Plaud and Pocket are microphones you carry, buy and charge. At a table your phone does the same job through Physical recording, without that second device. For a phone call they have to be stuck to the back of your phone, you have to press record on every call, and you cannot use earbuds. Ajora is attached to the line rather than to your phone and runs fully automatically: outgoing you dial from the app, incoming runs through forwarding, and during the call there is nothing to operate and nothing to forget.
Everything below about Plaud and Pocket comes from their own product pages, pricing pages, support articles and privacy policies, plus the recent App Store reviews. Checked on 06-09-2026, with the sources at the bottom.
What is the difference between Plaud, Pocket and Ajora?
Plaud and Pocket are separate devices with a microphone in them; Ajora is an app that joins the line and, at a table, uses your phone’s microphone. Around a table that comes down to the same thing, only without a device to buy and charge. On a phone call a device runs into three conditions: it has to be on your phone, you have to press record on every call, and earbuds are out.
The question is always the same: how do you still know what was agreed after a conversation, without taking notes yourself. There are three ways to get there, and the difference is where the microphone sits.
Plaud, a recording device
American company, the clear leader in this corner of the market. The Plaud Note Pro costs 189 dollars, the Note 159 dollars and the NotePin 159 dollars. Five microphones, a range of roughly five metres, and for phone calls a vibration sensor that reads the sound out of your phone’s casing. A subscription comes on top: free with 300 transcription minutes a month, Pro at 8.33 dollars a month billed yearly with 1,200 minutes, Unlimited at 19.99 dollars.
Pocket, a card on your phone
Built by Open Vision Engineering, out of the Y Combinator batch of early 2026, with 11 million dollars raised in June 2026. It is a card that snaps magnetically onto the back of your phone, with two microphones for the room and a contact microphone for phone calls. In the Dutch store it costs €109 on offer, down from €169. Free use with unlimited transcription at standard accuracy, and a Pro plan at 16.59 dollars a month billed yearly.
Ajora, no device
Ajora has no hardware. For outgoing calls you dial from the Ajora app, for incoming calls you switch on forwarding and your calls come along on their own. You get a summary with action items, decisions and the full transcript. For conversations around a table there is a Physical recording button in the same app. €15.99 a month, or €12.80 a month billed yearly, with 600 calling minutes included.
How do you capture a conversation around a table?
With the same app. Pick Physical recording under Capture, press start and put your phone down. You get the same debrief as from a phone call, with recognition of who says what.
So no device is involved. A recording device has to be bought, carried and kept charged, and the phone it clips onto is already lying on the table anyway. Plaud names a range of about five metres and Pocket claims fifteen; for a meeting with a few people around a table, your phone’s microphone sits just as close to the speakers as a device lying next to it.
Can Plaud and Pocket record phone calls?
Yes, but only if the device is stuck to the back of your phone, you press record on every call yourself, and you are not using earbuds. Plaud spells out all three conditions in its own manual and support pages.
A phone call is a different problem from a conversation at a table. iOS and Android hand call audio to no app at all, so a device has to get the sound from somewhere else. Plaud and Pocket both do it by feeling the sound in the phone itself: Plaud with a vibration sensor, Pocket with a contact microphone. Clever, and it works. But three conditions come with it.
The device has to be on your phone
Plaud writes it in their own support pages: the device has to be attached to the back of your phone, because the vibration sensor needs to pick the sound up directly from the phone’s speaker. If the device is in your bag or on your desk, it does not record your phone call.
You have to press record on every call
Asked whether Plaud records phone calls automatically, their own answer is short: no. Operating systems will not let an app watch call events all day, so you attach the device and press record. The same principle applies to Pocket. For an incoming call that means answering and thinking about a gadget at the same time.
No earbuds
This is the condition most people meet only after buying. Plaud states it plainly: because the vibration sensor reads both sides of the conversation out of the phone, using headphones during call recording is not supported. So no AirPods, and no hands-free in the car. Exactly the two moments when you call most and can write least.
Ajora does not have this problem, because it does not listen in, it joins the call. The conversation runs over the line, not through a microphone. That is why it works with earbuds in, with the phone at your ear, or hands-free in the car, and why it can already be on for incoming calls.
How good does a phone call recorded by a device actually sound?
That depends on your phone, because the device reads the sound through the housing. Plaud lists the matching complaints in its own support pages: phone-call recordings that are hard to hear, recordings with only your own voice and not the other party, and recordings that come back too loud and distorted.
That is not a defect, it is the route. What gets recorded is not the call itself but the vibration left of it in your handset. The support page about poor sound quality lists what you have to get right:
- Set your call volume to at least 80 percent.
- Take a thick case off, because it dampens the recording.
- Use no earphones or headphones, wired or wireless: the device picks up the sound from the phone’s speaker.
- On speakerphone, take the device off your phone and put it down next to it, otherwise it records the call twice and comes out distorted.
- Do not touch the device during the call, because dragging and tapping end up in the recording.
That is five things that have to be right before anything usable comes out, and a transcript is never better than the recording underneath it. Ajora sits on the line: what gets written out is the call itself. No volume level to get right, no case that can be too thick, and no side of the conversation that can drop out.
Plaud, Pocket or Ajora: what are the differences?
Plaud is strongest at a table, Pocket is the cheaper piece of hardware, and Ajora is the only one of the three that captures a phone call without any action, earbuds included. The full comparison is in the table below.
| Plaud | Ajora | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A recording device of 159 to 189 dollars. | A €109 card that snaps onto your phone. | An app on the phone you already have. |
| Conversation at a table | Five microphones, around five metres according to Plaud. | Two microphones, up to fifteen metres according to Pocket. | Your phone’s microphone, through Physical recording. No device needed. |
| Phone call | Only when the device is stuck to your phone. | Only when the card is on your phone. | Runs over the line. Nothing has to be attached to your phone. |
| Where the sound comes from | Through your phone’s housing. Call volume at least 80 percent, no thick case. | Through a contact microphone against your phone. | From the line: the call itself. |
| Automatic on a call | No. Plaud says it themselves: attach it and press record. | No, also an action on every call. | Outgoing you dial from the app, incoming runs through forwarding. |
| With earbuds or hands-free | Not supported during call recording. | Pocket says nothing about this. The contact microphone reads the phone itself, so do not count on it. | Yes. |
| What you carry and charge | The device plus its magnetic case. | The card, battery of about four days. | Nothing extra. |
| Cost to start | $189 for the Note Pro, $159 for the Note. | €109 in the Dutch store. | No hardware. |
| Subscription | Free with 300 minutes a month. Pro $8.33 a month billed yearly with 1,200 minutes. Unlimited $19.99. | Free with unlimited transcription at standard accuracy. Pro $16.59 a month billed yearly. | €15.99 a month, or €12.80 billed yearly. |
| Calling minutes | Not included. | Not included. | 600 a month included. |
| Where your data sits | Servers in the United States, Germany, Japan and Singapore, assigned by your region. | Not stated in their privacy policy. | Germany. |
| Training AI models | Excluded, unless you give consent yourself. | Excluded without your consent. | Excluded, in writing with the processors. |
| Data processing agreement | Not published as a separate document. They do use standard contractual clauses and an EU representative. | Not found. | On the site and ready to sign. |
What do users say about Plaud and Pocket?
Both apps rate well: Plaud at 4.8 out of 933 ratings in the Netherlands, Pocket at 4.9 out of more than 5,000 in the United States. The complaints that do exist are about exporting and cancelling for Plaud, and about updates breaking things and refunds for Pocket.
Both apps rate highly, so this is the minority. But the complaints that exist come back across different people and are about the same things.
Plaud: getting your material back out
The complaints from August and September 2026 are almost all about exporting and syncing. A user on 03-09-2026 misses a decent PDF; on 29-08-2026 someone complains the mind map cannot be exported; on 22-08-2026 that the device keeps losing its connection to the iPhone. On 22-08-2026 someone describes cancelling taking twelve emails because customer service is an AI. So count on the subscription for as long as you use it.
Pocket: a young product
Pocket has only existed since early 2026 and you can tell in this spring’s reviews. An update on 07-05-2026 broke syncing; on 12-06-2026 a feature suddenly sat behind Pro; on 11-06-2026 transcripts came back in the wrong language; on 07-05-2026 a device bricked during setup after which getting a refund was hard. The German App Store carries the same refund complaint on 15-07-2026.
A Plaud review from 12-08-2026 says your recordings disappear when you stop paying. Plaud’s own pricing page says the opposite: your recordings and transcriptions are not deleted when you cancel, only the transcribing stops. Which of the two holds is not something you can verify from the outside. Ask before you put a year of conversations on a device like this, whatever the brand.
Where are your recordings stored with Plaud, Pocket and Ajora?
Plaud spreads your data across servers in the United States, Germany, Japan and Singapore, assigned by region. Pocket names no country in its privacy policy. With Ajora the transcripts sit in Germany, encrypted with a key tied to your account.
Plaud has this better organised than the average American app. They run servers in the United States, Germany, Japan and Singapore and route your data to the nearest region, they exclude training on your recordings unless you consent, they use standard contractual clauses, and they have a representative in the EU. What is not in there is encryption with a key tied to your account only, and a data processing agreement you can sign.
With Pocket the picture is vaguer. Their privacy policy does say recordings are not used for model training without consent, but it names no country, no cloud provider and no concrete retention period.
Ajora sits differently here: the transcripts always stay in Germany and are encrypted with a key tied to your account only, so Ajora cannot read them either. If you cancel, that key is destroyed first, then your data is wiped within 30 days and out of the backups within 90. And you can sign a data processing agreement, which you need the moment you work with client data. The technical side is on security.
What fits the way you work?
If calling is part of your job, Ajora is the choice: every call is captured without you doing anything, including the incoming call you were not expecting. If you are mostly in large meeting rooms, a device earns its money, and the two do not rule each other out.
They are not competing for the same minute. A device is built for the table, Ajora for the line. Sit down with six people in a room and the table solution wins. Sit in the car, with earbuds in, getting called as often as you call, and a device captures nothing there while Ajora captures everything.
Plenty of people who end up at Ajora bought a device first and noticed it works fine at a table and not on the phone. That is not a bad product, that is a different product.
Frequently asked questions
Is the sound quality of a recording device good enough?
At a table, yes. On phone calls it depends, because the sound arrives through your phone’s housing. Plaud describes the matching complaints in its own support pages: hard to hear, only your own voice, or too loud and distorted. Your call volume has to be at 80 percent or more and a thick case has to come off. Ajora takes the call from the line, so none of that applies.
Does Plaud work with earbuds or AirPods?
Not while recording a phone call. Plaud states itself that headphones are not supported then, because the vibration sensor reads both sides of the call out of the phone housing, and Pocket works on the same principle. Hands-free in the car is out for the same reason. Ajora does not have that problem: the call runs over the line, so earbuds, car speaker or phone at your ear make no difference.
Can a recording device capture every phone call automatically?
No. Plaud says itself that automatic phone call recording is not possible, because iOS and Android do not let an app watch call events all day, and the same goes for Pocket. It only becomes automatic when the capturing sits on the line: with Ajora you switch on call forwarding once and every call comes along after that, incoming and outgoing, with no action from you.
What is an alternative to Plaud if you are mostly on the phone?
Ajora. Capturing then does not hang on a device that has to be stuck to your phone, but on the line: outgoing you dial from the app, incoming runs through call forwarding, and it works with earbuds in and hands-free in the car. The exact situations where a device records nothing are the situations where Ajora simply keeps running.
Can a Plaud record phone calls?
Yes, but only when the device is magnetically attached to the back of your phone, you press record yourself, and you are not using earbuds. Plaud confirms that automatic phone call recording is not possible, because operating systems do not allow it. If you want it to happen by itself, the capturing has to sit on the line rather than on a device: that is what Ajora does.
Does Pocket record phone calls?
Yes. Alongside two regular microphones Pocket has a contact microphone that picks up phone calls without you having to turn on the speaker. Here too the card has to be on your phone and you start it yourself on every call, so an incoming call is over before you think of it. With Ajora that call is already running.
What does Plaud cost in total?
The device is a one-off 159 to 189 dollars, and a subscription comes on top: free with 300 transcription minutes a month, Pro at 8.33 dollars a month billed yearly with 1,200 minutes, Unlimited at 19.99 dollars. Calling minutes are not included, those run on your own plan. Ajora is €15.99 a month with no hardware, 600 calling minutes included and seven days money back.
Do I need a device to record a conversation at a table?
No. In the Ajora app you pick Physical recording under Capture, press start and put your phone on the table. You get the same debrief as from a phone call, with speaker recognition, out of the same app your calls are in. A device does the same job at a table, but with hardware you have to buy, carry and charge.
Am I allowed to record all of this?
In the Netherlands you may record a conversation you take part in yourself. If you use it for work, you are processing personal data and the GDPR applies. That is written out in a separate piece: is it legal to record a call.
If you are looking for a recording app rather than a device, read Ajora vs TapeACall too. Not sure whether Ajora fits the way you work? Get in touch and just ask.
Sources
- Plaud Note Pro, specifications and priceplaud.ai, accessed 06-09-2026
- Plaud AI plans, minutes per planplaud.ai, accessed 06-09-2026
- Does Plaud Note support automatic call recording?Plaud Support
- Low volume or poor sound quality on Plaud Note Pro, with the requirements for call volume, case and placementPlaud Support, accessed 06-09-2026
- Can I use headphones or earphones when I record a phone call with Plaud Note?Plaud Support
- Privacy policy with the server regions and the model training exclusionPlaud, accessed 06-09-2026
- Pocket, product page with microphones, prices and plansheypocket.com, accessed 06-09-2026
- Pocket raises 11M in bet on rising demand for AI note-taking devicesTechCrunch, 29-06-2026
- Plaud: AI Note Taker in the App Store, ratings and recent reviewsApple App Store, accessed 06-09-2026
- Pocket - AI Personal Assistant in the App Store, ratings and recent reviewsApple App Store, accessed 06-09-2026
One of the three co-founders of Ajora. Jort focuses on user experience and growth.