Fellow vs tl;dv: AI Meeting Assistant Comparison Guide (2026)

Choosing between AI meeting notetakers comes down to a fundamental question: do you need a tool that works for individuals, or one that scales across your entire organization?

tl;dv has been around longer with a generous free plan and solid clip-sharing features. But when teams evaluate both tools side by side, especially for enterprise deployment, Fellow emerges as the stronger choice.

Fellow, a secure AI meeting assistant, delivers higher transcription accuracy, flexible recording options without a bot, deeper integrations, and the enterprise security certifications that procurement teams require.

For teams and organizations, Fellow is the better choice. Fellow's combination of bot and botless recording, SOC 2 Type II certification, HIPAA compliance, and organization-wide meeting intelligence addresses the exact pain points that drive users away from tl;dv.

Individual users who primarily want free transcription may find tl;dv sufficient, but teams evaluating meeting AI for long-term, organization-wide deployment will find Fellow is purpose-built for that need.

Fellow vs tl;dv AI at a glance

Transcription accuracy and language support

Transcription is the foundation everything else builds on. If the transcript is wrong, the AI meeting notes, the action items, and the searchable meeting intelligence all inherit those errors.

• Fellow consistently delivers 95%+ transcription accuracy across 92 languages.

• tl;dv supports 30+ languages and performs well in controlled conditions, but independent reviewers have documented accuracy gaps in real-world use.

As Stackfix noted in their detailed review, tl;dv's transcription system is "frustratingly inflexible" — users can't edit transcripts or speaker labels, leaving teams "stuck with AI's interpretation." Stackfix described this as "particularly problematic for teams needing accurate meeting records for compliance or legal purposes."

Hyprnote's in-depth 2025 review found that tl;dv "struggles significantly with accents — particularly Indian English and mixed vernacular conversations — and completely falls apart with technical jargon." The review also highlighted that tl;dv lacks custom vocabulary support, meaning teams in specialized fields like biotech, fintech, or legal face constant manual corrections.

For organizations with diverse, global teams, this accuracy gap compounds quickly. Fellow's broader language support and consistent accuracy make it the more reliable foundation for meeting intelligence at scale.

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Recording flexibility: bot vs botless

Some meetings — board sessions, client calls, sensitive HR conversations — are better captured without a visible bot joining the call.

• Fellow gives teams the choice: record with a bot or use bot-free recording, with the same enterprise governance, accuracy, and security for both modes.

• tl;dv relies on a bot-based recording model. While the bot is transparent and participants are notified, it remains visible in the meeting.

As Aron Kantor from The Business Dive noted after testing 20+ AI meeting tools, some meeting participants find visible bots "obtrusive." Multiple G2 reviewers have echoed this sentiment, noting that tl;dv's bot "doesn't always join on time," which "can distract everyone or look unprofessional with clients."

tl;dv recently launched a mobile "Lite" app for in-person audio recording, but it's still in its early stage and doesn't replace full meeting recording functionality.

Fellow's mobile app (iOS and Android) provides a more mature mobile experience alongside its desktop platform.

Organization-wide AI meeting intelligence

Basic transcription is table stakes. The real differentiator is what happens after the meeting ends.

• Ask Fellow lets users query across all meetings they have access to — not just their own.

• Teams can ask questions like "What commitments are at risk?" or "Where are projects getting blocked?" and get answers drawn from the full breadth of organizational meeting data.

• Ask Fellow can also create clips from meeting recordings on demand, so teams can pull and share key moments without scrubbing through footage manually.

• Fellow also generates pre-meeting AI briefs, so participants walk into meetings with context from previous conversations.

tl;dv offers multi-meeting reports and an "Ask tl;dv" chat feature, which works well for surfacing information from recorded calls. However, the free plan limits users to just 10 AI chats per month, and the feature is primarily designed around individual use rather than organization-wide intelligence.

As Aron Kantor from The Business Dive observed after 18+ months of testing, tl;dv is "a good tool for individuals" — a framing that underscores where it excels and where it falls short for team-wide deployment.

Fellow's approach treats meetings as shared organizational knowledge, not isolated individual recordings. That distinction matters as teams scale.

Integrations: turning meetings into action

Meeting notes are only valuable if they flow into the tools where work actually happens.

• Fellow offers 50+ native integrations, an API, and an MCP Server that connects meeting intelligence to Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor.

• Action items sync directly to project management tools — not as plain text, but as structured, trackable tasks. Fellow also connects to Zapier and n8n for access to 8,000+ additional apps.

tl;dv also offers broad connectivity, with native CRM connections to HubSpot and Salesforce and access to 5,000+ tools via Zapier. Where the two tools diverge is in the depth of those integrations. tl;dv's CRM integration has been a recurring pain point for teams switching to Fellow, particularly around Salesforce workflows and structured data syncing. Fellow's API and MCP Server also open up workflow automation possibilities that tl;dv doesn't currently match.

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Enterprise security and compliance

For organizations in regulated industries, or any team that takes data governance seriously, security certifications aren't optional.

• Fellow is SOC 2 Type II certified, GDPR compliant, and HIPAA compliant.

• Fellow never trains on customer data and provides permission-based access aligned to organizational roles through granular privacy controls.

• Fellow's Security and Trust Centre provides full transparency into data handling practices.

tl;dv holds SOC 2 Type 1 certification and is GDPR compliant, with EU-based hosting. tl;dv also doesn't train on customer data. However, as of January 2026, tl;dv does not offer HIPAA compliance, which disqualifies it for healthcare organizations and other regulated industries. The distinction between SOC 2 Type 1 (controls are designed) and Type II (controls are proven effective over time) is significant for enterprise procurement teams evaluating long-term vendor risk.

Quotes from tl;dv users who switched to Fellow

The most revealing signal about any product comparison comes from teams that have used both. Here's what decision-makers shared during their evaluation of Fellow after experiencing tl;dv's limitations firsthand.

"Transcription failures eroded trust in the tool"

A director-level executive evaluating AI solutions for a fintech company described their tl;dv experience as fundamentally undermining confidence in the product.

The same executive compared the transcription failures to a car that simply won't start:

"It's just the transcription not working properly was such a shocking occurrence. Like, I just, I didn't even forecast it, frankly... you expect your car to drive."

"CRM integration gaps slowed down sales teams"

An operations decision-maker at a higher education services company explained why tl;dv's integrations fell short:

"Basically we are using two CRMs. Both are integrated with each other... we have to push the audio to the AI Note Taker app so that the AI Note Taker will give the transcript in a very detailed way."

The manual workaround added friction to a high-volume workflow that needed seamless automation.

"AI summary quality didn't meet expectations"

A product/operations manager at a software development agency summarized a year-long search:

"Evaluating meeting tools for a year... Fireflies, tl;dv, not impressed with quality of output."

A director of product management at a CRM platform paused an active vendor evaluation specifically because of quality concerns: they were "already at the contract stage but paused this evaluation to look at other options due to concerns about the quality of their AI recaps."

"Security and data residency requirements weren't met"

A director of operations at a financial services firm evaluating solutions for regulatory compliance stated the priority plainly:

"Privacy and security is number 1."

Pricing comparison and value breakdown

Fellow's Team plan at $7/user/month delivers core collaboration features — unlimited AI meeting notes, integrations, and team folders — at less than half the cost of tl;dv's Pro plan. The gap widens significantly at the business tier: Fellow's Business plan at $15/user/month costs roughly a quarter of tl;dv's Business plan at $59/user/month, which locks advanced coaching and analytics behind a steep price increase.

As Hyprnote's review of tl;dv noted, "Pro at $29/month [monthly billing] is expensive compared to the competition," and the Business plan at $98/month represents "a steep $69/month jump from Pro."

Aron Kantor from The Business Dive echoed this, noting that while tl;dv's AI coaching features "can be quite helpful for sales or customer-facing teams, it seems pricey."

Who should choose Fellow

• Fellow is the right choice for teams and organizations that need enterprise-grade security (SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA), the flexibility of bot or botless recording, 95%+ transcription accuracy across 92 languages, meeting intelligence that scales across the entire organization, and a variety of integrations across CRM, Project Management, and AI Automation tools.

• Fellow's pricing makes it accessible at every tier, from small teams to enterprise.

Who should choose tl;dv

tl;dv is a solid option for individuals or very small teams that want a generous free plan for personal meeting transcription, don't need botless recording, and operate in environments where SOC 2 Type 1 and GDPR compliance are sufficient. tl;dv's manual clip-sharing and video highlight features are well-regarded for async collaboration among individual contributors — though Fellow now offers AI-powered clip creation through Ask Fellow for teams that want to automate that workflow.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Fellow better than tl;dv for teams of 10+ people?

Fellow is the stronger choice for teams. It offers SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA compliance, bot or botless recording with the same governance for both, 95%+ transcription accuracy across 92 languages, and organization-wide meeting intelligence through Ask Fellow. Fellow's Team plan at $7/user/month also costs less than half of tl;dv's Pro plan.

Does tl;dv offer botless recording?

tl;dv primarily uses a bot-based recording model. While tl;dv recently launched a mobile "Lite" app for recording in-person audio, it does not offer the same botless recording experience as Fellow, which provides full botless recording for virtual meetings with the same enterprise governance as its bot-based option.

Is tl;dv HIPAA compliant?

No. tl;dv holds SOC 2 Type 1 certification and is GDPR compliant, but it does not offer HIPAA compliance. Fellow is SOC 2 Type II certified, GDPR compliant, and HIPAA compliant, making it suitable for healthcare organizations and other regulated industries.

How does Fellow's pricing compare to tl;dv?

Fellow is more affordable at every paid tier. Fellow's Team plan is $7/user/month compared to tl;dv's Pro at $18/user/month. Fellow's Business plan is $15/user/month versus tl;dv's Business at $59/user/month. Fellow's Enterprise plan is $25/user/month, while tl;dv offers custom enterprise pricing.

Can Fellow replace tl;dv for sales teams?

Fellow offers CRM integrations (Salesforce, HubSpot), action item syncing to project management tools, pre-meeting AI briefs, AI-powered clip creation through Ask Fellow, and cross-meeting intelligence — all features that sales teams rely on. Teams switching from tl;dv to Fellow frequently cite CRM integration quality, transcription accuracy across diverse speakers, and enterprise security as primary reasons for the switch.

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