Poised alternatives: what to use now that Poised is shutting down

Is Poised shutting down?

Yes. The banner on Poised's homepage reads “Poised is shutting down on 10/8/2026”, followed by a thank-you to users for their support over the last few years.^[1] Poised is a US company, so that's 8 October 2026.

The homepage gives no reason. Poised was bought by the voice AI company Deepgram in June 2024,^[2] and the Poised web app now points users towards Saga, Deepgram's dictation app for Mac.

What happens to your data and subscription?

The homepage says nothing about this. The shutdown notice inside the Poised web app does. We read its text in the app's code on 12 October 2026, so treat this as what Poised shows users, not as something we could test with an account:^[3]

• Before the shutdown it said annual subscribers would get a prorated refund for the remaining months automatically, with no need to ask.
• It asked users to export their content, and said recordings, feedback and progress history would be deleted when Poised retired.
• The app's own retirement date is 9 October 2026, a day after the homepage date. It now says Poised has shut down and that Poised content has been deleted, while your Deepgram account still works.

If you were a paying customer and haven't seen a refund, contact Poised or Deepgram support directly. We can't help with Poised accounts, and we don't know whether any export is still possible.

Poised's pricing page was still online when we checked, listing a Pro plan at $19 a month or $13 a month billed annually, plus a Team plan.^[4] Given the shutdown, don't treat that as something you can still buy.

What Poised did

Poised was a desktop coach that listened while you were on calls. Its homepage describes “real-time feedback to help you speak confidently during calls”, for Mac and Windows (not mobile), working with Zoom, Google Meet, Slack, Microsoft Teams and other call tools.^[1] Its pricing page listed “real time meeting feedback about conciseness, hedging words, interruptions, and filler words”.^[4]

That's two jobs in one: monitoring (a private signal while you talk) and improving (seeing your habits over time so you change them). The alternatives below are grouped by those two jobs, because almost no tool does both the way Poised did.

Alternatives for feedback on your calls

We looked for a live product whose own site confirms Poised-style private nudges during calls on Mac and Windows. We didn't find one we could confirm on 12 October 2026. These are the closest options, and they give feedback after the call, not during it.

Read AI: meeting coach

Read AI joins your meetings as a notetaker and adds a coaching section to each meeting report, with “metrics like talking speed, filler words, bias, and charisma”. The free plan includes the meeting coach and five meeting reports a month. Pro is $15 per user per month billed annually or $19.75 monthly; Enterprise is $22.50 annually or $29.75 monthly.^[5]

Its help centre explains that you add Read to your meetings and view the report afterwards. It suggests a pace between 130 and 175 words per minute and fillers under 4% of your speech.^[6] Good for: people who want Poised's numbers without changing how they run calls. Check first: Read joins as a visible meeting participant, so make sure your organisation and the people you meet are happy with that.

Zoom, Teams and other meeting tools

If your company already pays for a meeting assistant, look there before buying anything. Some notetakers include speaker analytics such as talk time; Fireflies, for example, lists speaker talk-time analytics on its pricing page.^[7] That's useful for spotting when you dominate a call, but it isn't coaching on fillers or hedges.

Microsoft Teams used to have Speaker Coach, which gave private live feedback in meetings. Microsoft's support page still describes it, but a Microsoft Q&A moderator pointed to a retirement notice (MC1101903) in August 2025.^[8] We couldn't confirm it's still available, so we haven't listed it as an option.

Alternatives for practising before calls

Practice apps don't listen to your meetings. You record yourself, get feedback, and try again. That's slower than a live nudge, but it's how habits like starting every answer with “so, um” actually change.

SpeakConfident (us)

You record short takes, see every filler marked on the replay, your pace and your pauses, get one thing to change, and do take two. The free plan includes the one-minute Voice Snapshot, Chapter 1 (fillers) and four coached reps a week. Pro is $19.99 a month or $179.99 a year, and adds the full path, a meetings track, a two-minute meeting debrief after your calls, and review of a real recording you upload. See pricing.

What we don't do: we don't give live feedback during your calls, and we don't join meetings. If an in-call nudge is the thing you'll miss most, we're not a replacement for that.

Orai

A practice app that gives feedback on filler words, pace, clarity and energy. Orai's own pricing page lists $12 a month or $49.99 a year, with a 7-day free trial, on iOS and Android.^[9] The App Store lists slightly different in-app prices ($12.99 monthly, $49.99 yearly, $99.99 lifetime),^[10] so check the price at checkout.

Speeko

A practice app with guided exercises for iOS, macOS, Android and web. Its homepage says it can “track your voice and speech patterns in real-time” with “simple, friendly alerts”.^[11] We couldn't confirm from Speeko's site whether that works inside Zoom or Teams calls, so use the 7-day free trial to check before relying on it. Its subscriptions page lists $29.99 a month, an annual plan shown as $8.33 a month, and $299.99 lifetime;^[12] App Store prices differ ($24.99 monthly, $99.99 annual).

PowerPoint Speaker Coach

Free rehearsal feedback built into PowerPoint, for slide talks. It checks pacing, pitch, filler words and whether you're reading your slides. Microsoft says the web version is available to everyone in free preview, even without an Office subscription.^[13] Good for: presentations. It doesn't help with meetings.

Poised alternatives compared

Prices are in US dollars as shown on each company's own site; app-store prices can differ by country and platform.

How to choose

Answer three questions:

1. Do you need something that watches your real calls? If yes, start with a meeting assistant's speaking report, such as Read AI, and accept that the feedback comes after the call.
2. Does your company allow meeting bots? Many don't, or require everyone on the call to agree. If bots are out, practice apps are your option.
3. Do you want to monitor a habit or change it? Live and after-call reports tell you what happened. Practice changes what happens next time. Many people find they need both for a few weeks, then only the practice.

Switching from Poised: a two-week plan

Poised flagged fillers, hedging words and long answers. Here's how to keep working on those without a live coach.

Week one: fillers and hedges

Record a one-minute update every day. Count your fillers and hedges, then do take two with one rule: pause instead of filling. Our guide to stopping saying um has a seven-day plan; in the app it's Chapter 1, which is free.

Week two: conciseness and speaking up

Practise saying your point first, then two details at most. Then practise speaking early in a meeting and joining a discussion politely. In the app, Chapter 8 (Say Less) and Chapter 9 (The Room) cover these, and speaking up in meetings has prompts you can use anywhere.