Daily.co vs Otter.ai: Complete Comparison (2026)
Choosing between Daily.co and Otter.ai is a common decision for video conferencing buyers in 2026. Both Daily.co and Otter.ai are established players, founded in 2016 and 2016 respectively. Daily.co serves 300K+ developers users while Otter.ai has 10M+ users globally. Daily.co differentiates with video api and audio api, while Otter.ai leads with real-time transcription and ai meeting summaries. In this head-to-head comparison, Daily.co earns a higher hiltonsoftware.co score of 92/100 — but the right choice depends on your specific needs, budget, and team size.
Quick Comparison
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
Pros & Cons at a Glance
After comparing Daily.co and Otter.ai across features, pricing, and user satisfaction, Daily.co takes the lead with a score of 92/100 versus Otter.ai's 90/100. Daily.co's key advantages include "best-in-class video api for developers" and "generous free tier". That said, Otter.ai has its own strengths — particularly "excellent transcription accuracy" — making it a viable alternative for specific use cases.
Both Daily.co and Otter.ai offer free plans, lowering the barrier to entry. Daily.co's paid plans start at $0.004/participant/min while Otter.ai begins at $10/user/mo. Evaluate which paid features — Recording, Transcription (Daily.co) vs Action items, Speaker identification (Otter.ai) — justify upgrading for your team.
Bottom line: Choose Daily.co if you need developers embedding video calling and conferencing into their own applications. Go with Otter.ai if your priority is professionals needing automatic meeting transcription and ai-generated summaries. Both are strong video conferencing tools — we recommend trying the free plan of each before committing.
Developers embedding video calling and conferencing into their own applications.
Professionals needing automatic meeting transcription and AI-generated summaries.