Productivity · Head-to-head
tl;dv vs Shortwave
tl;dv (freemium, AI Score 7.6/10) vs Shortwave (freemium, AI Score 7.8/10). Side-by-side pricing, features, pros and cons, and which to pick.
The verdict
Pick tl;dv if…
- →your primary use case is smb and mid-market sales teams running calls across zoom, meet, and teams who want every call in one searchable library and auto-logged to the crm without paying gong-tier prices.
- →you need: marketing
Pick Shortwave if…
- →your primary use case is google workspace power users — founders, recruiters, sales leads — who live in a 200-thread-a-day inbox and want retrieval across years of mail plus a keyboard-fast client, not just reply suggestions.
- →you need: agents
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | tl;dv | Shortwave |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Productivity | Productivity |
| Pricing model | freemium | freemium |
| Headline pricing | Freemium — free plan available; paid seats start in the ~$20-30/user/mo range. Check website for current pricing | Free tier + paid plans — check website for current pricing |
| Free tier | Yes — free plan with recording, transcription, AI summaries, and highlights; check the pricing page for current caps, as the free tier has been revised since launch | Yes — a free tier exists with capped AI usage; confirm the current cap and feature split on shortwave.com/pricing |
| AI Score | 7.6/10 | 7.8/10 |
| Best for | SMB and mid-market sales teams running calls across Zoom, Meet, and Teams who want every call in one searchable library and auto-logged to the CRM without paying Gong-tier prices. | Google Workspace power users — founders, recruiters, sales leads — who live in a 200-thread-a-day inbox and want retrieval across years of mail plus a keyboard-fast client, not just reply suggestions. |
| Editor's pick | — | — |
| Use cases | productivity marketing | productivity agents |
| Date added | 2026-05-01 | 2025-09-15 |
Pros and cons
tl;dv
Productivity · freemium
Pros
- ✓Covers Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams in one library — native notetakers only work inside their own platform, so mixed-platform teams get one searchable archive instead of three
- ✓Automatic Salesforce and HubSpot logging closes the loop that platform-native AI notes leave open
- ✓Timestamped clip-and-share means you send the 90 seconds that mattered rather than a full recording
- ✓Transcription across 30+ languages, which matters for distributed teams that multi-language-weak competitors handle poorly
- ✓Call coaching and playbook scoring at a fraction of what dedicated revenue-intelligence platforms like Gong charge
Cons
- ×The core value has been squeezed hard — Meet, Zoom, and Teams now include AI notetaking for paying seats, so single-platform teams may not need a third-party tool at all
- ×The free tier is no longer the unconditionally unlimited offer it was at launch; verify current caps before standardizing a team on it
- ×A bot visibly joining the call is increasingly dated next to local recorders like Granola, and still creates friction with external participants and in consent-sensitive jurisdictions
- ×Multi-meeting intelligence and coaching — the features that actually justify paying over a native notetaker — are gated to the higher tier
Shortwave
Productivity · freemium
Pros
- ✓Semantic retrieval over a long mail archive is the standout — it answers questions Gmail search structurally cannot
- ✓The assistant reasons across threads and calendar rather than only the open message
- ✓Genuinely fast keyboard-driven client underneath the AI, so it survives as a daily driver
- ✓Drafts are conditioned on your own past replies rather than a generic corporate voice
- ✓Real native apps across desktop, web and mobile rather than a browser extension
Cons
- ×Google-centric — the deep features assume Gmail/Google Workspace, and other mailboxes are a lesser experience
- ×You pay a per-seat subscription on top of a mailbox you already pay for, while Google and Microsoft bundle comparable basics into the default clients
- ×The free tier caps AI usage enough that the assistant is effectively a paid feature
- ×A small independent team competing against AI shipped by default inside Gmail and Outlook
Related comparisons
Updated 2026-08-10. Spec data sourced from official product pages and tracked in our public directory at /tools.