Both tools target different audiences effectively - Gong suits enterprise sales organizations with complex deal cycles and substantial budgets for sales enablement technology. Granola appeals more to knowledge workers, consultants, and smaller teams who prioritize privacy and want to improve their personal meeting documentation without the overhead of enterprise sales tools.

While each platform offers solid core functionality, both fall short in providing comprehensive workflow integration and actionable follow-through capabilities. Users often find themselves manually transferring insights and action items to other systems, limiting how effectively these tools can streamline the complete meeting-to-execution process. The gap between capturing meeting intelligence and actually helping users complete resulting tasks remains a common limitation across both solutions.

Comparison table

What users say about Gong and Granola

Users consistently praise Gong for its powerful sharing capabilities and practical functionality in sales environments. According to one comprehensive review, users highlight that "Gong's sharing features are amazing… I can quickly share my calls with clients or prospects right after the meeting without the administrivia." The platform demonstrates strong performance in real-world applications, with users reporting success using Gong AI Notetaker across sales calls to capture summaries, track key moments, and keep CRM systems updated.

Granola receives positive feedback for its streamlined approach to meeting transcription and follow-up processes. Users report that Granola makes transcriptions and follow ups "a breeze" and consistently produces clean, reliable meeting transcripts. Based on extensive testing across multiple meetings, reviewers appreciate the tool's reliability and ease of use for handling post-meeting documentation tasks.

Users often switch away from Gong due to its significantly high cost structure compared to alternative solutions. The platform requires enterprise-level pricing with no publicly available rates, typically demanding an annual platform fee of around $5,000 for small teams plus approximately $1,400-$1,600 per user annually. Additional onboarding services can add another $7,500 to the total cost. With no monthly payment options and only custom quotes available, many organizations find the financial commitment prohibitive, especially when comparing Gong's pricing to more affordable competitors in the conversation intelligence space.

Technical performance issues create frustration among users and drive them to seek more reliable alternatives. Users frequently report experiencing lags and delays in call processing, which can disrupt workflow and create bottlenecks in sales operations. Additionally, transcription inaccuracies occur regularly, undermining the core value proposition of accurate conversation intelligence. These technical shortcomings become particularly problematic for teams that rely heavily on real-time insights and precise documentation of customer interactions.

Privacy and data handling features can paradoxically hinder user experience and push organizations toward platforms with better balance between security and functionality. While Gong offers privacy features like phone number redaction, users report that these protective measures sometimes hide useful information from calls, making the data less valuable for analysis and follow-up activities. This creates a frustrating trade-off where enhanced privacy comes at the cost of actionable insights, leading users to explore alternatives that can maintain security without sacrificing the practical utility of captured conversation data.

One of the primary reasons users switch away from Granola is its lack of integration capabilities and automation features. Unlike more established platforms that offer extensive CRM integrations and workflow automation, Granola requires manual effort to export and share meeting notes. Users who need their meeting insights to automatically flow into their sales processes, update CRM records, or trigger follow-up tasks find themselves having to copy and paste information manually, which can be time-consuming and inefficient for busy sales teams.

The audio-only limitation presents another significant drawback that drives users to seek alternatives. Granola cannot record video or store audio for playback, meaning if users miss something important or want to review specific moments from a meeting, they must rely solely on the transcript. This limitation is particularly problematic for sales teams who often need to revisit customer reactions, body language, or specific verbal nuances that might not be fully captured in text transcription alone.

Cost and accessibility constraints also contribute to user churn from Granola. The platform requires a Google Workspace email to sign up, excluding users with personal Gmail accounts or other email providers. Additionally, the free trial is limited to just 25 meetings before requiring a paid subscription, with no free forever plan available. For users who want to test the platform extensively or have budget constraints, these limitations can push them toward competitors that offer alternatives to Granola with more generous trial periods or free tiers for ongoing use.

Using Gong

Does Gong work for in-person meetings?

Yes, Gong supports capturing in-person face-to-face meetings via its mobile app, which is useful for live meetings or field sales. It can record calls outside of web conferences, including ad hoc face-to-face meetings, which are then uploaded to Gong for transcription and analysis.

What do users say about the quality of Gong transcriptions?

Users report occasional transcription inaccuracies, and some experience lags or delays in call processing. However, the platform is still highly praised for its rich call analytics and AI insights that help improve sales performance.

How does Gong help users follow up on action items?

Gong includes an automation engine with AI-driven agents and workflows that can automatically generate follow-up tasks. It can trigger deal alerts, analyze emails, and create follow-up tasks automatically as part of its AI recommendations to streamline sales processes.

Does Gong integrate with software like Hubspot, Salesforce, or Linear?

Yes, Gong has extensive integrations with over 250 tools, including CRM, communication and productivity software. It specifically connects with Salesforce, HubSpot CRM, Slack, Zoom, Google Meet, Webex, and Calendly, among others.

Using Granola

Does Granola work for in-person meetings?

Partially - Granola can transcribe any audio your computer hears, so if you play an in-person meeting's audio through the computer using mic and speakers, it will capture it. However, it's not specifically designed for non-virtual settings and doesn't have a mobile recorder for physical rooms yet.

Does Granola require a meeting bot to join the meeting?

No - Granola works seamlessly in any app (Zoom, Teams, Meet, Slack calls, Webex) by transcribing device audio without needing a meeting bot to join.

What do users say about the quality of Granola transcriptions?

Users praise the high transcription accuracy, including its ability to accurately transcribe other languages without manual setting changes. The auto-language detection feature allows it to handle multilingual meetings easily.

How does Granola help users follow up on action items?

After a meeting, Granola's AI augments your notes with key points, decisions, and action items. It combines your typed notes with AI transcription to produce enhanced meeting notes. However, it doesn't automatically update other apps or create tasks - follow-up actions must be done manually.

Does Granola integrate with software like Hubspot, Salesforce, or Linear?

No - Granola has no external integrations at launch. While you can copy and share the final notes, there are no native CRM or other software integrations yet, and data must be exported manually.

Another alternative: 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