Guide to free meeting minutes software & when to go premium
Technology can be transformational for corporate and nonprofit boards, school boards, municipal government, and any other body that needs actionable meetings. Intuitive, convenient tools can make meetings more effective and more compliant. But that’s not always a need that free meeting minutes software can meet.
While free meeting minutes software can be accessible and helpful, it can also limit processes before, during and after meetings. Here, we’ll explain:
- What software to use for meetings
- Why it's important to get meeting minutes software right
- Free vs premium meeting minutes solutions and the features of each
- When free works and when to go premium
What software should I use for meeting minutes?
There are two different types of software you can use to take meeting minutes: free and premium (or paid).
- Free meeting minutes software: These solutions range from a simple Google Doc to a more specialized free app that can transcribe minutes or organize to-do lists; free AI for meeting minutes has also hit the market in recent years, with tools like Firefly and Read.AI transcribing meetings in real-time. While convenient, these tools come with risks: many upload audio data to a cloud server vulnerable to breaches, especially if the tool lacks encryption or doesn’t comply with data protection regulations like GDPR or HIPAA. Most free solutions offer limited features, with additional features available after an upgrade.
- Premium meeting minutes software: Paid solutions are those built specifically for meeting minutes. They’re tailored to secretaries and minute-takers and not only support effective meeting minutes but also help meeting attendees communicate and collaborate. Many also include purpose-built AI and can integrate more seamlessly into your organization’s governance platform, which simplifies the meeting process end to end.
Why is meeting minutes software important?
Meeting minutes software is important because of how critical the minutes themselves are. Minutes act as a record of the meeting. It’s a tool boards can use to follow through on decisions they make during the meeting or prove they thoroughly discussed each issue before taking action on them. Minutes can even be evidence in legal proceedings.
Software is critical to the integrity of those minutes. The best software:
- Offers a secure place to format, take and store minutes
- Communicate about their contents after meetings are over
- Helps minute-takers accurately document the meeting
- Protects minutes from breaches and tampering
The problem is that free solutions don’t offer many of these features. Despite its low barrier to entry, that can create headaches over time as boards and secretaries struggle to prevent breaches or overcome inefficiencies.
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Discover moreFree meeting minutes software vs. premium software solutions
| Free software | Premium software | |
|---|---|---|
| Take meeting minutes | X | X |
| Track action items | X* | X |
| Store meeting minutes | X | X |
| Integrations | X* | X |
| AI tools | X* | X |
| Real-time transcription | X* | X |
| AI summaries | X* | X |
| Instant board book drafts | X | |
| Smart content extraction and synthesis | X | |
| Smart legal scanner | ||
| Board pack builder | X | |
| Meeting prep | X | |
| Meeting agendas | X | |
| Pull in organizational data | X | |
| Fully encrypted communication portal | X | |
| Robust cybersecurity | X | |
| Document distribution | X | |
| Action tracker | X |
*Available but may require an upgrade for full functionality
6 key features to look for in free meeting minutes software
A common misconception is that meeting minutes software only needs to take minutes. But the reality is that minute-takers are responsible for so much more than that, meaning that the software should be capable of more, too. If you’re considering free software, keep an eye out for:
- Number of users: How many people need to use the software? Some free options limit the number of users, so be sure to pick a solution that accommodates the seats you need.
- File storage: Check to see how much storage the solution offers. Regulations require all types of boards to store their minutes, which can get complicated if your solution has restrictive storage limits.
- AI: Free software to record and transcribe meeting minutes often relies on AI. It can convert spoken words into text, summarize key meeting invites or automatically pull action items into a productivity tool. These features are convenient, but they come with security and accuracy considerations.
- Security: Cybersecurity is a risk for boards of all kinds. Don’t use software that lacks robust security features and encryption, even if it will save you some money.
- Customer service: Technology can break or throw error codes. If that happens, will you have access to a support team? Free solutions are usually fairly hands-off, so make sure you won’t be out in the cold if something does go awry.
- Integration: There is technology to help take, store and distribute minutes and more, but these solutions don’t always work together. Look for meeting minutes software that easily integrates with any other technology you use.
6 premium features most free meeting minutes software doesn’t have
As convenient as free meeting minutes software can be, many organizations will need features that free solutions will never have. These include:
- A secure portal: Meeting minutes are a living document that attendees must refer back to. Action items live there, as do big decisions. Most organizations will eventually want software that can facilitate communication about minutes — not just viewing them.
- Collaboration tools: Meetings, by nature, are collaborative, from meeting prep to the meeting itself to the activities that occur after. Premium software can make it easier for attendees to work together.
- Centralization: Meetings often refer to items outside the minutes, such as documents, reports and insights across the organization. Paid tools centralize all this information so meeting attendees can access it in a single view.
- Access controls: Customize who has access to meeting minutes software. This allows attendees to view and communicate about minutes as needed without exposing minutes and other sensitive data to hackers and bad actors.
- Data protection: Premium software also leverages encryption to ensure all data is secure and inaccessible to anyone who doesn’t have access.
- Purpose-built AI: Leverage more comprehensive AI solutions built specifically for boards. These tools can not only summarize and compare board materials, build agendas and convert meeting notes into minutes with a single click, but they also automate many other governance workflows. The AI you find in a premium solution can analyze competitor insights and performance data, summarize board books and track and update the status of post-meeting action items.
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Discover moreHidden costs and limitations of free meeting minutes software
Free meeting minutes software can be hard to pass up. However, the agenda “free isn’t always free” rings especially true when it comes to free online meeting minutes software. Unexpected expenses can quickly add up, usually stemming from providers’ paywalls. There are also costs more difficult to quantify.
In either case, you can expect to start paying for free meeting minutes software based on:
- Usage limits: Free tools often have usage limits that they may not advertise upfront. This means you could onboard and integrate the software into your processes, only to find that you’ll need to start paying for seats — or prevent key stakeholders from accessing the tool altogether.
- Features not included: Free software is never as comprehensive as premium, but it may be even more sparing than it seems. Many tools offer certain functionality upfront, then tuck critical features behind a paywall — meaning you’ll have to pay anyway for the tool to truly meet your needs.
- Selling your data: Consider how free online meeting minutes software is making money if they aren’t collecting subscription fees. Tools may sell usage or other data to recoup their operating costs, potentially compromising your organization’s security. Using a premium tool with best-in-class encryption is one of the best ways to ensure your board has a private online meeting space.
- Serving you ads: Selling ad space is another way free software providers can generate revenue. This can interrupt your experience by placing ads in real estate that are better reserved for meeting minutes, agendas, or broader organizational insights. It can also represent another security risk if the provider is using your data to target those ads.
- Security and compliance: From March 2023 to February 2024, the average cost of a data breach was $4.88 million. While free software solutions likely have some security capabilities like user permissions and multi-factor authentication, they aren’t as secure as premium tools. Sharing sensitive data within a tool that doesn’t meet the highest cybersecurity standard can pose a significant risk.
When to explore a premium meeting minutes solution
While premium meeting minutes software is undoubtedly better, there may be organizations that feel they don’t need such an extensive solution. However, as they grow, those same organizations will likely face countless barriers within the free meeting minutes software that can make a paid tool a better choice.
You should consider a premium solution if:
- Your team is growing: With free meeting agendas and minutes software, you’re bound to realize that you can’t get enough users on the program to make it worthwhile, even for a trial period. If quite a few attendees need access to the minutes, consider a paid tool.
- You have lots of documents to store: A free trial may come with little or no capacity to store files, and that’s an important feature for any organization, given the number of documents modern businesses need to manage and store.
- You need to prove compliance: Free meeting minutes software doesn’t always comply with the regulations your organization does. Part of compliance includes taking great care with storing meeting agendas and meeting minutes so that they can be retrieved for legal reasons or any other valid purpose — something free solutions struggle to do.
- You’re worried about cybersecurity: Hackers are better than ever at breaching vulnerable systems. Testing the waters with what you believe is an innocent, free application could put your entire organization’s confidentiality and data at risk.
- You can’t afford downtime: Meeting agenda and minutes software should offer your team efficiency and accuracy. If they can’t use the program because they’re waiting days to have a support ticket answered or to get a return call from a tech who can fix the problem, it’s not useful, and the word “free” suddenly becomes meaningless.
- You want to securely integrate across your tech stack: Free electronic applications don’t always work well together. Each program has its own level of security, and some programs have no security at all. This means that programs that connect can spread malware and viruses between systems. That’s a risk you don’t want to take.
Why ELCO uses a premium meeting minutes software solution
ELCO Mutual Life and Annuity is a trusted insurance and financial services provider that has been committed to serving policyholders since 1946. At that time, ELCO built a stable governance framework with trusted directors who have historical ties to the organization. These ties brought deep institutional knowledge, but they also needed to evolve to meet future demands and align with industry best practices.
“We were using one file-sharing product which just didn’t work well,” says Eric Myers, general counsel and corporate secretary at ELCO. “I would get calls and emails from directors saying they couldn’t access or open the files.
Myers described the situation as “unworkable,” requiring immediate intervention to enable more strategic and proactive meetings — and meeting minutes. Adopting Diligent Boards meeting minutes software fundamentally transformed how board meetings were conducted and materials were prepared.
“I could set up the books for all the meetings, publish them and share drafts with certain people for feedback before finalizing,” he says.
Some of the standout benefits? AI-generated meeting minutes and board book summaries that offer concise materials with the click of a button.
Choose a meeting minutes software that helps, not hinders
Boards are more effective when they have meeting minutes software that works. In most cases, free solutions only go so far. But when you opt for a more premium option, that software can evolve along with you and make it possible to foster a culture of security and collaboration.
Diligent Boards empowers boards to be more strategic by:
- Collaborating on the agenda
- Taking and distributing meeting minutes
- Securing board communication in a collaborative portal
- Centralizing insights from across the enterprise
- Securing files stored in an encrypted, cloud-based environment
With Diligent Boards, also part of the Diligent One Platform, meetings are more focused, collaboration is easier and more secure, and boards are better prepared to tackle any challenges that arise. Learn more and request a demo.
FAQs
Can ChatGPT take minutes of a meeting?
ChatGPT can’t take minutes of a meeting in real-time, but it can summarize transcripts, extract key points and organize action items for your final meeting minutes document. Keep in mind, though, that if you’re using a free version of ChatGPT, your data will become part of its training set, representing a cybersecurity risk — especially if you input sensitive or proprietary information into the tool.
How do I take meeting minutes efficiently using software?
To take meeting minutes efficiently, many organizations have started to use free tools like Otter.ai or Fireflies AI. However, purpose-built tools like Diligent Boards AI include more robust functionality: automatically converting rough notes into complete meeting minutes, creating meeting agendas with a click, summarizing key takeaways and action items, automating notifications and more.
What features should I look for in free meeting minutes tools?
Look for automatic transcription, AI-powered summaries, speaker identification, action item tracking, integration with productivity tools and cloud storage. Keep in mind that the free version of most tools won’t offer all of these features; those costs can add up and may make premium software a better fit.
How do I choose between free and paid meeting minutes software?
Choose free software if you need basic transcription and note-taking and are comfortable with limited security. Opt for paid versions if you require longer transcripts, advanced AI summaries, integrations or team collaboration features. Assess your meeting volume and workflow needs before deciding.
