Quill Meetings vs Shadow

Quill Meetings

• Professionals whose conversations cannot be sent to a cloud notetaker
• People who want free, unlimited local transcription
• Teams that want to choose which AI model reads their transcripts

Shadow

• Mac users who want meeting notes without a bot in the call
• People who want to write their own prompts for notes and follow-ups
• Keeping transcripts as Markdown files on their own disk
• Using one app for meeting notes and voice typing

Quill Meetings

• Without Pro, Quill does not auto-generate AI notes, and encrypted sync and backup and the mobile app are unavailable.
• Lite includes 16 hours of pro meetings a month. Unlimited hours need the Unlimited or Teams plan, and Teams has a 5-seat minimum.
• The iPhone and Android apps are companions that need a paid plan and the desktop app. There is no iPad app and no recording from a browser.
• The Mac app needs Apple Silicon and macOS 12 or later, and cloud sync covers transcripts and notes but not audio recordings.

Shadow

• Mac only: it requires Apple Silicon and macOS 14.2 or later. Windows and other devices are on a waitlist.
• Data is stored only on the one Mac. Sync across devices is on the roadmap but not available.
• The Free plan lists transcription, recording and screenshots; unlimited AI meeting notes, Skills and AI chat need Plus.
• Skills, Ask and automatic titles send transcripts or screen context to OpenAI, Google or Anthropic. Capture, transcription and storage stay on the Mac.

Quill Meetings

Bot-free local recording

Captures your microphone and the computer's audio, so it works with Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Slack huddles, Webex, FaceTime and in-person meetings. It records audio only, not video.

On-device transcription

Transcribes 29 languages with auto-detection on your computer and identifies speakers, learning who is who across meetings. Recording and transcription work without internet.

Live Minutes and AI notes

Pro builds minutes while the meeting is under way, then lists decisions, action items, owners and follow-up drafts. Templates can be set per meeting type.

Your choice of LLM

Notes can run on Anthropic, OpenAI or Google models, AWS Bedrock, OpenRouter, or local models through Ollama or LM Studio. Pro also includes a quota on Quill's hosted model.

AI chat and MCP server

Ask questions across past conversations in the app, or connect Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor and other MCP clients to a server that runs locally.

Automations and integrations

After a meeting Quill can create notes, draft an email or send notes to Slack, Notion, a CRM or a folder. To-dos sent to Todoist become separate tasks.

Shadow

Bot-free capture with Autopilot

Shadow records the microphone and system audio from the Mac, so nothing joins the call. Autopilot detects supported meetings and starts and stops listening on its own.

On-device transcription

Transcription and speaker labeling run on the Mac, and raw audio is not sent to an outside provider. The vendor lists around 100 languages and says English works best.

Smart Screenshots

Shadow finds the meeting window and captures it as the visuals change, so questions asked afterwards can cover what was shown as well as what was said.

Meeting Skills

Each Skill is an editable prompt that produces notes, action items, a follow-up email or a BANT breakdown. A Skill can run automatically after a meeting and send its result to a webhook.

Action Skills and voice typing

A keyboard shortcut in any app runs a Skill on what you say, what is on screen or the text you selected, then pastes the result at the cursor.

Local Markdown vault

Transcripts and Skill outputs are saved as Markdown files, with media, in a vault folder you choose on the Mac. You can keep or discard meeting audio.

Quill Meetings

• Quill Free$0

  Unlimited recordings and transcripts kept on your device, with speaker identification and a local MCP server.

• Lite$6.99

  per month, billed annually; $7.99 billed monthly

  Pro features with 16 hours of pro meetings a month: live minutes, action items and to-dos, custom workflows and templates, weekly summaries and the companion app.

• Teams$12

  per seat / month, billed annually; $15 billed monthly

  Pro features with unlimited hours of pro meetings and team setup. 5-seat minimum.

• Unlimited$16.99

  per month, billed annually; $19.99 billed monthly

  Pro features with unlimited hours of pro meetings, for one person.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Cloud, bring-your-own-LLM or air-gapped deployment, an admin console with policy controls, SSO/SAML, and priority support with SLAs.

Shadow

• Free$0

  Unlimited transcription, unlimited audio recording and unlimited Smart Screenshots, described as free forever.

• Plus$8

  per month, billed annually; $12 billed monthly

  Everything in Free, plus unlimited AI meeting notes, Meeting Skills, Action Skills and AI chat.

Quill Meetings

• Annual discount

  Lower monthly rate with annual billing

  On annual billing Lite is $6.99 a month instead of $7.99, Unlimited $16.99 instead of $19.99 and Teams $12 per seat instead of $15. The page labels the savings $12, $36 and $180.

Shadow

• Annual discount

  Annual billing lowers Plus to $8 a month

  The pricing page's billing toggle shows Plus at $8 a month on annual billing and $12 a month on monthly billing, about a third less.