Simon Says vs tl;dv Comparison 2026
Both cover transcription & show notes. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
Transcription built to land in an edit
Recordings and notes from every call, free to start
At a glance
- tl;dv starts cheaper, at $18.
- Only tl;dv has a free tier.
Side by side
Simon Says | tl;dv | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $20 | From $18 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Paid subscription | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier (they differ) | No | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Not stated |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Yes |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | None | None |
| Runs on (they differ) |
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.
Simon Says
Transcription built to land in an edit
Simon Says transcribes and translates, then exports into the editing software the footage is already in rather than handing back a text file to retype. The transcript editor pairs with a visual subtitle editor for checking how captions sit on the picture. An assembly mode on the paid tiers lets a rough cut be built by selecting lines of the transcript, which is the feature documentary editors buy it for.
Our note
The break-even is a little over an hour a month, and below that the pay as you go tier is the right answer. Assembly mode is the feature worth paying the subscription for, and it is the one nothing else in this category does properly.
Only on this side
- Covers captions & subtitles
- Works with Podcast
tl;dv
Recordings and notes from every call, free to start
tl;dv records Zoom, Meet and Teams calls, transcribes them in more than thirty languages and writes the notes, with the recording and the transcription uncapped even on the free plan. What the free plan meters is the AI on top: ten meetings of notes and ten questions. Paying removes that ceiling and adds templates, action items and a search across every transcript. This is aimed at calls rather than at published audio, so a podcaster wants a transcription service instead.
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.