Earkeep
The tl;dv alternative that never joins your call
Last updated: · Reviewed quarterly
tl;dv fits if you live in Zoom or Google Meet and mainly want to clip and share the moments other people missed. Earkeep never joins a call at all: it listens in the background whatever the app, online or in person, and processes the audio only on your own machine.
14-day full trial, no account required.
- No bot ever joins the call
- In-person meetings count too
- €39 once, not $20-35 per seat
The short answer
If your main need is shareable clips inside Zoom and Meet workflows and you're fine paying per seat every month, tl;dv is built for that. If you want everything captured without a bot in the room, your audio never leaving your computer, and one payment instead of a subscription, Earkeep is built for that instead.
Why people look for a tl;dv alternative
Nothing to invite, nothing to start
tl;dv is a bot that has to be invited into a Zoom or Google Meet call to record it. No bot, no transcript, and it structurally can't capture an in-person meeting, a phone call, or anything happening outside those two platforms. Earkeep listens continuously in the background instead, and you, or your calendar, mark which stretch of the day was the meeting, after the fact.
One r/ProductManagement thread put it plainly: "I like TLDV as it is multilingual. But I feel it lacks context." That's a structural consequence of only ever seeing the meetings it was invited to, when a real week also has in-person 1:1s and ad-hoc huddles nobody scheduled.
Transcribed on your device, not on someone's servers
Earkeep transcribes locally with Whisper or Parakeet models, hardware-accelerated on Apple Silicon. Audio is processed only in memory and never written to disk or uploaded anywhere.
tl;dv is a cloud service: your Zoom or Meet audio is recorded and processed on tl;dv's servers, which is also what makes its real-time transcription and instant clip-sharing possible. If keeping meeting audio off third-party servers matters to you, this is the core difference between the two tools.
A record you own, in files your agents can read
tl;dv's actual differentiator is timestamped highlights: mark a moment during the call and share a short clip instead of the full recording. That's a genuinely useful workflow for async teams, but it only works inside a call tl;dv already joined, and what it produces lives in tl;dv's account.
Earkeep keeps transcripts as plain files on your own disk, and runs coding and knowledge agents (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor Agent, Gemini CLI, Hermes, Kimi CLI, OpenClaw, opencode, Pi, Qwen Code, or any ACP-compatible agent) directly against them, plus an MCP server so external tools like Claude Desktop or Cursor can read your meetings too. Our research on tl;dv didn't surface an MCP server or agent integration; if that has changed since June 2026, treat this as due for a refresh rather than a claim either way.
Side by side
| Capability | Earkeep | tl;dv |
|---|---|---|
| Always-on capture | No start/stop | Only meetings it joins |
| Bot-free | No bot ever joins | Auto-joins Zoom and Google Meet |
| Records a meeting you can't attend | Only what your device hears | The bot goes without you |
| Audio processed on your device | Never leaves the computer | Cloud recording and transcription |
| Captures in-person meetings | Any app, in person too | Only inside Zoom or Meet |
| Retroactive spans | Define the meeting afterward | A meeting is a bot join |
| AI summary when it ends | No, but an agent you connect writes them from the transcript | Summary and action items |
| Labels who said what | Not yet | Speaker recognition |
| Keeps a recording you can replay | No audio or video is ever kept | Timestamped video you can scrub |
| Share with people who weren't there | No, but your agent files the notes where your team already reads | Timestamped clips, its whole differentiator |
| Your own agents can read it | ACP agents plus an MCP server | None found as of June 2026 |
| Free tier that doesn't expire | 14 days free, then €39 once | Free tier for Zoom and Meet |
| One-time purchase | €39, one device | Per user, per month |
| Pricing | €39 one time, one device | Free tier, then $20-35/user/month |
| Platform | macOS 13+ | Web app; joins Zoom and Google Meet only |
Built inNo, but an agent you connect canPartlyNot available
What each one costs by year five
Switching takes an afternoon
- Install it, then let a day run. Earkeep starts listening as soon as it is running, so a first day of real meetings, in person and online, is captured before you have configured anything. There is no import tool and nothing migrates: your tl;dv recordings, clips and notes stay in tl;dv.
- Mark yesterday, or connect a calendar. Drag a span across the timeline where a meeting was, or point Earkeep at Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Outlook or any ICS URL and let every event title its own span.
- Stop paying per seat once you trust it. tl;dv's pricing, as of June 2026, is a free tier with unlimited meetings but only 10 AI notes a month, Pro at $20/user/month ($15 billed annually), Business at $35/user/month ($25 billed annually), and custom Enterprise pricing; even at the annual Pro rate that's $180 a year per person, indefinitely. Earkeep is €39 once per device, with a 14-day full-functionality trial that needs no email and no account. Keep the tl;dv account as long as you still need the old clips, because Earkeep can't bring them across.
Which one fits you
Choose Earkeep if
You want everything kept, wherever the conversation happened, and the record to be yours.
- A lot of your week is in person, or on a platform tl;dv doesn't join
- Confidential calls mean the audio must not leave your computer
- You want the whole conversation, not just the moments someone caught live
- You'd rather pay €39 once than carry a per-seat bill forever
- Your own agents should be able to read your meetings directly
Choose tl;dv if
tl;dv is purpose-built for a workflow Earkeep has no answer to, and it's worth saying so plainly.
- You need CRM sync out of the box: tl;dv integrates directly with Salesforce and HubSpot, and Earkeep doesn't offer that today
- Clip-sharing is your main workflow: if your team's real need is grabbing the 30-second moment and dropping it in Slack, tl;dv's timestamped highlights are purpose-built for that, and Earkeep has no equivalent clip feature
- You live entirely inside Zoom or Google Meet and want zero setup: tl;dv works from a browser with no app to install, while Earkeep is a macOS download
- You want to try it free indefinitely: tl;dv's free tier has unlimited meetings, capped at 10 AI notes a month, where Earkeep's free trial is time-limited to 14 days
- You need Windows or web access: Earkeep is macOS 13+ only, and tl;dv works anywhere Zoom or Google Meet runs
If one of those is you, tl;dv's free tier is a reasonable place to land: this comparison is meant to help you pick the right tool, not just ours. tl;dv's own positioning is explicit about who it serves, the async team communicator who needs to clip and share a key moment from a call, rather than someone capturing everything that happens in a working day. Earkeep's audience is the product and engineering roles whose week is full of in-person 1:1s and huddles nobody scheduled: see Earkeep for product managers and Earkeep for engineering leads.
Other tools people weigh this against
Anyone shopping for a tl;dv alternative usually has a few other tabs open. Each of these gets the same treatment as this page: Granola, Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Fathom, Jamie, MacWhisper, Limitless and Plaud, or all nine side by side.
Frequently asked questions
Is Earkeep a good tl;dv alternative?
It is, if what you want is everything captured rather than the best moments clipped. Earkeep never joins a call, so it covers in-person meetings and every platform equally, and it transcribes on your device instead of in a cloud. What it doesn't do is send a bot to a meeting you can't attend, label who said what, keep a video you can scrub, or hand someone a timestamped clip.
Does tl;dv work for in-person meetings?
No. tl;dv is a bot that joins Zoom or Google Meet calls; it has no way to capture audio outside those two platforms. Earkeep captures mic and system audio continuously, so in-person meetings with a laptop open are covered the same way online meetings are.
Is tl;dv's free tier good enough to skip Earkeep entirely?
It depends on your needs. tl;dv's free tier offers unlimited meetings but caps you at 10 AI notes a month and only covers Zoom and Meet. Earkeep has no meeting caps and captures everything your device's microphone and speakers pick up, in person and across every online platform, but the free trial runs 14 days rather than indefinitely.
Does Earkeep sell to teams the way tl;dv does with per-seat plans?
Earkeep is a one-time, one-device purchase at €39; there is no per-seat or per-user pricing tier to compare against tl;dv's Pro, Business, and Enterprise plans.
Is my audio ever sent to tl;dv's or Earkeep's servers?
tl;dv is cloud-based: your Zoom or Meet audio is recorded and processed on tl;dv's infrastructure. Earkeep processes audio only in memory, locally on your device, and never uploads it anywhere.
Try Earkeep
14-day full trial, no account required.