Alternatives to Granola

AI meeting notes platforms provide four primary deliverables:

• Transcripts create a word-for-word record of the meeting. For example, a one-hour product development meeting generates a searchable document containing every feature discussion, technical requirement, and team decision.

• Action items are pulled directly from the conversation. When someone says "John will update the wireframes by Friday," the AI automatically creates a tracked task with the assignee and deadline.

• Meeting summaries distill hour-long conversations into 2-3 paragraphs. A 45-minute sprint planning meeting becomes a concise overview of sprint goals, resource allocation, and key decisions.

• Topic segmentation breaks discussions into labeled sections. A client call covering multiple projects is automatically divided into sections like "Website Redesign," "Q1 Marketing Campaign," and "Budget Review."

In addition to the quality of these deliverables, we'll want to look at a number of other key factors:

• Free trial: can you test it for free before committing?

• Ease-of-use: does it have a simple, intuitive setup that works for non-technical users?

• In-person meeting support: can it transcribe audio from live recordings or uploaded files, not just virtual calls?

• Security and privacy: how is customer data handled on the platform?

• Integrations: can it connect with your existing stack, like HubSpot, Notion, or Slack?

• Functionality: does it go beyond transcriptions and actually help you take action?

• Languages: can it transcribe and summarize meetings in different languages?

• Desktop and mobile apps: can you access it on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android for on-the-go meetings?

• Recordings: is there support for saving and playing back audio and video recordings of meetings?

Granola quick pros and cons

Granola excels at unobtrusive note-taking during meetings, with a clean interface reminiscent of Apple Notes and the ability to generate well-organized summaries through customizable templates. The app works quietly in the background, and the development team consistently improves the product based on user feedback.

The platform currently has limited availability, being Mac-only with no mobile apps, and requires proper system audio capture to function effectively. Some users have reported minor bugs typical of newer software, though these issues don't significantly impact the core functionality.

Granola features

Closest Granola competitors

Three Notable Meeting Note Tools to Consider

Fathom - Free tier offers unlimited recordings with 5 AI summaries per month. Produces instant, accurate transcripts and multiple summary formats. Main drawback is lack of mobile app and external audio upload.

Otter.ai - Generous free plan (600 mins/month) with live transcription and good accuracy. Works across all major platforms. Main issue is transcripts can be overly verbose and hard to skim.

Krisp - Unique combo of noise cancellation and meeting notes. Free tier gives 60 mins/day noise removal and 2 summaries. Downside is occasional audio distortion and high CPU usage.

Granola vs. Circleback

Circleback provides best-in-class AI-powered meeting notes and automations. We support over 100 languages and automatic participant identification in both in-person and online meetings.

• Automatically-identified and assigned action items

• AI-enabled search across all meetings

• Automations with 100+ app integrations

• Industry-leading security with SOC 2 Type II, EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, and HIPAA compliance

• Ability to capture both online and in-person meetings with desktop and mobile apps

Comparison table