Krisp vs Cleanvoice: no contest — they’re fighting different fights
Search engines keep booking this bout, so I’ll referee it — but I’m calling it before the bell: these two never enter the same ring, and the useful page is the one that tells you which ring is yours.
Krisp
The house benchmark: two-way noise cancellation on the device, in front of any call app, Windows and macOS. Free hour daily, $8/month annual after that.
Cleanvoice
An upload service for finished recordings: background noise, filler words and dead air trimmed in one automated pass. 30 free minutes, no credit card, then per-hour credits from $0.90.
| Red corner | Blue corner | |
|---|---|---|
| Works live on calls | yes — its whole job | no, at any price |
| Repairs finished files | no — passing cleanup only | yes — its whole job |
| Free allowance | 60 minutes per day, forever | 30 free minutes, no credit card — one-time sample |
| Paid shape | $8/user/month billed annually | per-hour: $11 / 5 h ($2.20/h), $20 / 10 h ($2.00/h), $45 / 30 h ($1.50/h); credits valid 2 years |
| Extras | meeting notes, transcription | filler words, dead air, transcript |
| Tape checked against both vendors’ own pages, July 30, 2026. | ||
Why I’m calling it a no-contest
A comparison implies a shared job. Krisp guards a call while it happens — a virtual microphone scrubbing your audio in real time. Cleanvoice receives a finished file and posts it back cleaner. Neither can be substituted for the other at any price, which makes “which is better?” a malformed question — and any page that scores it to a winner is selling you a fight that never happened.
The card
Rounds are scored boxing-style — 10 to the round’s winner, 9 to the loser, 8 for a dominant round, 10–10 when I genuinely can’t split them. A dash means a corner didn’t answer the bell for that round. Totals are arithmetic; so is the decision.
| Round | Krisp | Cleanvoice |
|---|---|---|
| R1 · Live calls | 10 | — |
| Referee’s note: Walkover — Cleanvoice doesn't answer the bell; it's an upload service with no live mode at any price. | ||
| R2 · Recorded cleanup | — | 10 |
| Referee’s note: Walkover the other way — Krisp cleans the call as it happens but doesn't retouch your finished files; Cleanvoice also trims fillers and dead air. | ||
| R3 · Pricing honesty | 10 | 10 |
| Referee’s note: Even round, genuinely: Krisp publishes its meter, Cleanvoice prices per hour with two-year credits. Both cards are readable. | ||
| Totals | 20 | 20 |
The two real fights, and who wins each
Your fight is live — colleagues hear your kitchen, recruiters hear your street — if so, the red corner walks over: start with Krisp’s free hour, and see the full card before paying. Your fight is recorded — a podcast, an interview, course audio — then Cleanvoice spars in the right division, with Adobe’s free Enhance as the no-budget contender it must beat to earn your card details.
Ringside questions
- Can Cleanvoice replace Krisp for meetings?
- No — Cleanvoice has no live mode at any price. It processes files you upload after recording. For meetings, the comparison set is Krisp, NVIDIA Broadcast and the built-in app toggles.
- Can Krisp clean a podcast episode I already recorded?
- Not properly — Krisp’s job is the live call. For finished files, Cleanvoice or Adobe Podcast Enhance are the right division; Enhance’s free hour a day is the sensible first stop.