Text-on-Top

Name: Text-on-Top
Author: Text-on-Top

by Text-on-Top

Open-source live caption viewer used by Deaf communities and EU accessibility groups.

TL;DR

Open-source live caption viewer used by Deaf communities and EU accessibility groups.

Best for european accessibility groups and Deaf advocacy events with limited budgets. Pricing: free / donation.

What it is

Text-on-Top is a long-running live-caption viewer originating in European Deaf-advocacy circles, used at meetings and accessibility events to render captions from a CART writer.

Best for: European accessibility groups and Deaf advocacy events with limited budgets.
Watch out for: Volunteer-supported; not aimed at broadcast operations.

Install / use

text-on-top.org

Features

Speaker diarization	No
Word-level timestamps	No
Streaming / real-time	Yes
Languages supported	None
HIPAA eligible	No

Text-on-Top vs Whipscribe

Feature	Text-on-Top	Whipscribe
Category	Products	Transcription APIs
Pricing	free / donation	free beta
Speaker diarization	—	Yes
Word timestamps	—	Yes
Streaming	Yes	No
Languages	—	99
Platforms	Web, Windows	Web, API, MCP

Alternatives to Text-on-Top

Otter.ai

Meeting-bot transcription product for Zoom/Meet/Teams.

free / from $10/mo

Rev

Human + AI transcription, highest accuracy tier on the market.

AI from $0.25/min · human from $1.50/min

Descript

Audio/video editor that treats the transcript as the timeline — different product category.

free / from $12/mo

Whipscribe is a managed faster-whisper + whisperX service. If you want transcripts without running infrastructure, paste a URL or drop a file in the form below — you'll have a transcript in seconds.