Cachalot vs Notta
Notta's desktop recorder captures without a bot, which solves the visible part of the problem. The audio still travels: the transcript and the summary are made in Notta's workspace. Cachalot makes both on the machine that recorded them.
The structural difference
| Cachalot | Notta | |
|---|---|---|
| Joins your meeting as a bot | No — nothing appears in the call | No bot in the desktop recorder — it captures your device's audio |
| Where your audio goes | Nowhere. It stays in ~/Documents on your Mac | Uploaded to your Notta workspace, where it is transcribed and summarized |
| Works offline | Yes — recording, transcription and notes all run locally | Recording works offline; the transcript needs the service |
| Runs on | macOS 26+, Apple Silicon | Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android |
Based on Notta'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 Notta is the better choice
- you want the same transcripts on a phone and on Windows, not only on one Mac
- you need to transcribe audio or video files you already have — Cachalot only records what is happening live
- your team needs one shared, searchable workspace that everyone can open in a browser
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.