Plaud is hardware. You clip a NotePin to your shirt or attach a Plaud Note to your phone with its magnetic case, press the button, and it records for hours on its own battery. The Plaud app then turns the audio into a transcript, a summary from one of its templates, and a mind map. The Note and Note Pro can also record phone calls. Plaud lists its devices at $159 to $189, and each one comes with a free plan of 300 transcription minutes a month.
AudioPen is an app. Tap record on your iPhone, Android phone, Apple Watch, Mac, Windows PC, or in the browser, and talk. You get a transcript, and when you want it, finished writing in the style and language you choose: an email, a post, a list of next steps. It also types with your voice in any app, and in the iPhone, Android, Mac, and Windows apps you can switch on offline transcription.
AudioPen does not label speakers, join calls, or record for hours. One recording runs up to 15 minutes on Prime, AudioPen's paid plan, and Prime also lets you upload longer audio files of up to 100MB.
If you need to capture long meetings and phone calls hands-free, buy the Plaud. If you want your own thinking turned into writing without buying and charging another device, AudioPen does it with what you already carry.
