Beside vs Notis: AI Receptionist for Calls vs AI Intern for Notion

Quick Take

Beside and Notis both reduce “small but expensive” admin work, but they start from different places. Beside is built around your inbound and outbound conversations, especially phone calls, and then turns them into follow-ups and actions. Notis is built around Notion and turns voice or chat messages into structured pages, database updates, and automations, making it the better choice when your goal is voice-to-Notion execution.

Product Overviews

Notis

Notis is a chat-first “AI intern” for Notion that you message from WhatsApp, Telegram, iMessage, or email, turning voice and text into organized Notion pages and database updates without opening a new app. It also connects to a broader tool stack and, on higher tiers, can run recurring or event-triggered automations across your workflows.

Beside

Beside is an AI receptionist and conversation memory layer for your business communications that can answer missed calls and texts, capture details, and produce structured call reports with summaries and next steps. It supports calendar scheduling through the receptionist and can push data into other tools through native CRM connections and Zapier.

Head-to-Head Table

Key Differences Explained

1) Where the “system of record” lives

With Notis, the system of record is your Notion workspace. That single design choice changes everything: the output is not just a summary but structured content that stays connected to projects, areas, tasks, CRM entries, and whatever else you model in Notion. Notis is explicitly designed to work this way, capturing from chat and writing back into Notion as the destination. https://notis.ai/ https://notis.ai/blog/notis-vs-notion-ai-voice-first-assistant-vs-in-app-ai

Beside’s system of record is your communications layer. Its strongest promise is that calls and texts become durable memory, summaries, and immediate follow-up, which is ideal if your day is dominated by phone conversations and missed-call leakage. https://mi9.com/package/com.beside.beside/

2) What “voice-first” actually means

Notis is voice-first in the mobile-messaging sense: you can record a voice message where you already talk to people and let Notis turn it into structured work, without switching contexts. It highlights WhatsApp, Telegram, iMessage, and email as first-class channels. https://notis.ai/

Beside is voice-first in the telephony sense: it lives on your phone line, covers calls and SMS, and adds an AI receptionist that can handle inbound requests and schedule appointments when connected to your calendar. https://help.beside.com/en/articles/11525406-can-my-ai-receptionist-schedule-appointments-for-me

3) Automation depth versus built-in follow-up

Notis leans into “do the work,” especially when you want repeatable workflows. Its Pro+ tier positions automations as a core feature, with triggers that can run on schedules or via external events. https://notis.ai/

Beside leans into operational follow-up that starts from conversations: receptionist flows, summaries, and scheduling are the native path, and automation expands via Zapier and supported CRM connections. https://help.beside.com/en/articles/9888342-does-beside-integrate-with-other-apps-and-crms

Which One Should You Choose?

If you are an executive or founder

If your biggest problem is missed calls, constant context switching between conversations, and losing details after calls, Beside’s receptionist-plus-summary workflow is directly aligned with that pain. If your biggest problem is capturing decisions, ideas, and follow-ups into a single operating system that your team can build on, Notis will feel more like infrastructure.

If you are a consultant or agency operator

Beside can be strong when your lead flow and delivery depends on phone conversations and rapid follow-ups, especially if you want calls logged and pushed into a CRM via integrations. Notis tends to win when you run engagements out of Notion, because it can turn voice capture into structured client notes, deliverables, and next steps inside the workspace where the project actually lives.

If you are an engineer or product team member

Beside is a better fit when phone calls are the primary input stream, such as sales-heavy workflows or operational roles where call follow-up is the bottleneck. Notis is a better fit when you want to turn messy inputs into structured knowledge and execution inside Notion, and when you benefit from predictable, repeatable automations.

In practice, the decision comes down to where you want the output to land. If you want the output to live in Notion, connected to your projects and databases, Notis fits better for voice-to-Notion workflows.

Wrap-Up

Beside is a compelling option if your day runs on phone calls and you want an AI layer that answers, summarizes, and drives follow-up. Notis is the stronger pick if you want a chat-first assistant that turns voice into structured work inside Notion and can automate repeatable workflows across your tools.

If you already think in Notion, try Notis for a week and measure one thing: how often you capture an idea by voice and see it show up in the right database without manual clean-up.

Sources

Beside pricing: https://beside.com/pricing. Beside integrations and Zapier: https://help.beside.com/en/articles/9888342-does-beside-integrate-with-other-apps-and-crms. Beside appointment scheduling: https://help.beside.com/en/articles/11525406-can-my-ai-receptionist-schedule-appointments-for-me. Beside privacy policy: https://beside.com/privacy-policy. Notis homepage and positioning: https://notis.ai/. Notis pricing: https://help.notis.ai/documentation/5pkW8ayiSXYJYmCt4SZPa6/pricing/5pMTXeNujF82SP1yZvkrz4. Notis privacy & security: https://help.notis.ai/documentation/5pkW8ayiSXYJYmCt4SZPa6/privacy--security/5stEVFgyZkjB2Vwhrvwrx2.