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Updated July 2026 · real, multi-region App Store reviews
User consensusAlternativesIs it worth it?
Better options than

Summary alternatives

Summary is an AI notetaker app that provides summaries and transcripts of verbal discussions. Users appreciate its efficiency and accuracy for shorter meetings, but many encounter issues with glitches, reliability, and unexpected subscription charges.

Why users look for alternatives to Summary

The alternatives

Notability
4.8★ · 450,617 ratings · Free

Notability is a versatile note-taking app that allows users to annotate PDFs, write, and record audio, making it suitable for students and professionals who need to combine different media in their notes.

Better for: Notability is better for college students and those who need to take detailed notes during lectures or meetings, combining handwriting, typing, and audio recordings R55R58R61. It's also suitable for users who frequently work with PDFs and need to annotate them R52.

Head-to-head: Summary vs Notability
Goodnotes
4.7★ · 434,260 ratings · Free

Goodnotes offers a digital notebook experience, excelling in handwriting with an Apple Pencil, organizing notes, and allowing users to make notes fun and creative. It's used for planning, journaling, and editing PDFs.

Better for: Goodnotes is better for users who prefer handwriting notes, especially with an Apple Pencil, and want a highly organized digital notebook for various aspects of their life, from school projects to personal journaling and editing PDFs R69R78.

Head-to-head: Summary vs Goodnotes
Otter Transcribe Voice Notes
4.8★ · 65,315 ratings · Free

Otter Transcribe Voice Notes provides highly accurate transcriptions of audio files and meetings, with AI summaries and Q&A features. It's particularly useful for interviews and for those who prefer speaking over typing.

Better for: Otter Transcribe Voice Notes is better for users who need accurate transcriptions of interviews, meetings, or other audio files, and appreciate AI-powered summaries and insights R83R84R86R88. It's also ideal for individuals who are more natural speakers than writers and want to dictate content for books or other documents .

Head-to-head: Summary vs Otter Transcribe Voice Notes
Voice Recorder
4.7★ · 7,413 ratings · Free

Voice Recorder is a straightforward app for recording audio, with some users finding it useful for lectures and notes. However, it faces criticism for its cost and limitations on free recordings.

Better for: Voice Recorder is better for college students or anyone needing a simple tool for recording lectures or voice memos R97. However, users should be aware of potential limitations on recording length and the push for premium features R93R95.

Head-to-head: Summary vs Voice Recorder
HyNote
4.8★ · 6,875 ratings · Free

HyNote is a note-taking app that helps users capture meetings, study notes, and basic talk points. It is praised for its ease of use and ability to download PDF files without extra cost, unlike some competitors.

Better for: HyNote is better for users, such as those in medical coding and billing, who need an easy-to-use app for capturing meeting notes and study materials, especially if they value the ability to download PDF files without additional charges R108R110R114R118.

Head-to-head: Summary vs HyNote
Stick with Summary if

You should stick with Summary if you primarily need quick, AI-generated summaries of short verbal discussions and find its interface efficient for your specific use case .

Evidence note: No alternatives had too few reviews to judge.

Frequently asked

How much does Summary cost?
Summary offers a short free trial, after which users report paying around $8-$9 per month for a subscription R20R36.
Does Summary provide real-time voice-to-text transcription?
Some users report that Summary does not provide spoken text in real-time R13.
Can Summary handle long meetings with multiple speakers?
Summary struggles with long meeting recordings (8 hours) and identifying multiple speakers accurately, often capturing them as one speaker R15R18.
Are there issues with Summary's customer support and data privacy?
Users have reported slow responses from customer support and concerning instances of receiving summaries from other users' meetings, raising privacy concerns R46R50.

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 120 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

  1. [R1] Summary 1/5 · US Doesn't work: Feels like a scam... is glitching
  2. [R7] Summary 1/5 · US New User: Your App has given nothing but trouble.
  3. [R10] Summary 1/5 · US Heads up: It only works with a yearly or monthly subscription. · translated
  4. [R16] Summary 1/5 · US Not reliable: Not reliable
  5. [R20] Summary 1/5 · US Pricey!: Beware! You only get three days of a free trial and after that you are paying $8 a month. You should disclose that before downloading the app.
  6. [R36] Summary 1/5 · US This App will keep charging you: I ended my subscription on 6/13 but they still charged me today on 6/16 for $8.99. Not good!
  7. [R40] Summary 1/5 · GB Fraud: Scam charging when cancelled
  8. [R13] Summary 1/5 · US Not voice to text: Does not give spoken text in real time
  9. [R15] Summary 3/5 · GB Really impressed but seems to fail on long meeting recordings: I used this app to audio record a whole 3 meeting and it identified everyones voice, great summary and made it easy to find what I found. The transcript is very accurate. But used in a day workshop (8hrs) and it fails processing the voices. Cant seem to get transcript or summary. So unfortunately need to look elsewhere
  10. [R18] Summary 1/5 · US Poor quality of output: Multiple speakers are captured as one speaker so it’s hard to base your notes on incorrect speaker notes captured by this Summary AI notetaker app
  11. [R34] Summary 2/5 · US Great to Bad: They must have done a software update and since then I can’t trust the app. It was amazing at first, but now I waste so much time correcting the speakers with the transcripts in order to achieve the most accurate notes and action items. Additionally it’s so easy to mistakenly apply a name change To-All than a single statement; the indicator selections are too close to each other. Onc
  12. [R4] Summary 1/5 · US Too many feedbacks request: If I pay for a product, Why do I have to provide feedback every time I open it. Exactly that make me give you 1 star. This app loose its value when your feedback requests interrupt the service you are trying to provide!
  13. [R26] Summary 2/5 · US Stay free: Quit pushing to Pro version!
  14. [R52] Notability 4/5 · US Please develop a way to hide the control bar (tools like pencil, scissors, etc.)!!!: I absolutely love Notability, it is very useful for me as a college music student. I take a lot of notes there, and I load music into it as pdfs to read and play off of. So far the experience has been wonderful, EXCEPT that there is no way to hide the controls at the top, which sometimes blocks some of the music.
  15. [R55] Notability 5/5 · US Always reliable: I have been using Notability since its creation. I love using this app.
  16. [R58] Notability 5/5 · US Excellent: I’ve been using it for years, and I love it. Much easier to study.
  17. [R61] Notability 5/5 · US Nursing School: This has been the best thing ever for note taking and lectures
  18. [R69] Goodnotes 5/5 · US Free: Definitely recommend this app I love using it for planning school project dates and when they are due also very smooth with Apple Pencil and ipad
  19. [R72] Goodnotes 5/5 · US The best!: The best of all apps like Good Notes. I use it daily!
  20. [R78] Goodnotes 5/5 · US Don’t Know What I’d Do Without You: My entire life is organized in this app. Journal, medical records, vet records, shopping lists, creative writing, self-learning, flow charts, PDFs I need to edit, anything you can think of. I used to use OneNote for my work life. But I like the user interface here more. It’s simplified. It does all the things I want it to flawlessly. It’s wonderful to have any d
  21. [R83] Otter Transcribe Voice Notes 5/5 · US The best app ever!: Love using otter to transcribe any audio files I need transcription for. I’ve tried everything and it’s been the most accurate.
  22. [R84] Otter Transcribe Voice Notes 3/5 · US Best Assistant Ever: This application is the best and most helpful tool to capture notes and deliverables in my meetings. It’s always accurate and detailed.
  23. [R86] Otter Transcribe Voice Notes 5/5 · US Excellent Voice Notes: We’ve been using the software for almost 7 years now. It works fantastic for us. Otter keeps improving; their AI summaries and QA are super useful!
  24. [R88] Otter Transcribe Voice Notes 5/5 · US Great!: I primarily use Otter during interviews, always with the candidate’s permission. It has been incredibly helpful because it transcribes the conversation, making it easier to review and summarize the candidate’s experience while maintaining accurate documentation. Additionally, Otter’s AI Chat helps analyze the interview and provides insights into whether the candidate appears to be qualifie
  25. [R93] Voice Recorder 2/5 · US Length of recording: I downloaded this app for class lectures. When I press record and leave the phone alone, it seems to only record a few mins before stoping itself. Useless
  26. [R95] Voice Recorder 3/5 · US Annoying: I mean it’s good but like bro after 2 recordings they literally just blast you with saying like get premium now like it’s so annoying bro
  27. [R97] Voice Recorder 5/5 · US APP Review: Simply the best transcription app out there. Great for college students.!!! Definitely recommend this to my friends.
  28. [R100] Voice Recorder 5/5 · US Maravillo: Everything you need, nothing you don’t. Straight forward and straight forward. Nuff said
  29. [R108] HyNote 5/5 · US Awesome!!!: This app is much better for my note taking..I’m doing medical coding and billing myself and it’s helped out a lot..I tried Tikonote but you have to pay to download a pdf file but with HyNote I can do so much more..amazing app!!
  30. [R110] HyNote 5/5 · US Awesome app: Makes it so easy to capture meetings, studying or basic talk point notes.
  31. [R114] HyNote 5/5 · US Love it!!!: Helps tremendously
  32. [R118] HyNote 5/5 · US Easy: I have a A+
  33. [R46] Summary 1/5 · GB Poor responses: Very very concerning that I received a summary from someone else’s meeting and not my own meeting- surely this is a GDPR breach of confidentiality? I sent a message to customer support immediately and it was 9 days before they got back to me. I was able to open the wrong meeting and read the transcript. Very slow response from customer support and what seems like little concern fo
  34. [R50] Summary 1/5 · GB Missing information: Recordings have gone missing from private meetings, the support team have no interest at all. I cannot recommend.

Synthesized from 120 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store