Otter.ai vs. Fireflies.ai: Which is Best for Recruiters? (2025 Review)

The worst part of interviewing candidates isn't the awkward small talk or the salary negotiation; it is the immense cognitive load of note-taking.

Recruiters are often stuck in a binary choice: type furiously to capture every word (and lose eye contact) or engage fully in the conversation (and forget 50% of the critical details). This problem leads to "Recency Bias," where you hire the candidate you interviewed last simply because you remember them best.

Automated AI note-takers are the solution. These tools join your Zoom, Teams, or Google Meet calls as a silent participant, transcribe the conversation in real-time, and generate executive summaries instantly. They allow you to be present.

But for HR professionals, not all AI tools are created equal. You have specific needs: connecting to your Applicant Tracking System (ATS), analyzing candidate sentiment, and ensuring data privacy. We pitted the two heavyweights, Otter.ai and Fireflies.ai, against each other to see which one truly serves the hiring industry in 2025.

The "At a Glance" Verdict

Don't have time to read the full deep dive? Here is the executive summary based on our testing.

Deep Dive: Otter.ai

Otter is the "household name" of transcription. It was one of the first to market and remains popular with journalists, students, and solo consultants. Its philosophy is simple: Perfect text, everywhere.

The Recruiter Experience

Using Otter feels like using a smart voice recorder. Its interface is clean, minimalist, and focuses entirely on the streaming text.

Its standout feature for HR is OtterPilot. You connect it to your Google or Outlook calendar, and it automatically joins your meetings. You don't have to remember to hit "record." During the interview, you can see a live transcription scrolling on the side. This is incredibly helpful if you missed what a candidate just said—you can glance over and read the last sentence instantly without asking them to repeat themselves.

Best Feature: "The Automated Takeaways"

Otter is excellent at identifying "Action Items." If you say to a candidate, "I'll send you the benefits package PDF by Tuesday," Otter highlights this in a sidebar. For a busy recruiter juggling 10 calls a day, having an automated to-do list generated from your voice commands is a massive productivity booster.

The Limitations

Otter is something of a "walled garden." It wants you to stay inside the Otter app to review notes. Moving data out of Otter into your HR software is difficult without using third-party connectors like Zapier, which adds cost and complexity. If you live in your ATS, this friction can be annoying.

Deep Dive: Fireflies.ai

While Otter focuses on the words, Fireflies focuses on the data. It positions itself not just as a transcriber, but as a "Conversation Intelligence" platform. It wants to tell you how the interview went, not just what was said.

The Recruiter Experience

Fireflies feels like a business dashboard. After an interview, you receive an email with a "Recap." This includes the transcript, but also a wealth of metrics that Otter lacks.

It tracks the Talk-to-Listen Ratio. This is humble pie for many recruiters. If you see that you spoke for 75% of the interview, you know you didn't give the candidate enough space to demonstrate their skills. Fireflies essentially acts as a coach, helping you improve your interviewing technique over time.

Best Feature: "AskFred"

Fireflies integrates GPT-4 capabilities into a bot named "Fred." You can open a 45-minute interview transcript and simply type: "Did the candidate mention their salary expectations?"

Fred scans the text and answers: "Yes, at minute 14:20, they mentioned looking for $80,000 - $90,000." This searchability is magical for filling out scorecards later. You can essentially "chat" with your interview notes.

Head-to-Head Comparison Factors

1. Integration with ATS (The Dealbreaker)

This is the most critical factor for HR teams. You want the notes to live in the candidate's profile, not in a separate app.

• Fireflies: Has native integrations with Hubspot, Salesforce, Slack, and—crucially for some plans—hiring platforms like Greenhouse, Lever, and Freshteam. It can automatically log the call under the specific contact.
• Otter: Primarily integrates with calendars (Google/Outlook) and video platforms (Zoom/Teams). It lacks deep native integration with niche HR ATS platforms.

2. Transcription Accuracy & Jargon

Both tools are excellent, but they have different strengths regarding vocabulary.

• Otter: In our tests, Otter was slightly better at handling "technical jargon" (e.g., SQL, Kubernetes, React Native) and distinguishing between speakers with similar voices (Speaker Diarization).
• Fireflies: Offers support for more languages. If you are hiring globally and interviewing in Spanish, French, or Portuguese, Fireflies is the significantly better choice, as Otter is primarily English-focused.

3. Privacy and Compliance

Recording interviews is a sensitive legal area. You must inform candidates they are being recorded. Refer to our AI Hiring Ethics Guide for more on this.

Both platforms allow you to customize the bot's name (e.g., renaming it from "OtterPilot" to "HR Note Taker" so it looks less intrusive). Both are SOC 2 Type II compliant, meaning they meet enterprise-grade security standards. However, Fireflies offers slightly better "Private Mode" settings, allowing you to ensure that recordings of sensitive roles (like C-Suite interviews) are not shared with the rest of your team automatically.

Cost Analysis: Getting the Best ROI

Pricing models differ slightly, and for a small agency, this adds up.

Otter.ai Pricing

Otter offers a generous Free Plan (300 monthly minutes), which is enough for about 5-6 interviews a month. Their Pro Plan starts around $10/month and offers 1,200 minutes.

Fireflies.ai Pricing

Fireflies also has a Free tier, but it limits the "AI Summary" features, which are the main selling point. Their Pro Plan starts around $10/month, but to get the advanced "AskFred" features and ATS integrations, you often need the Business Plan ($19/month).

The Verdict: Which Should You Choose?

Frequently Asked Questions