Krisp Review: The "Easy Button" for Audio (With Strings Attached)

TL;DR: If you want a “set it and forget it” solution to make your calls and meetings sound professional with zero effort, Krisp is the industry standard for a reason. But if you are a control freak (like me) who obsesses over signal chains, compression ratios, and digital privacy, you’re going to find it frustratingly limiting.

One persistent problem I’ve faced since moving my office into a motorhome is managing background noise. Whether it’s the roar of the A/C, a generator running nearby, or just the acoustic nightmare of a small tin box, I need noise reduction.

Everyone and their mother has recommended Krisp to me. So, I finally caved and gave it a spin. Here is the nerdy deep dive.

The Good: It Just Works (Mostly)

The strongest selling point of Krisp is friction reduction. You install it, it sits in your menu bar, and it acts as a virtual microphone and speaker. You point Zoom/Teams/Slack at Krisp, and Krisp handles the rest. The installation process is quick and painless, and (unlike a frustratingly high number of developers), they even make it easy to uninstall if you change your mind.

Unlike some other noise reduction tools where you have to “teach” it the noise profile (capture a few seconds of silence), Krisp uses an AI model. It knows what a human voice sounds like, and it nukes everything else.

The killer feature? It works both ways.

Outbound: It cleans up my voice for you.

Inbound: It cleans up your voice for me.

This is actually huge. We’ve all been on a call with someone sitting in a Starbucks or typing on a mechanical keyboard that sounds like a machine gun. Krisp cleans that up on my end so I don’t have to suffer.

In fact, the “Inbound” filtering might be the real MVP here. I can control my own work environment to minimize noise and distractions, but I can’t do anything about someone else working in a large kitchen next to a barking dog. Cleaning up their noise usually requires advanced audio routing or complex plugin chains; getting that capability out of the box is a pretty killer feature.

The Privacy Elephant: Why Does My Mic Need My Calendar?

Here is where Krisp really lost me.

One of the app’s biggest flexes is that it doesn’t need to integrate with your meeting software to work—it just processes audio. Yet, during setup, it practically puts you in a headlock to grant access to your Google or Outlook calendar.

Why? Ostensibly, it’s for their “Meeting Assistant” features (transcription and note-taking). They want to match the audio recording to your calendar event title.

But for a user like me, who just wants the audio processing (the noise cancellation), this feels like a massive overreach. I don’t need an audio driver knowing when my dentist appointment is or who is on the invite list for my 1:1s. It feels like a data grab disguised as a feature. If I wanted an AI meeting bot, I’d hire one. I just wanted my A/C noise gone, not a full audit of my schedule.

The “Audio Nerd” Perspective: Why I’m Not Keeping It

Beyond the privacy annoyance, as someone who usually runs a custom audio pipeline (using a VST host to chain plugins together), Krisp left me feeling a little cold on the technical front.

1. The “Black Box” Problem (And the Muffle)

My biggest gripe is the total lack of control. With a custom pipeline, I can tweak things to my exact taste.

For inbound audio, I typically run a compressor to squash the dynamic range. With Krisp? I was stuck with their default processing. It was beautifully noise-free, but it was also too quiet.

More annoyingly, I found the sound quality to be a little muffled, even on the minimum noise removal settings. I’ve heard this artifact in other tools, and usually, it’s an easy fix: you just slap an EQ on the chain and boost the high-mids to add some “air” back in. But because Krisp is a closed loop, you can’t fix it. You just have to live with sounding slightly like you’re talking through a sock.

2. It Fights You for Control

If you are a normal user, Krisp taking over your audio is a feature. If you use a DAW or routing software like Rogue Amoeba’s SoundSource, it is a nightmare.

I found that Krisp aggressively tries to manage audio routing, often fighting my other software for dominance. When I tried to route Krisp through my own VST host to add that missing EQ or compression, it felt like the software was actively resisting me. There is just a bit too much “magic” happening under the hood for my tastes.

3. The “Beep” Issue

Because the AI is so aggressive about removing anything that isn’t a human voice, you run into edge cases.

Example: I called a voicemail box. I heard the instructions: “Please leave your message after the beep.” Then… silence.

Krisp identified the “beep” as noise and deleted it. It’s a small thing, but when you can’t hear system sounds or notification chimes from others, it creates a weird disconnect. With my normal noise removal tools, I can toggle them off instantly when this happens. With Krisp, disabling it is a bit more of a process, requiring spelunking through the Krisp preferences UI to find the switch.

Note: There appears to be a Krisp toolbar that can simplify enabling/disabling inbound and outbound noise cancellation. For some reason, I never saw this toolbar, which could very well be a configuration problem on my part.

The Pricing Pivot: A Gun to My Head?

Finally, we have to talk about the money—and specifically, how they ask for it.

Krisp used to have a genuinely useful “Free Forever” tier (roughly 60 minutes of noise cancellation a day). This was perfect for people like me: I don’t need heavy noise reduction for every single call, but I need it badly for that one 15-minute sync when the neighbor starts mowing his lawn.

Now? It seems to be a hard 7-day trial. (Or at least, that’s what they offered me when I signed up).

This shift feels hostile. It puts a gun to your head immediately: Commit to paying us or get out. It forces a “go/no-go” decision before I’ve really had time to live with the software. I get that they need to convert users, but I would have much preferred a reduced free tier (say, 20 minutes a day?) over a forced trial.

At $96/year or $16/month, it’s not expensive for the value it provides. But I hate renting my tools, and I especially hate being bullied into a subscription before I’m ready. I would much rather pay a higher upfront price for a perpetual license than have another monthly drain on my bank account.

The Good

incredibly easy to install and set up

zero “training” required for the noise profile

bidirectional: removes noise from other people on the call (very handy)

low latency (didn’t feel a delay)

The Bad

forced calendar access feels intrusive and unnecessary

pricing model shifted from useful freemium to a “hostile” trial

subscription model (I prefer one-time purchases)

slightly “muffled” audio quality that you can’t EQ out

fights with advanced audio tools (DAWs/SoundSource) for control

aggressively removes non-voice sounds (like beeps)

Verdict

Krisp is the Apple of noise cancellation: it just works, it looks nice, and it removes the need for you to think.

If you are a normal human being who just wants to stop worrying about your dog barking during a presentation—and you don’t mind sharing your calendar data—get Krisp. It is a fantastic, user-friendly tool.

However, if you are a privacy-conscious tinkerer who appreciates a high level of fine-grained control—if you know what a “ratio” on a compressor does or why you’d want to sidechain your audio—Krisp is going to feel like putting training wheels on a Ferrari.