AI notetakers make every conversation easier to capture, search, and revisit. In this comparison, we take a closer look at Quil and Otter.ai — two popular AI notetaker tools with very different strengths.
Quil is an AI assistant purpose-built for recruiters. It helps them save hours every week by automating interview notes, ATS updates, and client follow-ups. Otter.ai, by comparison, is a general-purpose AI notetaker built for meeting transcription, collaboration, and classroom documentation.
This guide gives you a clear, side-by-side comparison—plus a look at Otter.ai pricing, Otter.ai reviews, and the best Otter.ai alternatives—so you can decide which tool fits your workflow and why many recruiting teams choose Quil.
Quil is an AI assistant purpose-built for recruiting teams. It captures interviews across Zoom, VoIP, phone calls, and in-person conversations, producing structured, role-aligned notes that recruiters can immediately use.
Beyond notetaking, Quil automates recruiting workflows by:
Most recruiters say that Quil helps them save 8 or more hours every week. Primarily, they report faster interview notes, consistent documentation, and zero manual data entry.
Otter.ai is a general-purpose AI notetaker designed for meeting transcription, collaboration, and classroom use. It identifies speakers, captures voice conversations in real time, and turns them into searchable transcripts.
It’s great for internal meetings, workshops, and lectures — but it doesn’t update ATS fields, doesn’t follow recruiting templates, and doesn’t generate submittal-ready summaries.
Both tools streamline how teams capture conversations, but they’re solving different problems:
If your day revolves around candidate calls, client intakes, and submittal prep, Quil aligns more closely with your workflow — especially with its deeper ATS and VoIP integration ecosystem.
Quil is built specifically for:
Best for: Staffing agencies, recruiting teams, TA teams, hiring managers who conduct frequent interviews.
Otter.ai is ideal for:
Best for: Students, meeting-heavy teams, educators, and cross-functional groups.
If you're comparing Otter.ai pricing vs Quil, the key difference is ROI: Quil eliminates repetitive work specific to recruiting, while Otter.ai reduces meeting transcription time.
Otter AI has an average rating on G2 of 4.4★. Users frequently praise accurate meeting transcription, real-time speaker identification, strong collaboration features, and easy sharing across teams and classrooms.
On the other side, common criticisms of Otter AI notetaker include limited workflow automation, lack of ATS integrations, and the need to clean up transcripts. Recruiters also mention that Otter is not ideal for their workflows.
When we look at Quil's reviews on G2, we see that recruiting teams highlight a few major benefits:
Quil has an average G2 rating of 4.8★
Verdict from G2? If your team’s primary workflow is interviewing, Quil’s reviews point to a much stronger fit.
If you're specifically working with candidate interviews, Quil is the most complete Otter.ai alternative — especially with the largest integration ecosystem of any recruiting-focused AI notetaker (~40 integrations).
Best alternatives for recruiters & staffing teams:
Best alternatives for general transcription:
Both Quil and Otter.ai are strong AI notetakers — but built for different purposes. Otter.ai shines as a general-purpose meeting transcription tool. On the other hand, Quil is designed specifically for recruiters.
It automates:
If you’re running a staffing agency or hiring at scale, the choice is clear: Quil delivers deeper automation, more relevant insights, and significantly more time saved.
Yes. Quil is one of the strongest Otter.ai alternatives for recruiters and staffing teams because it includes structured interview notes, ATS syncing, and submittal generation — features not available in Otter.ai.
The main difference is purpose: Quil is built specifically for recruiters and automates interview workflows, while Otter.ai is designed for general meeting transcription and collaboration.
No. Otter.ai does not integrate with applicant tracking systems. Quil does, with ~40 ATS and recruiting-system integrations.
No. Quil does not offer a free plan, but it does offer a free trial. Otter.ai offers both a free trial and a basic free tier.
Quil tends to be more accurate for recruiting conversations because it’s tuned for common recruiter terminology, structured interview questions, and role-specific templates. Otter.ai is accurate for general speech but not optimized for recruiting.
Otter.ai can be used for transcription, but it lacks ATS syncing, structured interview notes, and submittal automation — which are essential for most recruiters. Quil is specifically designed for recruiting workflows.
For recruiters: Quil, MetaView, and InterviewAI tools.
For general transcription: Fireflies.ai, Fathom, and Writesonic Notepad.
Otter.ai offers a free plan, plus paid monthly and annual plans such as Pro and Business, ranging from around $16.99/mo to $30/mo depending on the plan.
Quil is priced per recruiter seat and includes a free trial. Pricing varies based on team size and plan configuration.
Recruiters should choose Quil. It handles structured interview notes, ATS updates, submittals, and workflow automation — all things that Otter.ai does not support.
Yes, but Quil is primarily designed for interviews, candidate calls, and recruiting-specific workflows. If your priority is general team meeting transcription, Otter.ai may be a better fit.
