his laptop, back at the office, three hours and two meetings later. (Marcus is a composite, but his week is a common one.)

If that sounds familiar, you need a tldv alternative that fits where you sell. tl;dv is a strong note taker for video calls. The question is how many of your important conversations happen on one.

Below: what tl;dv does well and where it stops, a coverage map of your meetings, six alternatives with prices from each vendor's own page (checked October 6, 2026), how to choose, and what to export before you switch.

If your next customer meeting has no video link, try ParrotNotes free on your phone while you read.

What tl;dv does well, and why people look elsewhere

tl;dv calls itself an "AI Meeting Notetaker for Zoom, Google Meet & Teams." A bot joins your call, records video, and turns the conversation into a transcript, AI notes, and clips you can share. The Free plan is generous on recording: unlimited video recordings and unlimited transcription in 30+ languages, according to tl;dv's pricing page.

Four reasons come up again and again when people go shopping for a tl;dv alternative.

A bot joins the call. tl;dv records Zoom, Meet, and Teams by sending a notetaker into the meeting. Paid plans even list "custom bot appearance." Some buyers go quiet the moment a bot appears in the participant list.

AI notes are capped on Free. The Free plan includes AI notes on 10 meetings and a short allowance of Ask AI questions. After that, recording continues but the summaries stop.

The phone app records, but you read the notes on a computer. tl;dv's mobile app is labeled "Early Beta Access." Its help center is clear about the limits: "for now, the mobile app is focused on recording. It's not yet possible to browse your meetings, view transcripts, or access meeting summaries in the mobile app." The summary lands in your desktop workspace after processing.

Languages top out at 30+. A rep whose distributors speak Tagalog or Swahili can run out of list.

tl;dv pricing (checked October 6, 2026)

From tl;dv's pricing page, per seat a month:

• Free: $0. Unlimited recordings, AI notes on 10 meetings, data retention of up to 3 months, up to 5 uploads.
• Pro: $18 billed annually, or $29 billed monthly. Unlimited AI notes, multi-language support, a follow-up email drafter, integrations, and an MCP server.
• Business: $29 billed annually, or $39 billed monthly. Adds CRM field mapping, multi-meeting AI insights, playbook monitoring, and AI objection handling.
• Enterprise: custom pricing.

For a team of five reps, Pro costs $1,080 a year billed annually ($18 x 5 seats x 12 months), or $1,740 a year billed monthly. Business on annual billing is also $1,740 a year.

Where your meetings happen: a coverage map

List last week's meetings and where each one took place, then find each one here:

Sources: tl;dv's pricing page, mobile page and help center, and each vendor's pricing page, read on October 6, 2026.

If most of your rows sit in the first line, you may only need a tl;dv upgrade. If they sit lower down, you need a different kind of tool.

6 tl;dv alternatives compared

Sources: vendor pricing pages, help centers and product pages, read on October 6, 2026.

1. ParrotNotes: for the meetings that happen in a room

ParrotNotes covers the meetings tl;dv's bot can't join: the jobsite walk, the lunch with a buyer, the meeting at a dealer's counter. There's no bot and no meeting link. Open the app on the phone you already carry, tap record, and set it on the table, with everyone's OK.

When you stop, the transcript, a summary, action items, and a drafted follow-up email are on your phone, ready to send before the next stop. The AI summary runs on every recording, on every plan. Sales frameworks (BANT, MEDDIC, and SPIN) work on Free's 5 AI-powered recordings a month and on every recording on Pro. Recording works offline, and the notes arrive once you're back online.

• Free: 100 minutes of recording a month, with an AI summary on every recording.
• Pro: US$19.99 a month, or US$14.99 a month billed annually, with 3,000 minutes a month, recordings up to 3 hours, all AI features, speaker identification, AI semantic search across your notes, 99+ languages with translation, and MCP connectors for Claude and ChatGPT.

Our guide to the best AI note taker for in-person meetings goes deeper on room recording.

Best for: reps and managers whose most important meetings happen face to face, or in more than one language.

2. Fireflies.ai: the closest swap for video calls

Fireflies works much like tl;dv on calls: a bot joins Zoom, Meet, Teams, and 10+ other platforms. Its pricing page also lists "Record using Chrome extension without Fireflies bot," and the mobile app records in person on iPhone and Android.

Prices (checked October 6, 2026): Free is $0 with limited AI summaries. Pro is $10 a seat a month billed annually ($18 monthly), Business $19 ($29 monthly), and Enterprise $39, billed annually only. Multi-language Mode sits on Business and up. Our Fireflies alternatives guide covers its trade-offs.

Best for: video-first teams that want tl;dv's workflow at a lower per-seat price.

3. Fathom: a free plan and sales tools on Business

Fathom's bot records Zoom, Meet, and Teams calls, and its iOS app captures "in-person meetings or calls without your laptop nearby." That page lists no Android app.

Prices (checked October 6, 2026): on Fathom's pricing page, Free is $0. Premium is $16 a month billed annually ($20 monthly), Team $15 a user ($19) for two or more users, and Business $25 ($34), which adds CRM field sync, deal view, coaching metrics, and AI scorecards. See our Fathom alternatives post for more.

Best for: sales teams on iPhone that live on video calls and want coaching tools.

4. Otter.ai: a familiar name with monthly minutes

Otter's meeting agent joins Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet, and its mobile apps record in person.

Prices (checked October 6, 2026): on Otter's pricing page, Basic is free with 300 monthly transcription minutes. Pro is $8.33 a user a month billed annually ($16.99 monthly) with 1,200 minutes, and Business is $19.99 billed annually ($30 monthly). Our Otter.ai alternatives guide covers where it falls short.

Best for: people who don't mind a bot and want one tool for calls and the odd in-person meeting.

5. Granola: bot-free notes on the desktop

Granola is the best-known bot-free tool for video calls. Its pricing page describes "Bot-free, device-audio capture," with desktop, iOS, Android, and Apple Watch apps.

Prices (checked October 6, 2026): Basic is free with a limited (30-day) meeting history, Business is $14 per user a month, and Enterprise $35. Our Granola alternatives guide compares it in more depth.

Best for: people who want tl;dv's AI notes without a bot in the call.

6. Bluedot: a bot-free recorder with a Chrome extension

Bluedot's homepage says it "never invites a bot to your meeting or asks for calendar access." It records Google Meet and other browser calls through a Chrome extension, and has desktop and mobile apps.

Prices (checked October 6, 2026): on Bluedot's pricing page, Free covers 5 meetings in total. Basic is $14 a user a month billed annually ($18 monthly) for audio-only recordings of up to 1 hour each. Pro is $20 ($25) and Business $32 ($39), both with video and unlimited recording length.

Best for: teams that want a tl;dv-style browser workflow without the bot.

Before you switch, download ParrotNotes free and record one customer meeting this week, with their permission.

How to choose a tl;dv alternative

Start from your coverage map, not from a feature list.

"Most of my selling is face to face." Start with ParrotNotes. You record on the phone you already carry, and the summary and follow-up draft are ready before you reach the car. Pair it with our follow-up email after a sales call templates.

"I like tl;dv, but buyers hate the bot." Try Granola or Bluedot on your computer for calls. For meetings in a room, ParrotNotes on the phone needs no bot either.

"My team lives on video calls and the price per seat hurts." Fireflies Pro and Otter Pro both cost less per seat on annual billing than tl;dv Pro. Run the same week of calls through one of them and compare the summaries.

"My meetings switch languages." A rep who talks with a distributor in Portuguese and writes the report in English needs a tool that follows the switch. ParrotNotes Pro transcribes mixed-language conversations and translates across 99+ languages.

Picture Dana, who manages five reps selling HVAC parts across Arizona and Sonora (a composite). Her team ran tl;dv Free for dealer calls on Meet. Two problems kept coming up: the AI notes ran out after ten meetings, and most of the selling happened at dealer counters, not on calls.

She ran a two-week trial with two reps on a phone app. They recorded 21 of 24 in-person visits, and the follow-up emails went out the same afternoon instead of on Friday. She kept a call recorder for her one inside rep and moved the field team to the phone.

Using a tool built for a different job, such as browser-only transcription? Our Tactiq alternative guide covers that case.

Before you switch: a five-minute export checklist

tl;dv Free keeps data for up to 3 months, so don't cancel first and export later.

1. List the meetings you still need. Open deals, signed contracts, and anything a customer might quote back to you.
2. Download what matters. Save the recordings, transcripts, and AI notes for those meetings while your account is active.
3. Copy your templates. If you built custom AI notes templates on Pro, paste the sections into a document so you can rebuild them in the new tool.
4. Check your integrations. Note which CRM fields, Slack channels, or Zapier flows tl;dv feeds, so nothing goes quiet after the switch.
5. Run both tools for a week. Record the same kinds of meetings in the new tool before you remove tl;dv from your calendar.

Choosing your tl;dv alternative

tl;dv is a good tool for video calls with a bot in the room. Count how many of your important meetings look like that. If it's most of them, a tl;dv upgrade may be all you need.

If your best conversations happen across a table or in two languages, you need a tool that hears them and puts the notes in your hand.

Download ParrotNotes free, record your next customer meeting with their OK, and read the summary before you start the car.