# Shadow vs VoiceTaking

Shadow records 17,796 monthly visits with -4.4% month-over-month growth and Freemium pricing. VoiceTaking records 302 monthly visits with +86.4% growth and Paid pricing.

| Metric | [Shadow](https://openaitools.app/tool/shadow) | [VoiceTaking](https://openaitools.app/tool/voicetaking) |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Website URL | https://www.shadow.do | https://voicetaking.com |
| Categories | AI Meeting Assistant, AI Transcription, AI Note Taker, AI Summarizer | AI Note Taker, AI Transcription, AI Writing Assistants |
| Pricing Model | Freemium | Paid |
| Monthly Visits | 17,796 | 302 |
| MoM Growth Rate | -4.4% | +86.4% |
| Primary Market | United States | United States |
| Direct Visits | 7,167 | 97 |
| Review Score | 4.3 | 4.3 |
| Saved Count | 1 | 1 |
| Supported Platforms | Website | Website |

## 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)

## VoiceTaking

VoiceTaking started as a voice note and brainstorming app and has evolved into a meeting note taker built around a simple idea: no bot should sit in your call. Instead of inviting a recorder into the meeting, you open the call inside VoiceTaking, share the browser tab that is running it, and enable tab audio. That lets the tool hear the other participants while your microphone covers you, and both streams are transcribed live on separate channels so attribution stays clear.

Before a call you can load context such as documents, links and background notes. During the meeting, a live guide suggests what to say and cites the prep material you supplied, which is useful when someone puts you on the spot. When the call ends, you pick a template that matches the meeting type and VoiceTaking writes a structured summary, then pulls out the action items. A desktop app is on the roadmap, but today the workflow is entirely browser-based.

It is a product from Appledore Dev, based in Jakarta, Indonesia, and the company also makes LaterOn. It suits individuals and small teams who want meeting notes they can trust without a visible recorder in the room.

**Pricing & Plans:** VoiceTaking is a paid product with two Pro plans covering one seat each: $10 per month billed monthly (discounted from $29) or $68 per year billed annually (down from $120). Both include 30 hours of meeting transcription per month, unlimited meetings and templates, and unlimited AI summaries and action items. No credit card is required to try the note-saving flow, and subscriptions can be cancelled at any time from Settings.

- **Two-channel browser capture:** VoiceTaking records the meeting tab audio and your own microphone at the same time, keeping each side on a separate channel so the transcript always shows who said what.
- **Bot-free live transcription:** Google Meet, Zoom and Teams calls opened in a browser tab are transcribed live, with no recording bot appearing in the participant list.
- **Meeting-shaped summaries:** Choose a template such as a technical interview scorecard or a strategy review, and the generated summary is shaped to match that meeting type instead of a generic block of text.
- **Prep and live guide:** Add context, documents and links before a call; during the meeting a live guide suggests what to say, cited from your prep material.
- **Summaries and action items:** The transcript is turned into a clean, shareable summary with extracted action items and unlimited AI generations during the meeting-heavy months.

**Strengths:** No recording bot appears in the meeting, so calls stay natural and attendees are not put off; Separate channels for meeting audio and your microphone keep speaker attribution accurate; Templates shape the summary around the meeting type, reducing cleanup afterwards; Prep context feeds a live guide that cites your own documents during the call

**Limitations:** No native mobile app yet; capture runs in a browser and the desktop app is still described as coming; Relies on you manually picking the correct browser tab and enabling "Also share tab audio", which can trip up first-time users; Transcription hours are capped at 30 per month even on paid plans, so heavy meeting schedules can overflow; Only works for calls you can open in a browser tab, which limits it for phone or in-room meetings

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

## Frequently Asked Questions

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

Shadow has 17,796 monthly visits, while VoiceTaking has 302. Traffic estimates describe audience size, not product quality.

### How do their growth rates compare?

Shadow has a month-over-month growth rate of -4.4%; VoiceTaking has +86.4%.

### How does pricing compare?

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. VoiceTaking: Paid. VoiceTaking is a paid product with two Pro plans covering one seat each: $10 per month billed monthly (discounted from $29) or $68 per year billed annually (down from $120). Both include 30 hours of meeting transcription per month, unlimited meetings and templates, and unlimited AI summaries and action items. No credit card is required to try the note-saving flow, and subscriptions can be cancelled at any time from Settings.

## 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 | [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) |
| 3 | [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) |
| 4 | [ScreenApp](https://openaitools.app/tool/screenapp) | 1,690,456 | +8.6% | Freemium | Record, transcribe, and summarize meetings, audio, and video with AI. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/screenapp.md) |
| 5 | [tl;dv](https://openaitools.app/tool/tldv-io) | 1,396,729 | +1.9% | Freemium | AI meeting notetaker that records, summarizes and turns calls into action | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/tldv-io.md) |
| 6 | [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) |
| 7 | [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) |
| 8 | [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) |
| 9 | [Voicenotes.com](https://openaitools.app/tool/voicenotes-com) | 157,296 | -37.8% | Paid | Private AI meeting notes - no bot, 60+ languages, searchable afterwards | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/voicenotes-com.md) |
| 10 | [Bubbles](https://openaitools.app/tool/bubbles) | 148,424 | +2% | Freemium, Free Trial | Always-on AI meeting notetaker with a self-erasing screen replay | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/bubbles.md) |

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

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