Tired of drowning in meeting notes and scattered information?
Do you wish you had a smart assistant to capture every detail, summarize key points, and even help you act on them?
Many of us struggle to keep up with the flow of information in our busy lives.
Leading to missed insights and lost productivity.
Today, we’re putting two major players head-to-head: Sembly vs Microsoft OneNote.
Overview
We thoroughly tested both Sembly and Microsoft OneNote in real-world scenarios.
Our team used them for daily tasks, meetings, and personal organization.
This hands-on experience helped us fairly compare their features and performance.
Curious about how Sembly AI can change your work? See how it can help you.
Pricing: It has a free trial. Paid plan starts at $10/yearly.
Key Features:
- AI Meeting Notes
- Multi-language transcription
- Automated Task Management
Over 100 million are already using Microsoft OneNote to streamline notes
Pricing: It has a free plan. Custom Pricing Plans are Available.
Key Features:
- Freeform Canvas
- Handwriting Recognition
- Microsoft 365 Integration
What is Sembly?
Ever wish you had a personal assistant for your meetings?
Sembly makes it real. It’s an AI-powered note-taker.
It records, transcribes, and summarizes. You get insights fast.
Also, explore our favorite Sembly alternatives…
Curious about how Sembly AI can change your work? See how it can help you.
Key Benefits
Sembly AI shines in a few key areas:
- Smart Meeting Notes: It captures everything. You get summaries and action items.
- Transcribes 48 Languages: No matter the language, it understands. This is great for global teams.
- Identifies Key Items: It finds important decisions. It also flags tasks.
- AI-Generated Summaries: Get quick recaps. This saves you time.
- Meeting Analytics: See how your meetings go. Get insights on talking time.
Pricing
How much does Sembly AI cost? There are a few options.
- Personal: $0/year
- Professional: $10/year
- Team: $20/year
- Enterprise: Custom Pricing
Pros
Cons
What is Microsoft OneNote?
Think of a digital notebook that never runs out of pages.
That’s Microsoft OneNote. It’s a freeform digital canvas.
You can type, draw, clip web pages, and record audio.
Also, explore our favorite Microsoft alternatives…
Ready to get organized? Over 100 million people are already using Microsoft OneNote to streamline their notes. See why they’ve made the switch – join the millions who are boosting their productivity!
Key Benefits
OneNote has its special strengths:
- Freeform Canvas: Write or draw anywhere. It’s like endless paper.
- Handwriting Recognition: Converts notes to text. Great for pen users.
- Deep Microsoft Integration: Works seamlessly with Office. Perfect for existing users.
- Audio Recording: Embed voice notes directly. Capture meetings easily.
- Web Clipper: Save web pages quickly. Keep research organized.
Pricing
Custom Pricing
Pros
Cons
Feature Comparison
Now, let’s dive into the core features of Sembly and Microsoft OneNote.
We’ll examine how each app handles key tasks, helping you decide which better fits your unique workflow.
1. AI Meeting Assistant
Sembly AI: This is where Sembly truly shines. It’s built from the ground up to be an AI meeting assistant. Sembly AI automatically joins your Google Meet or Microsoft Teams calls, records the audio, transcribes the conversation, and then generates smart summaries. It uses Sembly AI to identify speakers, pull out actionable items, and even analyze sentiment. This automation significantly streamlines your note-taking process for meetings, allowing you to focus on the discussion rather than manually taking notes.
Microsoft OneNote: OneNote doesn’t have a built-in AI meeting assistant. While you can record audio directly within a OneNote page, it won’t automatically transcribe or summarize your meeting. You would need to manually review the audio recordings and transcribe them yourself, or use a separate tool and then import those notes into OneNote. It’s a general note-taking app that makes it easy to capture and save ideas, but not specifically for meeting automation.
2. Note-Taking Flexibility and Canvas
Sembly AI: Sembly’s primary focus is on meeting transcripts and AI-generated notes. While you can add your comments and highlight key sections within the transcript, it doesn’t offer the free-form canvas experience of OneNote. It’s more structured around the meeting’s flow, making it ideal for processing complex topics discussed in calls.
Microsoft OneNote: OneNote offers an incredibly free-form canvas. Imagine an infinite digital piece of paper where you can click anywhere and start typing. You can mix text, images, drawings, and even embed files. This flexibility makes it an excellent note-taking app that makes it easy to capture and save ideas in a non-linear way, making it a versatile management tool for diverse information. It’s perfect for brainstorming or sketching out concepts.
3. Transcription and Summarization
Sembly AI: Sembly provides highly accurate transcription of your meetings, often with speaker identification. Its core strength lies in its ability to generate AI-powered summaries, key insights, and lists of actionable items automatically. This automation helps you quickly grasp the essence of long discussions and speeds up your workflow. It’s designed to automate note-taking for spoken content.
Microsoft OneNote: OneNote can record audio, but it does not offer automatic transcription or AI summarization of that audio. If you want to transcribe audio recordings, you’d have to do it manually or use a third-party service. For summaries, you’d need to create them from your handwritten notes or typed content manually.
4. Integrations and Ecosystem
Sembly AI: Sembly integrates directly with popular meeting platforms like Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. It can also connect with project management tools like Asana and Trello, and even CRM systems, often through Zapier. This allows you to push actionable items and summaries into your existing workflow, which helps to streamline your entire note-taking process.
Microsoft OneNote: OneNote is deeply integrated within the Microsoft ecosystem, working seamlessly with Microsoft 365 apps like Word, Excel, Outlook, and Microsoft Teams. This is a huge benefit if you rely heavily on Microsoft products. While it can connect with other apps, its integrations are primarily strongest within its native environment. It’s a fantastic management tool if your workflow already revolves around Microsoft.
5. Handwritten Notes and Drawing
Sembly AI: Sembly does not support handwritten notes or drawing directly within its interface. Its strength is processing spoken language and providing text-based outputs.
Microsoft OneNote: This is a major advantage for OneNote. It offers excellent support for handwritten notes and drawing, especially with a stylus or touch device. OneNote can even convert your handwritten notes into searchable text (OCR), making them easy to find later. This feature truly differentiates it as an app that makes it easy to capture diverse ideas.
6. Search Capabilities
Sembly AI: Sembly allows you to search across all your meeting transcripts and summaries. You can quickly find specific keywords, speaker mentions, or actionable items from past discussions, making it a powerful management tool for reviewing meeting history.
Microsoft OneNote: OneNote boasts a very robust search function. It can search not only typed text but also handwritten notes (if recognized), text within images, and even text in attached files. This powerful search makes it easy to capture and save everything, knowing you can find it later.
7. Collaboration
Sembly AI: Sembly offers collaboration features for team plans. It allows users to share meeting transcripts and summaries within a shared workspace. Teams can review and edit notes together, fostering better alignment and follow-up on actionable insights. It supports a collaborative workflow around meeting outcomes.
Microsoft OneNote: OneNote excels at real-time collaboration. Multiple users can work on the same notebook, section, or page simultaneously, seeing changes as they happen. It’s a highly effective note-taking app that makes it easy for teams to work together on shared documents, brainstorming, and manage general information management tool.
What to Look For When Choosing an AI Note-Taking App?
When choosing your ideal AI note-taking app, consider these key insights:
- AI Accuracy: Evaluate the precision of transcription and summarization.
- Integration Ecosystem: Ensure it connects with your daily tools (calendar, CRM, communication platforms).
- Data Security & Privacy: Understand how your sensitive information is handled and protected.
- Scalability: Consider if the app can grow with your individual or team needs.
- User Interface: A clean, intuitive design enhances adoption and reduces friction.
- Specific Use Case: Determine if you need a meeting-focused tool or a genenotetaker.
- Export Options: Check how easily you can get your data out and into other formats.
- Customer Support: Reliable support is crucial for addressing any technical issues.
- Offline Functionality: Assess if you need to access or work on notes without an internet connection.
Final Verdict
So, which AI note-taking app wins?
For most people, Sembly AI is our top choice. It’s built specifically for meetings.
It’s smart AI features automatically capture everything.
You get clear summaries and action items, saving you lots of time.
While Microsoft OneNote is great for general notes, Evernote might be a familiar name.
We tested these thoroughly, and Sembly truly helps you get more done, effortlessly.
More of Sembly
Let’s examine how Sembly compares to other popular tools, highlighting its standout features.
- Sembly vs Notion AI: Notion AI excels as an all-in-one workspace with powerful AI for content creation and knowledge management.
- Sembly vs Fireflies AI: Fireflies AI focuses on automated meeting transcription, summaries, and conversation intelligence, which is very similar to Sembly.
- Sembly vs ClickUp: ClickUp is a comprehensive project and task management tool with strong AI features for workflow automation.
- Sembly vs Capacities: Capacities offers a unique object-based note-taking system for connecting ideas and building knowledge graphs.
- Sembly vs Taskade: Taskade provides a unified workspace for tasks, notes, and video chat, emphasizing team collaboration.
- Sembly vs Notejoy: Notejoy is a fast, collaborative note-taking app that makes sharing and real-time editing easy for teams.
- Sembly vs Notta: Notta specializes in highly accurate real-time transcription in over 58 languages, plus an AI chatbot.
- Sembly vs Craft: Craft prioritizes beautiful design and intuitive organization for notes and documents, especially for Apple users.
- Sembly vs MeetGeek: MeetGeek offers detailed meeting analytics, including participant engagement and sentiment insights.
- Sembly vs Mem AI: Mem AI offers effortless organization through AI, automatically linking ideas for a dynamic knowledge base.
- Sembly vs Evernote: Evernote is known for flexible organization, web clipping, and powerful search across various content types.
More of Microsoft OneNote
Here’s how Microsoft OneNote stacks up against other popular alternatives, focusing on their standout features.
- Microsoft OneNote vs Notion AI: Notion AI offers a flexible, block-based workspace ideal for structured content, databases, and AI-powered writing.
- Microsoft OneNote vs Fireflies AI: Fireflies AI provides automated meeting transcription, summaries, and conversation insights, focusing on spoken content.
- Microsoft OneNote vs. ClickUp: ClickUp is a comprehensive project management tool for teams that offers customizable workflows, tasks, and notes.
- Microsoft OneNote vs Capacities: Capacities uses an object-based approach to connect ideas and build a personal knowledge graph.
- Microsoft OneNote vs Taskade: Taskade is a unified workspace for notes, tasks, and video chat, great for real-time team collaboration.
- Microsoft OneNote vs Notejoy: Notejoy offers fast, collaborative note-taking with real-time editing, primarily for team communication.
- Microsoft OneNote vs Notta: Notta specializes in highly accurate real-time transcription across many languages and AI-powered summaries.
- Microsoft OneNote vs Craft: Craft focuses on beautifully designed, structured documents with strong linking and publishing features, especially for Apple.
- Microsoft OneNote vs MeetGeek: MeetGeek provides AI meeting summaries, actionable insights, and robust analytics from your calls.
- Microsoft OneNote vs Mem AI: Mem AI automatically connects related notes and uses natural language search for effortless organization.
- Microsoft OneNote vs Evernote: Evernote is known for versatile note capture, web clipping, and strong organization with notebooks and tags.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main difference between Sembly and Microsoft OneNote?
Sembly excels in AI meeting automation, providing smart transcriptions and summaries. OneNote offers a versatile, free-form digital canvas for all types of notes, drawings, and multimedia, but lacks built-in meeting AI.
Can I use these apps for general personal note-taking?
Yes. OneNote is highly versatile for personal note-taking, brainstorming, and organization. Sembly focuses more on structured meeting content but can also record and manage personal voice notes.
Are my meeting recordings and notes secure with these services?
Both Sembly and Microsoft OneNote employ strong encryption and security measures. Always check their latest privacy policies to understand how your data is protected and managed by each company.
Do these apps integrate with popular meeting platforms like Zoom or Microsoft Teams?
Sembly is designed to integrate directly with platforms like Google Meet and Microsoft Teams for automatic meeting capture. OneNote, part of Microsoft 365, integrates deeply within the Microsoft ecosystem, including Teams.
Which app is better for automating note-taking during live discussions?
Sembly is superior for automating live discussion note-taking. Its AI actively transcribes, identifies speakers, and summarizes key points and action items, freeing you to participate fully in the conversation.
