Who should choose which
The honest split is not about features, and not about price either. It is about who else needs the recording.
Choose Notta if…
- You need both a team cloud workspace and an optional local transcription mode in one product
- You need Windows, mobile, browser access, or transcription beyond Kanary’s ten languages
- You accept that local Privacy Mode is paid and pauses or limits cloud AI summaries, sync, and collaboration
Choose Kanary if…
- Local recording, live transcription, translation, and summarising should be the normal workflow, not a separate mode
- You need local use without an account or periodic licence validation
- You want local live translation and summarising, plus captions and Cue, without leaving the local workflow
Notta is stronger as one system spanning team-cloud and local transcription. Kanary is narrower: a Mac-first local workflow whose core recording and AI features keep working together offline.
The four differences that matter
01Local is no longer the dividing line
Notta Privacy Mode and Kanary can both keep recording and transcription on the computer.
Notta Privacy Mode processes recording and transcription on-device and saves the result only in a local folder. After its offline model and licence are set up, it can work without a connection for at least a month between periodic licence checks.
The difference is the product boundary. Privacy Mode is a paid, app-wide workspace in Notta Desktop. Cloud AI summaries, cross-device sync, and team collaboration are paused or limited there. Kanary makes local recording, live transcription, translation, and summarising the normal workflow rather than a reduced mode.
02Who actually goes to the meeting?
Notta Bot can attend and record for you. Kanary gets you into the meeting, then leaves recording under your control.
Connect Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook to Notta and its Bot can automatically join scheduled Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Webex calls as a participant. You can filter auto-join by platform, internal or external meeting, title keywords, or individual event, and the Bot can record while you are absent. The meeting still has to admit it and grant recording permission, though for Zoom, Notta lets you turn off host approval.
Notta Desktop offers a separate bot-free path: it detects a meeting and prompts the person at the computer to record. That workflow should not be confused with calendar auto-join; the calendar automation uses Notta Bot.
Kanary reads the calendars already synced to your Mac, including iCloud, Google, and Exchange, and opens the meeting link one minute before it starts. It never joins as another participant or records in your absence. Notta offers the unattended delegate; Kanary keeps attendance and recording attached to the person at the Mac.
03Free cloud use versus paid local use
Notta has a free plan, but its local Privacy Mode starts on Pro. Kanary’s local workflow starts free.
Notta Free includes 120 transcription minutes per month and transcribes only the first 3 minutes of each recording. Privacy Mode is available on Pro, Business, and Enterprise and does not consume cloud transcription minutes.
Kanary’s free tier has no monthly transcription quota. It limits each recording to 1 hour 15 minutes of transcription and summarising; the paid tier removes that per-recording limit.
04What stays available while you stay local
Notta offers a choice between its richer cloud workflow and a narrower local workspace. Kanary keeps its core workflow local together.
- Notta Privacy Mode: local recording, post-recording transcription, local file import, review, and export
- Notta Cloud Mode: AI summaries, cross-device sync, team collaboration, integrations, and the shared workspace
- Kanary locally: live transcription, live translation, summaries, captions, and Cue in the same workflow
- Notta requires an account and roughly monthly licence validation; Kanary’s local features do not require an account
Notta local records do not automatically move into its cloud workspace. To use cloud features, you export the local file and re-import it in Cloud Mode.
That makes Notta the broader product and Kanary the more integrated local one. Choose based on whether you need one product that can switch between cloud and local, or a local-first workflow whose AI features remain available together.
Side by side
For reference. Figures come from the vendor’s own pages; any figure checked on a different date is marked in the row.
| Kanary | Notta | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Free, permanently | Free |
| Free transcription allowance | No monthly cap; 1 h 15 m per recording on the free tier | 120 minutes per month |
| Free file imports | No cap; drag in .mov or .mp4 and the audio is extracted | 50 imports per month |
| Transcription languages | Japanese, English, Chinese, Cantonese, Korean, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese | 58 languages |
| Export formats | Markdown, SRT | TXT, DOCX, SRT, PDF, XLSX, MP3, WAV, MP4 |
| Shared team library | None; iCloud sync between your own Macs only | Yes |
| Devices and platforms | macOS 26 Tahoe or later, Apple Silicon only | Mac (macOS 11+; system audio 13+), Windows 10+, iPhone / Android, browser |
| Business integrations | None; CLI and Markdown / SRT export instead | Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, Notion, Zapier, an MCP server and CLI, and more |
| Meeting apps covered | No list; anything that plays on your Mac | Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, or any meeting software via Desktop |
| Calendars connected | Calendars synced to the Mac: iCloud, Google, Exchange, and more | Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook |
| At meeting time | Opens the meeting link 1 minute before, never records unattended | A bot can join and record as a participant, even without you |
| Recording without a bot | Always; nothing joins the call | Desktop app, any meeting software or browser |
| Where audio is processed | On your Mac | Cloud, or on-device in paid Privacy Mode |
Where Notta is the better choice
Each of these follows from recording on-device. We state them plainly, because finding out after installing is worse. If one of them describes you, Notta is the right answer today, and this page has done its job.
- You want one product that can switch between a team cloud workspace and paid local transcription. Notta Privacy Mode keeps recordings and transcripts on the device, while Cloud Mode provides sharing, sync, and integrations.
- You want bot-free capture on almost any meeting app while keeping microphone and system audio separate. Notta Desktop supports both, and can prompt when a meeting starts.
- Someone reviews meetings they did not attend: a manager reading last week’s client call, a handover, call QA. The Business-plan workspace lets members open and collaborate on each other’s recordings.
- Your machine is outside Kanary’s requirements. Notta runs on Windows, iPhone / Android, in any browser, and its desktop app runs on macOS 11 or later, with bot-free system audio from macOS 13 (Kanary needs macOS 26 Tahoe on Apple Silicon).
- You transcribe languages beyond Kanary’s ten. Notta covers 58, including Vietnamese, Thai, Hindi, and Indonesian.
- You need a recording of a meeting you cannot attend. Bot mode joins the call and records the full meeting without you there (video recording on Business and above).
- Notes need to land in Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, Notion, or Zapier, and Notta connects to them directly.
- You want transcription and summarising done off your own machine. Notta Cloud Mode handles both remotely; Privacy Mode is the alternative when local control matters more.
Plenty of people also run both: the shared meetings go to Notta, the sensitive ones stay on the Mac.
Trade-offs and limitations
Kanary
- Needs macOS 26 Tahoe or later on Apple Silicon. No Windows, iPad, Intel Mac, or browser version
- No shared team library. A colleague cannot open a meeting they were not in
- No Salesforce, HubSpot, or Zapier integrations. And no admin console or SSO
- Transcription and summarising use your own Mac’s processor
Notta
- Local Privacy Mode requires a paid plan. Pro, Business, or Enterprise (availability can vary by billing method), with sign-in and periodic licence validation
- Privacy Mode pauses or limits cloud AI summaries, sync, and collaboration. Local files must be exported and re-imported manually to use cloud workflows
- The free cloud plan transcribes only 3 minutes per recording. And 120 transcription minutes per month in total
- Local language coverage depends on the installed engine. 4 languages in the general offline model; 11 through Apple Speech Analyzer on macOS 26+
Sources
Every Notta figure on this page comes from Notta’s own pages, listed here with the date each was last checked.
- www.notta.ai/pricing
- support.notta.ai/hc/en-us/articles/4403155631131-What-languages-does-Notta-support
- support.notta.ai/hc/en-us/articles/15289070397851-Download-transcription-file
- www.notta.ai/en/pricing
- support.notta.ai/hc/en-us/articles/48300234055707-Getting-Started-with-Notta-Desktop
- support.notta.ai/hc/en-us/articles/48352348726555-Notta-Desktop-vs-Notta-Bot-What-s-the-Difference
- www.notta.ai/en/features/bot-free
- support.notta.ai/hc/en-us/articles/48345161234203-What-is-Bot-Free-Recording
- support.notta.ai/hc/en-us/articles/52683417314587-What-is-Privacy-Mode-Recording
- support.notta.ai/hc/en-us/articles/16057662392859-Transcribe-online-meetings-via-calendar-integration