# Local vs cloud meeting transcription for law firms

By Josef Long, founder of VaultScribe. Published October 17, 2026. General information, not legal advice.

With local meeting transcription, the audio is turned into text on your firm's own computers. With cloud transcription, the audio goes to a vendor's servers and comes back as text. Both can be reasonable choices.

| Cloud transcription | Local transcription |
|---|---|
| Audio is sent to the vendor's servers | Audio stays on the firm's own machines |
| The vendor's staff and subprocessors may be able to access it, depending on its terms | Access is controlled by the firm's own accounts and policies |
| Often joins calls as a visible bot participant | Can capture on your own computer without a bot in the call |
| Quick to start, with little hardware to manage | Needs a computer or server capable of running the models, and IT to look after it |
| The vendor updates and scales it for you | The firm decides when to update, and what it runs on |
| Works from any device with a connection | Tied to the machines you set up, so phones and tablets are harder |

## Where local is harder

- Hardware. Good local transcription needs a reasonably capable computer.
- Support. There is no vendor running it for you day to day, so someone in the firm, or an IT provider, owns it.
- Mobile. Cloud tools usually have phone apps. Local tools generally do not yet. VaultScribe's mobile apps are planned and not available.
- Accuracy and speed. These depend on the models and the hardware. VaultScribe has no published accuracy or speed figures yet, and will publish them only after testing.

## Where local helps

- Control. The recording does not leave unless you decide it should, and every outside request can be logged and reviewed.
- A simpler answer for clients. When a client asks where the call goes, the answer is a single place you can name.
- No bot. No extra participant appears in the meeting.

Local does not remove your obligations. You still need a consent practice, retention rules and a lawyer reviewing the output. See also: Is an AI notetaker safe for client calls? (https://vaultscribe.app/ai-notetaker-client-calls.md) and AI meeting transcription and client confidentiality (https://vaultscribe.app/ai-meeting-transcription-client-confidentiality.md).

## Where VaultScribe fits

VaultScribe is pre-release and is built local-first: it transcribes on the firm's own computers, with no bot in the call, and builds on that with an agent that drafts notes, time entries and emails across a matter, always with a person's click before anything is sent. It is not available to buy or download yet. Founding design partners sign a non-binding letter of intent, with terms agreed on a call: hello@vaultscribe.app.

This page is general information and is not legal advice. Transcripts from any tool are machine transcripts and are not certified. VaultScribe has not yet had an independent security audit.