# Bubbles vs Shadow

Bubbles records 148,424 monthly visits with +2% month-over-month growth and Freemium, Free Trial pricing. Shadow records 17,796 monthly visits with -4.4% growth and Freemium pricing.

| Metric | [Bubbles](https://openaitools.app/tool/bubbles) | [Shadow](https://openaitools.app/tool/shadow) |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Website URL | https://www.usebubbles.com | https://www.shadow.do |
| Categories | AI Note Taker, AI Summarizer, AI Transcription, AI Meeting Assistant | AI Meeting Assistant, AI Transcription, AI Note Taker, AI Summarizer |
| Pricing Model | Freemium, Free Trial | Freemium |
| Monthly Visits | 148,424 | 17,796 |
| MoM Growth Rate | +2% | -4.4% |
| Primary Market | United States | United States |
| Direct Visits | 106,711 | 7,167 |
| Review Score | 4.4 | 4.3 |
| Saved Count | 0 | 1 |
| Supported Platforms | Website | Website |

## Bubbles

Bubbles takes an unusual approach to meeting capture: instead of asking you to decide in advance what to record, the Mac app keeps a rolling, encrypted two-hour buffer of your screen and audio on your own machine. Every new minute permanently erases the oldest, so nothing accumulates and nothing is uploaded unless you save it. When a call starts, Bubbles notices and opens a lightweight notepad where you can jot a few fragments while you stay present in the conversation.

When the meeting ends, saving it triggers Bubbles' AI notetaker, which combines the transcript with your fragments and produces a structured summary, action items and a full transcript in your own voice. A separate AI notetaker can also join Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, GoTo Meeting or Webex calls via your calendar, with configurable rules for which meetings it attends and who receives the recordings.

The pricing structure is straightforward. The free Basic tier covers 30-minute recordings, five meeting recordings per week, unlimited screen recordings, AI summaries and action items, and the notetaker joining meetings, though replays lock after two weeks. Paid Pro plans unlock unlimited recording length, transcripts, meeting-selection controls and white-labelling, with lower per-seat pricing for teams of three or more.

**Pricing & Plans:** Freemium with a free Basic tier and a 14-day Pro trial. Pro Personal runs about $18/member/month billed yearly ($22 monthly); Pro Teams drops to roughly $12/member/month yearly ($15 monthly) at three or more members.

- **Self-erasing two-hour replay:** Bubbles keeps a rolling, encrypted replay of your screen and audio on your Mac. Each new minute deletes the oldest, so nothing accumulates and nothing uploads until you save a clip.
- **Notes in your voice:** Type a few fragments during the call and Bubbles' AI turns the transcript plus your jottings into a structured summary, owner-tagged action items and a full transcript.
- **No bots in your calls:** The desktop app runs locally, so nothing appears in the participant list. A separate, optional notetaker can join scheduled meetings from your calendar on supported platforms.
- **Trim and share instantly:** Scroll back through the replay, trim exactly the moment that matters and share a link. Only the trimmed clip is uploaded - never the surrounding replay.
- **Meeting selection controls:** On Pro plans you decide which calls the notetaker joins, who receives recordings, and whether branding is customized or hidden.

**Strengths:** Replay stays local and encrypted, and older footage is deleted automatically; AI notes built from your live fragments read like your own notes; No meeting bot joins the call, so participants are never interrupted; Free tier is genuinely usable and Pro pricing is transparent per seat

**Limitations:** The flagship always-on replay experience is Mac-only today; Free plan locks replays after two weeks and caps recordings; Auto-joining notetaker on the free tier attends every eligible calendar meeting

[Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/bubbles.md)

## Shadow

Shadow starts from a complaint many knowledge workers share about meeting assistants: the bot that joins your call, the note-taker that locks your history behind a subscription, and the data that leaves your machine for someone else's servers. Shadow's answer is a native Mac app that operates entirely in the background. It has no bot that joins the meeting, auto-detects when a call begins, records and transcribes it locally, and stops on its own when the call ends. Speaker identification is done in real time, so transcripts arrive labelled with who said what.

The output is deliberately portable. Every meeting is written to your Mac as Markdown — transcripts, notes, and Skill results — with every call and every person linked into a knowledge base. You can open the folder as an Obsidian vault, sync it with iCloud Drive or Google Drive, search it with Spotlight, or point any AI agent at it. Shadow emphasises that there is a built-in advantage: because agents read the raw files rather than a connector's filtered view, tools like Claude, Codex, or OpenClaw get the complete context.

Between calls, Shadow is more than a note-taker. Press a keyboard shortcut on any screen and it can see what you're looking at, hear what you say, or read selected text, then run an Action Skill to produce an email, a set of notes, or code. Skills are just prompts you can edit or write from scratch, and a webhook can forward results to Zapier, n8n, or Make. The privacy stance is equally concrete: transcription is local, audio does not leave the device, meeting content is never used for model training, and you choose which Skills are allowed to call AI at all.

**Pricing & Plans:** Shadow is free to start, and the developer's stated policy is that every meeting is saved to your Mac as Markdown with no history limit on any plan — you keep the files even if you stop paying. For current paid tiers, check the pricing page inside the app.

- **Bot-free auto recording:** Shadow detects when a call starts, records automatically, and stops at the end — no bot in the meeting, nothing to remember to press.
- **On-device transcription:** Transcription runs on your Mac, with real-time speaker identification so you always know who said what.
- **Markdown you own:** Every call is saved as a clean .md file locally, openable as an Obsidian vault, backed up with iCloud or Drive, or searchable by Spotlight.
- **Meeting and Action Skills:** Run prompts on a completed call (notes, BANT, follow-ups, summaries) plus shortcut-driven actions on your screen between meetings.
- **Webhooks and automation:** A webhook pushes transcripts and Skill results into Zapier, n8n, or Make so meetings feed your existing workflows.

**Strengths:** No bot joins your call, so meetings stay natural; Local, on-device transcription with no history limits; Meetings stored as portable Markdown that works with Obsidian and AI agents; Flexible Skills you can edit or write from scratch

**Limitations:** Mac-only — there is no Windows or web app; Local-first storage means you manage your own folder, sync, and backups; By design it records without a bot, so you are responsible for getting consent from other participants; Skill output quality still depends on prompt craft, though Skills ship with sensible defaults

[Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/shadow.md)

## Frequently Asked Questions

### How do Bubbles and Shadow compare in monthly traffic?

Bubbles has 148,424 monthly visits, while Shadow has 17,796. Traffic estimates describe audience size, not product quality.

### How do their growth rates compare?

Bubbles has a month-over-month growth rate of +2%; Shadow has -4.4%.

### How does pricing compare?

Bubbles: Freemium, Free Trial. Freemium with a free Basic tier and a 14-day Pro trial. Pro Personal runs about $18/member/month billed yearly ($22 monthly); Pro Teams drops to roughly $12/member/month yearly ($15 monthly) at three or more members. Shadow: Freemium. Shadow is free to start, and the developer's stated policy is that every meeting is saved to your Mac as Markdown with no history limit on any plan — you keep the files even if you stop paying. For current paid tiers, check the pricing page inside the app.

## Alternatives

| # | Tool Name | Monthly Visits | MoM Growth Rate | Pricing Model | Summary | Profile (Markdown) |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 1 | [Otter AI](https://openaitools.app/tool/otter-ai) | 7,360,981 | +9.6% | Freemium | AI meeting agent that transcribes, summarises, and turns every conversation into searchable knowledge | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/otter-ai.md) |
| 2 | [Tactiq](https://openaitools.app/tool/tactiq) | 6,521,542 | +4.1% | Freemium | Live meeting transcription and AI notes without a bot in the call | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/tactiq.md) |
| 3 | [Fathom](https://openaitools.app/tool/fathom-2-0) | 5,620,385 | +0.2% | Freemium, Free Trial | AI notetaker that records, transcribes and summarizes meetings — bot-free | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/fathom-2-0.md) |
| 4 | [Fireflies.ai](https://openaitools.app/tool/fireflies-ai) | 4,411,502 | +3% | Freemium | AI teammate that records, transcribes and summarizes every meeting | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/fireflies-ai.md) |
| 5 | [Notta](https://openaitools.app/tool/notta) | 2,585,354 | +2% | Freemium, Paid, Contact for Pricing | Turns conversations into searchable text and visual notes via bot recording rather than local desktop replay. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/notta.md) |
| 6 | [ScreenApp](https://openaitools.app/tool/screenapp) | 1,690,456 | +8.6% | Freemium | Records video and audio with automated meeting summaries, though lacking Bubbles' specific local rolling replay. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/screenapp.md) |
| 7 | [tl;dv](https://openaitools.app/tool/tldv-io) | 1,396,729 | +1.9% | Freemium | Records video calls and generates timestamps, but relies on meeting bots instead of local desktop recording. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/tldv-io.md) |
| 8 | [Noota](https://openaitools.app/tool/noota) | 283,526 | +3.3% | Freemium, Paid, Contact for Pricing | Bot-free AI meeting assistant hosted in Europe | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/noota.md) |
| 9 | [Circleback](https://openaitools.app/tool/circleback) | 272,906 | +12.5% | Free Trial | AI notetaker and company brain that turns every meeting into searchable knowledge | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/circleback.md) |
| 10 | [Fellow](https://openaitools.app/tool/fellow) | 188,722 | -5% | Contact for Pricing | The secure AI meeting notetaker built for teams that cannot get privacy wrong | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/fellow.md) |

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Source: https://openaitools.app/compare/bubbles-vs-shadow

More Markdown: [Categories](https://openaitools.app/categories.md) · [Traffic rankings](https://openaitools.app/rankings.md) · [llms.txt](https://openaitools.app/llms.txt)