Captivate vs Otter.ai Comparison 2026
Both cover audio & podcasting. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
Podcast hosting priced by downloads
Searchable transcripts of calls and recordings
At a glance
- Otter.ai starts cheaper, at $16.99.
- Only Otter.ai has a free tier.
Side by side
Captivate | Otter.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $17 | From $16.99 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free trial, then paid | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier (they differ) | No | Yes |
| Billing | Not stated | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial (they differ) | 30 days | None |
| API | Not stated | Yes |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | None |
Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
Captivate
Podcast hosting priced by downloads
Captivate hosts shows on download bands rather than storage or episode counts, so a back catalogue costs nothing to keep and a viral episode is the thing that moves you up a tier. Every plan carries the full feature set, which is unusual here: analytics, a website, dynamic ad insertion and a listener signup tool are not held back for the dearest band. Unlimited podcasts sit on one account, so a second show does not mean a second bill.
Our note
The thing to check before signing up is your actual monthly download number rather than your subscriber count, because that is the only number the pricing responds to. If a single old episode still pulls traffic, the dynamic ad insertion is what makes this pay for itself.
Only on this side
- Covers analytics
Otter.ai
Searchable transcripts of calls and recordings
Otter sits in a meeting or takes a file and returns a transcript with the speakers separated, which is where show notes, a follow-up post or a list of clips can start. Search across everything you have ever recorded is the part people keep paying for. Three hundred free minutes a month is five hours, so a weekly interview show fits and a daily one does not.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.