Horch vs Read AI

A side-by-side look at pricing, capabilities, pros, cons, and our editorial scores.

	Horch Audio	Read AI Audio
Tagline	Privacy-first, on-device meeting assistant for macOS	AI meeting copilot that transcribes, summarizes, and surfaces action items across Zoom, Meet, and Teams.
Category	Audio	Audio
Pricing	Paid· One-time purchase: €49 once	Freemium· Free: Free · Pro: $19.75 · Enterprise: $29.75 · Enterprise+: $39.75
Model	Whisper (local) for transcription; optional Ollama / MLX local LLMs for summarization	Multi-model
Editorial score	—	8.1 / 10
Use cases	Confidential client meeting transcriptionAutomatic action-item extractionPer-contact relationship historyPre-meeting briefings from prior callsLocal Whisper transcription without cloud uploadFeeding meeting context into Claude or Cursor via MCPPersonal second-brain in MarkdownLegal, medical, or NDA-bound conversation notes	meeting-transcriptionmeeting-summariesaction-itemscross-channel-searchsales-call-notes
Pros	Fully on-device by default — audio and transcripts never leave the Mac unless the user opts in One-time €49 purchase instead of a recurring per-seat SaaS bill Records at OS level so no bot appears in the meeting and any app (Zoom, Meet, Teams, in-person) works Notes stored as plain Markdown in ~/Meetings — portable, greppable, Obsidian-friendly Auto-generates action items, topic summaries, and per-person profiles from spoken content MCP server exposes meeting history to Claude, Cursor, and other agent clients Local Whisper transcription plus optional Ollama/MLX means you pick the summarizer	Works across Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams out of the box Cross-channel search spans meetings, email, and chat in one query SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, and HIPAA compliance for regulated teams Solid integration list (Slack, HubSpot, Salesforce, Notion, Asana) Free tier and broad device coverage including mobile
Cons	macOS only — no Windows, Linux, iOS, or web client Local Whisper and summarization need a reasonably modern Apple Silicon Mac to feel fast No cloud sync or team workspace, so sharing across a team requires bring-your-own storage Small independent product without the integrations catalog of Fireflies, Otter, or Fathom OS-level capture depends on macOS screen/audio permissions, which some corporate MDM setups block	Always-on meeting bot raises consent friction on external calls Free plan capped at 5 meetings/month Agentic Ada features locked behind higher tiers Summary quality varies on noisy or multi-language calls
Website	horch.app	read.ai

Pick Horch if

✅ Fully on-device by default — audio and transcripts never leave the Mac unless the user opts in
✅ One-time €49 purchase instead of a recurring per-seat SaaS bill
✅ Records at OS level so no bot appears in the meeting and any app (Zoom, Meet, Teams, in-person) works
✅ Notes stored as plain Markdown in ~/Meetings — portable, greppable, Obsidian-friendly

Pick Read AI if

✅ Works across Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams out of the box
✅ Cross-channel search spans meetings, email, and chat in one query
✅ SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, and HIPAA compliance for regulated teams
✅ Solid integration list (Slack, HubSpot, Salesforce, Notion, Asana)

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