Chorus.ai by ZoomInfo: Pros, Cons, and the Best Alternatives in 2024

When you’re looking for a conversation intelligence tool for your sales team, there’s a few different tools that come up a lot. Chorus by ZoomInfo is one of the biggest names you’ll come across, owned by Zoom and therefore one of the best partners for your sales calls on Zoom.

But Chorus has its flaws. Eye-watering prices, inaccurate transcriptions, and sluggish processing times have left people like yourself wondering if it’s worth it.

In this article we’ll take you through the pros and cons of Chorus, and show you a few alternatives that might be a better fit for your business.

What is Chorus by ZoomInfo?

Put simply, Chorus.ai by ZoomInfo is a company that provides a conversation intelligence platform, designed to capture and analyze business conversations to enhance sales performance. It utilizes advanced AI to offer actionable insights, helping businesses improve their sales strategies and customer interactions.

The tool is very complex and powerful so there’s a lot more to it that we will look into in the next sections.

What are the Pros of Chorus?

• Real-Time Conversation Analysis: Chorus.ai provides real-time analysis of sales calls, enabling sales representatives to adjust their strategies on-the-fly and engage more effectively with clients during conversations.
• Advanced AI Insights: Leveraging advanced AI, Chorus.ai offers deep insights into conversation patterns, sentiment, and buyer signals, which help sales teams better understand customer needs and tailor their interactions accordingly.
• Integration with ZoomInfo's Database: Being part of ZoomInfo, Chorus.ai benefits from seamless integration with one of the largest B2B databases, providing enriched data that enhances lead qualification and customer understanding.
• Coaching and Training Tools: The platform includes comprehensive coaching tools and analytics that help sales managers train their teams more effectively, using real examples from recorded calls to highlight best practices and areas for improvement.
• Deal Execution Features: Chorus.ai offers unique features that assist in deal execution, such as tracking commitment phrases and next steps mentioned during calls, ensuring follow-ups and actions are aligned with sales goals.

What are the Cons of Chorus?

• Integration Complexity: Some users find the integration process with existing CRM systems more complex or time-consuming than anticipated. This can delay the initial setup and reduce the immediate impact of the tool.
• Steep Learning Curve: New users often mention that the platform has a steep learning curve. The rich features and detailed analytics require a significant investment in training and familiarization, which can be a barrier for teams looking for a quick start.
• Cost: The pricing of Chorus.ai can be a concern for smaller businesses or startups. The cost structure might be seen as prohibitive for companies with limited budgets or those uncertain about the return on investment from a conversation intelligence tool.
• Data Privacy Concerns: Given the nature of the tool, which involves recording and analyzing sales conversations, some users express concerns about data privacy and compliance, particularly in regions with strict data protection laws.
• Technical Glitches: Users sometimes report experiencing bugs or technical glitches, such as issues with audio recording quality or data synchronization errors. These technical problems can affect the reliability of the insights provided by the platform.

Chorus Pricing Explained

It’s important to note that Chorus do not make their pricing structure public so all the information we’ll be talking about here is based on traces of interactions with the Chorus team that people have shared online.

Based on our findings and some great help from Fireflies, Chorus pricing works as follows:

Flat fee: $8,000 / year

This includes 3 seats. If you want extra seats that will come at a cost of $1200 per seat per year.

So let’s say for example you’ve got a team of 15 people and you want them all to have access to Chorus. Here’s the breakdown:

Flat fee: $8,000 / year

Extra user fee: 12 x $1,200 = $14,400Let’s add those together..

Total: $22,400 / year

If that price seems a bit out of your price range, check out some of the alternatives below. We even put a free one in there for you to try.

Best Overall, Free, and Audio Only Alternatives

Best Overall Alternative: Claap

When considering superior Chorus alternatives for deal intelligence, Claap seems like a no-brainer. It's more than just a note-taking tool; Claap is a revolution in capturing and analyzing conversation insights. It offers a dynamic mix of asynchronous video capabilities, detailed meeting recordings, and insightful AI-driven summaries, all within a user-friendly interface tailored for user research efficiency.

It can be integrated with tools like Hubspot, Linear, Slack, and Notion to make sure all your data is exactly where it needs to be.

What is Claap?

Claap is an advanced video wiki specifically designed for growing teams. Imagine a platform where detailed notes and video recordings coexist, enhanced by accurate transcriptions and AI-powered summaries. This combination makes Claap an invaluable asset in transforming the way companies handle and utilize their user research data, sales prospecting, and team updates.

What sets Claap apart is its comprehensive approach to collaboration and data alignment. It's more than just an addition to your software arsenal; it’s a tool that streamlines and amplifies your research capabilities.

This is supported by screen recording and intelligent meeting recording that make Claap a holistic tool designed to take care of the scalable needs of growingly visual companies that want to stay aligned.

Pros

• Integrated Video & Screen Recording: Combining video recordings with transcriptions, Claap provides a complete documentation solution for user research.
• AI-Driven Summaries: AI summaries in Claap offer insightful recaps, highlighting key points from user research meetings.
• Customizable Transcriptions: This feature enables the adaptation of meeting transcripts to fit specific user research needs.
• Competitive Pricing: Claap’s pricing model is designed to be accessible for businesses of various sizes, offering substantial user research features at a reasonable cost.‍
• Screen & Meeting Recording: Claap's screen and meeting recording features are particularly useful for visual and interactive aspects of user research, a domain where Chorus doesn't measure up.‍
• Enhanced Collaboration Tools: In terms of collaboration, Claap offers advanced options such as speaker recognition and video annotation, making it superior for team-based user research projects.‍
• Editing Capabilities: With video trimming and stitching, Claap excels over Chorus, allowing researchers to create clear, focused summaries of their findings.

Cons

• Compatibility Issue: Currently, Claap's desktop application is available only for Mac users, with Windows compatibility in development.
• Limited Advanced Enterprise Features: While Claap lacks some high-end features like sentiment analysis in user research, this is reflected in its more affordable pricing.

Claap pricing

Cost-effectiveness is a significant factor when considering Chorus alternatives, and Claap doesn't disappoint. 

A Basic Recorder plan is as cheap as $8 per seat per month when you pay yearly. This level comes with unlimited video recordings, however they are capped at 30 minutes per video. 

If you want something more powerful, the Power Recorder option is as cheap as $24 per seat per month and comes with unlimited everything. An Enterprise plan is also available for businesses that need CRM integrations, advanced privacy, SSO, API, and more.

Claap’s free plan

• 10 minutes per user
• 10 minutes per video
• Maximum 20 recorders per space
• Chrome extension and Desktop app
• Video annotations
• Notion and Slack integrations

Best Free Alternative: Fathom

For solo entrepreneurs and small teams, finding the right note-taking tool can be a game-changer. Enter Fathom, a user-friendly and cost-effective alternative to Chorus. Fathom is designed with the unique needs of one-person teams and small businesses in mind, offering simplicity and affordability without sacrificing essential features.

What is Fathom?

Fathom caters to the often-overlooked segment of one-person teams and small businesses. Its streamlined approach and budget-friendly pricing make it an ideal choice for those who don't need the complexity and higher costs associated with larger team or enterprise solutions.

Pro

While Chorus may offer a broader range of features, Fathom's simplicity, quick setup, and affordability make it a standout Chorus competitor for solo entrepreneurs and small teams:

• Simplicity: Fathom’s ease of use is a major selling point. It offers a streamlined interface, removing any unnecessary complexities. This makes it an ideal choice for individuals or small teams who need a simple yet effective tool.
• Cost-Effective: Targeting small-scale users, Fathom’s pricing model is more affordable compared to Chorus, which may be more cost-intensive for larger teams or enterprises.
• Intelligent Meeting Highlights: Once you’re in a meeting, click on Fathom to create highlights that will appear later in your recording.
• Full Transcripts: Get a full transcript of any meeting along with speaker identification
• Free Option is Very Powerful: Fathom offers unlimited calls to unlimited team members. It does reserve its strong features for its paid version, Fathom Teams.

Cons

Fathom is a very strong option, however, it does have some drawbacks:

• Only Supports 6 Languages: Other options offer 100+ language options, however, Fathom only supports English, Spanish, Italian, German, French, and Portuguese.
• No Screen Recording: Fathom doesn’t work as a screen recording tool, meaning no asynchronous capabilities for this option. 
• Poor Embed Options: Fathom doesn’t embed well in emails, Linear or other tools just yet, meaning you have to send URLs out to your team, creating more noise in their browsers.

Fathom Pricing

Fathom's pricing is tailored to meet the specific needs of one-person teams and small businesses. 

Fathom also offers a Fathom Teams product that costs $32 per seat per month for a Standard Plan, and $39 per seat per month for a Pro plan which includes CRM sync, SSO and advanced access controls.

Fathom’s free plan

• Unlimited minutes
• Unlimited users
• Salesforce, Hubspot, Notion and Slack integrations.

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Best Audio Only Alternative: Otter

For those who are looking for an audio-only alternative to Chorus, Otter seems like the right choice. Otter is an AI-driven transcription and note-taking tool that not only offers robust features but also provides a generous free plan, making it an attractive option for budget-conscious users.

What is Otter?

Otter is designed to cater to a wide range of users, including those who are just starting their journey with note-taking tools or need an economical option. Its standout feature is its powerful transcript technology, which offers impressive AI transcription capabilities without breaking the bank.

Pros

• Free Plan: Otter's complimentary offering is a significant draw, especially for those starting out or operating on a limited budget. This plan allows users to access essential features without financial constraints, unlike Chorus.
• User-Friendly Interface: Otter is designed with simplicity in mind, making it more approachable for users who may find Chorus’ array of features overwhelming.
• Real-time Transcription: Otter provides real-time transcription capabilities, ensuring that you can capture discussions as they happen, which can be especially useful for live meetings.
• Slide Capture: Otter has the capability to copy the text from slides as well as voice to make sure it doesn’t miss a single detail in the meeting.
• Chat Capabilities: Recently, Otter AI Chat has been launched. This allows deeper collaboration so you can get answers to meetings questions instantly by using your database of transcripts.

Cons

• Poor Meeting Analytics: Some tools provide deeper analytics of meeting content, such as sentiment analysis, trend identification, and detailed participant engagement metrics, which are beyond the basic transcription services of Otter.ai.
• No Integrated Video Recording: Unlike some of its competitors, Otter.ai primarily focuses on audio transcription and may not offer integrated video recording or the ability to directly capture and sync video content with notes.
• Automated Action Item Extraction: Some note-taking tools have the capability to automatically identify and extract action items or tasks from meeting transcripts, a feature that might not be as developed in Otter.ai.
• Limited AI Summaries: While Otter.ai offers transcription services, it may not provide as advanced AI-powered summarization of meetings as some other tools do. These summaries are often context-aware and highlight key discussion points more effectively.
• Non-Customizable Transcripts: Advanced customization options for transcripts, such as adding annotations, custom tags, or editing layouts, might be more limited in Otter.ai compared to some other platforms.
• Missing Integration with a Wider Range of Business Tools: While Otter.ai integrates with popular platforms, other tools might offer a broader range of integrations, particularly with specialized business applications.
• No Speaker Identification and Attribution: Some competitors might offer more advanced speaker identification and attribution features, which are crucial in multi-speaker environments to accurately track who said what.
• Unlimited Access is Expensive: Otter does not have an unlimited option. Thye offer an Enterprise service for high demand accounts but the price of this can become expensive.
• Privacy scandals: Otter has a history of audio files being sent to third parties. Of course, Otter has now made efforts to rectify this, however, stories from customers are still off putting to read.

Otter Pricing

While Otter's free plan makes a compelling argument, it also offers paid plans for users who require additional features and usage limits. 

A Pro account costs $17 per seat per month and comes with 1200 minutes of transcription. That includes a maximum session time of 90 minutes. You can also import up to 10 audio or video files per month. 

Their Business plan costs $40 per user per month and allows 6,000 monthly minutes and sessions of up to 4 hours. 

Otter’s free plan

• Otter AI chat
• Zoom, MS Teams and Google Meet integrations
• 300 transcription minutes
• 30 minutes per sessions
• Up to 3 audio or video files

Which Chorus Alternative should I Choose?

Like we said at the start of this article, Chorus is a very powerful Enterprise level tool that can completely transform the way businesses analyze their sales pipeline. But as tech stacks grow to their tipping point, you should be looking into more versatile technology that doesn’t empty the bank and can complete an array of tasks covering multiple use cases. 

The pros and cons of Chorus by ZoomInfo show that this tool is worth the money, but if you want something that is just as powerful and can perform a mountain of other tasks, try out Claap. You can even get a 14-day free trial without having to give them your credit card details.

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