Cleft vs Voicenotes

Cleft

• People who think out loud and want the ramble turned into a tidy note
• Apple users capturing ideas from a Watch, a car or the Lock Screen
• Passing voice notes on to Notion, Obsidian or Apple Notes

Voicenotes

• People who want one app for meetings, voice memos and dictation
• Meetings where a visible recording bot is not acceptable
• Capturing notes from a phone or smartwatch as well as a computer

Cleft

• Apple only: the apps are for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and CarPlay, with no Android, Windows or web version listed.
• Basic recordings stop at 5 minutes; 30-minute recordings need Cleft Plus.
• Notion and Zapier integrations, attachments, custom styles, appending and password-protected links are Plus only.
• Sign-in is required. Recording and transcription work offline, but the note is finished once the device is back online.

Voicenotes

• The free Basic plan transcribes 100 minutes a week and shows only the last 30 days of notes. Older notes are stored but hidden until you upgrade.
• The pricing page gives $9 per user a month without a billing basis. The US App Store lists in-app subscriptions at $14.99 a month and up to $99.99 a year.
• Dictation, audio imports, real-time notes, the MCP server and advanced integrations need Pro.
• SSO, SCIM and consent management are Enterprise features at $24 per user a month. The Windows desktop app is labeled a beta.

Cleft

On-device transcription

Recordings are turned into text locally on iPhone, iPad or Mac using Whisper, in 99 languages, including when the speaker switches language mid-sentence.

Structured notes from rambles

An AI step pulls out the main points and actions and titles the note. Three built-in styles are Structured, Structured Prose and Clean Transcript; Plus adds custom styles.

Capture from Watch, CarPlay and Siri

Recording can start from an Apple Watch, the CarPlay screen, the Lock Screen, Dynamic Island, Control Center, the iPhone Action Button or a Siri request.

Send notes to other apps

Notes go to any app through the share sheet. Local Sync writes Markdown and optional audio to a folder, and Plus adds direct Notion and Zapier integrations.

Markdown editor, tags and search

Notes can be edited with headings, bold, lists and code blocks, tagged by project or topic, and searched across the whole collection.

Append and continue

With Plus, a new recording can be added to an existing note so one topic stays in one place, and recordings can run to 30 minutes.

Voicenotes

Bot-free meeting recording

Hit record in the app when a meeting starts and nothing joins the call. It works with any meeting app and with in-person conversations, and you can jot comments on the note as you go.

Summaries and next steps

When the meeting ends you get a summary, action items and next steps alongside the recording and transcript, ready to share as a link or export as a PDF.

Ask AI across your notes

Ask a question and get an answer drawn from every conversation and memo you have recorded, or turn a meeting into a follow-up email, report or to-do list.

Voice memos and dictation

The same app captures spoken memos, and dictation types with your voice in other apps on desktop and mobile. Dictation is a Pro feature with a one-time free allowance on Basic.

Language detection

Transcribes English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian and more than 60 other languages, detects the language automatically and handles switching mid-sentence.

Integrations and MCP

Integrations include Zapier, Notion, Obsidian, Todoist and Readwise, plus webhooks, and an MCP server connects notes to Claude and ChatGPT. Advanced integrations and the MCP server need Pro.

Cleft

• Basic$0

  5-minute recordings, on-device transcription, structured notes, 3 built-in output styles, tags, search and export.

• Cleft Plus$39.99

  per year, or $6.99 per month billed monthly

  30-minute recordings, append to existing notes, custom output styles, attachments, Notion and Zapier integrations, and Family Sharing for up to 5.

Voicenotes

• Basic$0

  Unlimited recordings, 100 minutes a week of transcripts and summaries refreshed weekly, and a 30-day history.

• Pro$9

  per user / month; monthly or annual basis not stated

  Unlimited transcription, dictation and history, real-time notes and live transcription, audio imports, the Voicenotes MCP, advanced integrations and team billing.

• Enterprise$24

  per user / month, sold through sales; basis not stated

  Everything in Pro, plus SSO and SCIM, consent management, admin controls for sharing, CRM and dialer integrations and a dedicated success manager.

Cleft

• Annual discount

  Save 52% with annual billing

  Cleft Plus costs $6.99 a month or $39.99 a year. The pricing page labels the annual plan a 52% saving, under $3.50 a month.

Voicenotes

No public discounts listed.