Cachalot vs tl;dv
tl;dv is a recording library for a team: calls, clips, timestamps, and integrations that push the result elsewhere. Cachalot is a private recorder for one person, and the recording never becomes a library anyone else can reach.
The structural difference
| Cachalot | tl;dv | |
|---|---|---|
| Joins your meeting as a bot | No — nothing appears in the call | Yes for Zoom, Meet and Teams — its notetaker appears in the attendee list. The desktop app can also record without one |
| Where your audio goes | Nowhere. It stays in ~/Documents on your Mac | Recorded into tl;dv's cloud and stored there (EU hosting available) |
| Works offline | Yes — recording, transcription and notes all run locally | No |
| Runs on | macOS 26+, Apple Silicon | Web, macOS, Windows, and meeting-platform integrations |
Based on tl;dv's publicly documented behaviour as of September 2026. Prices and individual features change often, so they are deliberately left out. Spotted something wrong? Tell us and we will fix it.
When tl;dv is the better choice
- your team wants one shared library of recorded calls, with video, clips and timestamps
- meeting data has to land in a CRM or another tool automatically
- calls must be recorded even when you are not the one attending
Cachalot is built for the opposite constraint: conversations that cannot be uploaded — client work under NDA, candidate interviews, medical, legal and financial calls — where a bot in the meeting or audio in someone else's cloud is not an option.
Try it on your next call
Free, no account, no trial period. Record, get notes, and see for yourself that nothing leaves the machine.