Toolradar Research
Transcription software statistics 2026
First-party data on the 151 transcription tools Toolradar tracks: Fathom at 4.90 from 7,187 reviews against Riverside at 3.70 from 3,908.
Founder, Toolradar & Dupple
Key findings
What the data shows.
- 01
151 transcription tools tracked, holding 52,743 aggregated third-party reviews. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.)
- 02
69% offer a free tier. Recorders still let you start at zero. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.)
- 03
Fathom sits at 4.90 from 7,187 reviews. Riverside sits at 3.70 from 3,908. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.)
- 04
Microsoft Teams Phone leads volume at 4.40 from 19,320 reviews because this category also tags voice systems. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.)
- 05
The median paid plan starts at $14 a month. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.)
About the research
How we built this report.
Toolradar tool database. Editorial review with weekly pricing verification.
2026. Snapshot taken September 17, 2026. Refresh due Dec 17, 2026.
Public scoring rubric. See how we rate for the full criteria.
Creative Commons BY 4.0. Quote, link, and reuse with attribution.
Transcription mixes meeting recorders with phone systems, and the specialist wins the score. Toolradar tracks 151 tools holding 52,743 reviews. Microsoft Teams Phone holds 19,320 reviews at 4.40 because the category also tags voice. Among the recorders, Fathom holds 7,187 at 4.90. Riverside holds 3,908 at 3.70. Chorus by ZoomInfo holds 2,994 at 4.50.
Every figure below is computed from the Toolradar directory on September 17, 2026. The live dashboard is Transcription statistics. The buyer ranking is best transcription software.
How large the category is
We track 151 published tools, or 1.4% of the 10,619 tools in the directory. 95% (143 of 151) were added to Toolradar in 2026. "Added" means added to our directory, not founded this year.
A $14 transcript is the meeting plan. The call-intelligence suite is the mean.
How these tools are priced
31% of the 151 tools are paid-only. 69% offer a free tier or freemium plan (104 tools). 7% are fully free.
n = 151 tools, September 17, 2026How transcription software are priced
For the 45 tools that publish a paid tier, the median entry price is $14 a month and the mean is $48.
n = 45 tools with a published paid tierEntry price distribution
The catalog-wide median entry is $20 (software pricing statistics).
How these tools are rated
76 of 151 tools carry a rating (50%). Those ratings rest on 52,743 reviews. Unweighted mean 4.47. Review-weighted mean 4.45.
n = 76 rated toolsRating distribution
The most-reviewed tools on September 17, 2026:
| Tool | Rating | Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Teams Phone | 4.40 | 19,320 |
| Fathom | 4.90 | 7,187 |
| Riverside | 3.70 | 3,908 |
| Chorus by ZoomInfo | 4.50 | 2,994 |
Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.
Fathom has fewer reviews than Teams Phone and more than Riverside, and it sits at 4.90. Riverside at 3.70 is the recording studio that also transcribes. Pick the job before you pick the score.
The highest-rated tools with at least 150 aggregated reviews:
| # | Tool | Rating | Reviews |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fathom | 4.90 | 7,187 |
| 2 | Bluedot | 4.80 | 223 |
| 3 | Ask Fellow | 4.70 | 2,240 |
| 4 | Fireflies.ai | 4.70 | 753 |
| 5 | Rev AI | 4.70 | 563 |
| 6 | tl;dv | 4.70 | 537 |
| 7 | CoRecruit | 4.70 | 404 |
| 8 | Grain | 4.70 | 313 |
| 9 | Scratchpad | 4.60 | 1,560 |
| 10 | Avoma | 4.60 | 1,370 |
Fathom leads at 4.90.
Review volume by platform:
| Review platform | Tools with a profile | Aggregated reviews | Mean rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| G2 | 75 | 45,445 | 4.58 |
| Trustpilot | 12 | 4,538 | 4.12 |
| SourceForge | 5 | 1,821 | 2.47 |
| Capterra | 14 | 924 | 4.36 |
| TrustRadius | 1 | 12 | 4.80 |
| Peerspot | 1 | 3 | 4.00 |
Three tools worth comparing are Fathom, Riverside, and Loom.
How often pricing moves
Our pricing tracker logged 12 pricing changes for these tools in 2026, 0 of them applied.
How this data was measured
Every figure in this report is computed live from the Toolradar directory on September 17, 2026, covering the 151 published tools we categorize under Transcription. Pricing model is read from each vendor's official pricing page. The entry price is the cheapest positive monthly tier a tool publishes. Ratings and review counts are aggregated from third-party platforms (G2, Capterra, Trustpilot and others), not from Toolradar's own reviews. The leaderboard floor is 150 aggregated reviews. This is a directory snapshot, not a survey.
Cite this report
- APA: Corneloup, L. (2026). Transcription software statistics 2026. Toolradar Research. https://toolradar.com/reports/transcription-software-statistics
- MLA: Corneloup, Louis. "Transcription software statistics 2026." Toolradar Research, 17 Sept. 2026, toolradar.com/reports/transcription-software-statistics.
Browse the full category on the best transcription software page, or explore all of Toolradar Research.
Cite this report
Use the data, credit the source.
Released under Creative Commons BY 4.0. You may quote, link, and reuse the data with attribution.
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What Toolradar has stored: reviews and logos
57 of 10,667 published tools have at least one Toolradar review. 6,602 have a stored external-review payload. 4,065 have neither. 180 published tools have no logo file.
How fresh Toolradar prices are
On September 22, 2026, 7,331 of 10,667 published tools had their pricing re-checked in the last 30 days. 3,334 have never been checked. One check is older than 90 days. The median price lives on another page. This page is the age of the check.
Free trial share of software tools 2026
2,885 of 10,667 published Toolradar tools have a stored free-trial flag (27%). The free path is a different cut: 5,834 tools (55%) are free, freemium, or open_source. Among Paid listings, 1,433 of 4,786 (30%) carry the trial flag.