As the world of work changes, and remote and hybrid models grow in popularity, video calls have become a permanent fixture in our day-to-day jobs.
With so many of our professional conversations now happening by phone or video call, it can sometimes be useful to have permanent records of these - whether simply as an aide-mémoire or perhaps for legal purposes.
Transcription apps can also be used to help with content production. It speeds up the process of turning interviews into transcripts for blog posts. For example, we use a transcription app to help us produce our interviews.
There are a number of popular transcription apps and services available, many of which also include translation and subtitling tools. The kind you need will likely depend on the level of accuracy you require.
Automated transcription apps are usually cheaper and quicker, and if you’re simply looking for a way to document meetings that you may wish to refer back to at a later date to refresh your memory, then these will probably suffice.
Human transcription services on the other hand naturally return more accurate results, and might be worth considering for important meetings, or to stay HR-compliant when it comes to staff interviews for example.
Here is a review of five of the most popular transcription apps and services available, in no particular order:
Scribie provides both manual and automated transcription, and is generally considered to be very accurate, with a fast turnaround time (36 hours).
It’s easy to use, too. Upload your file, select a plan, pay the fee and expect a Word file returned within the agreed timeframe. You can also track the progress of your transcription.
However, do be aware of the pricing structure; the standard pricing that Scribie outlines is for clean files only, with additional charges for poor quality or background noise.
Cost: Pricing starts at $0.80 per minute for manual transcription and $0.10 per minute for automated transcription, plus an additional fee of $0.50 per minute for strong accents, poor audio quality, or background noise.
Rev has a range of audio and video transcription services available, and even has a free app you can use to record any audio straight to your phone, which is then sent to the company’s global transcription team. It also has services offering captions and subtitles for videos.
Probably the biggest reason behind its positive reviews, however, is the level of accuracy for the speed of turnaround.
Cost: Pricing starts at $1.25 per minute for manual transcriptions and $0.25 per minute for a machine generated transcript (with an estimated 80% accuracy).
TranscribeMe might be the best choice for those searching for a transcription app on a budget, but despite the price, it still appears to offer a fairly good level of accuracy.
Like Rev, TranscribeMe allows users to record audio within its app which can then be transcribed. It’s not quite as fast as Rev, but it’s worth bearing in mind that you can pay a little extra to have it transcribed quicker. There are also translation services available.
While it does have a slightly higher error rate, it costs substantially less.
Cost: Machine generated transcriptions start from $0.07 per minute, whilst human transcriptions start from $0.79 per minute.
GoTranscript is a British transcription company that’s especially useful for more complex projects. It’s well suited to technical and scientific files, thanks to familiarity with the terminology, and is also ideal for files with strong accents, and has support for 48 different languages.
Despite this, it still offers a quick turnaround, with its fastest service offering a return within 6-12 hours. Pricing is affordable, but as with Scribie, be aware of the additional charges for things like low audio quality.
Cost: Pricing starts at $0.90 per minute with additional charges for fast turnaround, low quality audio, and number of speakers.
GMR Transcription offers a wide range of transcription services, both automated and manual, as well as a service that can transcribe physical documents into electronic documents.
Accuracy levels tend to be high with GMR Transcription, although this is reflected in the pricing. Turnaround is slower than most, with most orders taking weeks rather than days. However, in some cases, there is an option for a next-day service.
As with Scribie and GoTranscript, prices increase as the complexity of the file increases.
Cost: Pricing starts at $1.25 per minute with additional charges based on the number of speakers, audio quality, and turnaround time.
Otter is another transcription app that allows you to record audio directly to the app, or alternatively upload a file at a later time.
It’s probably best known for its live transcription service, during which you can also make annotations in real time. It’s probably most commonly used for note taking, but is useful for in-person meetings too.
As well as business and enterprise plans, it also has a free service available.
Cost: Otter’s Basic plan is free, limited to 600 minutes per month, while its Business Plan is $20 per user per month. Enterprise pricing is tailored to individual businesses.
If you’re considering using a transcription app or service on a long term basis, rather than for an immediate job, it might be worth taking advantage of the free trials many providers offer before reaching your decision.
Join Guild 🤝
See for yourself how the Guild experience is different to WhatsApp, Slack, LinkedIn or Facebook Groups. Guild is a safe space to connect, communicate and collaborate with others.
Join us on a platform that is purpose-built for professionals and businesses.
- Just want to join some groups? Simply join Guild and then look through the discoverable groups and communities to find relevant ones to join
- Thinking of running your own community? With an elegant and simple to use, mobile-first UX you’ve got everything you need to start a community - custom branding, analytics, group and user management and support. Get started with your own community here with our free and enterprise options
Contact us if you want to know more or have any questions.