Best Granola AI Alternatives in 2025

Granola AI has been one of the most popular AI note-takers that is available on Mac and iOS.

Many people like it because you can take your own notes at the same time as transcribing a meeting. And the other thing that people like as well is that you can transcribe a meeting without the need to plug in a background bot, Chrome extension, or anything like that, as it uses system audio to do those recordings.

What makes Granola AI great?

• No Need for Bots - One of the most appealing things about Granola is that you don't have to join the meeting with one of the bots that pop-up on the call. This means you can explain you have an AI, but not in an awkward interaction where your AI bot has joined and is taking notes already. This might make people more comfortable.

• Take Your Own Notes - You can take your own notes which a lot of people like as the AI transcription lacks context sometimes. So this helps massively.

• Good Mobile App - Granola can be used offline and online on the mobile, which means you can use it for IRL appointments in coffee shops or at the therapy session.

We’ve decided to put together a list of the best Granola AI alternatives. All of these tools will help you to seek out something different. It’s likely that Granola didn’t get on with you for a variety of reasons. Maybe you liked the experience, but it wasn’t available on the device that you use every single day.

1. Fellow

Best for All Round

Fellow is an AI note-taker for meetings that helps you plan the three parts of a meeting: the agenda, the meeting itself, and follow-up/post-meeting analysis.

It does this through a variety of different ways, using the transcription tool to help know who the person is to write the agenda. It populates the transcript, creating a summary for you, followed by helping you to use automations to begin enacting actions after the meeting, which a lot of people like. Fellow is really approachable, and it’s more like a meeting co-pilot than it is just a note-taking tool with AI. Many people like it because it’s approachable - more suitable for a team, whether you’re small or medium-sized.

Pros

• Easy to use and very familiar in feel and design.

• Great agenda building features for saving time on meeting prep.

• Designed to save time reflecting on meeting notes with their own note-taking tool for Granola like abilities.

Cons

• A bit more suitable for teams than individuals.

• Might be overkill when it comes to the agenda/post-meeting features for some.

Granola versus Fellow

• Fellow is on more devices than Granola is so you can use it cross-platform.

• Fellow is more of a meeting collaboration software than Granola is.

2. Fireflies AI

Best for Individuals

Fireflies AI is another meeting AI tool and it’s been working a lot in the background to improve the agents and automations that allow you to do things in the background - something that Granola AI is working on but not fully available yet (or only just launched). Fireflies is another popular tool, and it’s much more approachable in price than many of the other options in the list. The application is really easy to use, and it comes as more of an all-rounder versus specializing in a specific thing. They do have multilingual support as well, but many people like it because it is fairly reasonable in the budget but also comes as a good, reliable experience.

Pros

• Easy to use

• Very good price and free credit options

• Works with lots of integrations and plans to build deeper with Perplexity AI

Cons

• Not the most attractive compared to Granola

Fireflies vs Granola

• Lacks the Granola "take your own notes" feature for meetings.

• More powerful integrations and offerings.

3. Notion "Meet"

Best for Notion Users

Notion have an AI feature more recently added that allows you to take AI notes. This is perfect because you can use the slash command /meet in your meeting, and it will start to use the system audio to record. The benefit to this is that you can get participants to agree to consent in a meeting without having to do any specific thing, which is perfect. And if you use Notion, it’s already built in, which is going to be a huge time-saver. Just make sure to update it.

If you already use Notion, Notion Calendar, and those other aspects of the Notion AI platform, then it’s actually going to be a good investment for you because you won’t need to make huge movements or software downloads - as the system audio records it, very much like what you see in Granola AI.

Pros

• Easy to use and built into the Notion workspace - just type /meet.

• Designed for taking your notes like Granola AI.

• Looks and works well for all platforms (for calls).

Notion Meet vs Granola

• If you use Notion AI or Notion paid plans, this might save you on an additional subscription

• Notion Meet allows you to capture from any app and write your own notes too.

• Collect authentication from the end user for permission, perfect for verbal verification.

4. TL:DV

Best for Sales Individuals

TLDV is another one that is more popular for sales teams.

But if you’re somebody that likes the clean interface and easy-to-use layout, then TLDV goes a lot further than Granola, because you can analyze the call a lot more in detail. So, for example, you can get exactly the speaker insights, and there are more sales-orientated features, like being able to assign stuff to other people and collaborate on sales actions that could have been done better, which a lot of people might like. TL;DV also works in over 30 languages and works with all providers, but joins meetings as a bot.

Pros

• Lots of great sales-focused features like intelligence and speaker breakdowns.

• Lacks the ability to take your own notes as you do a call.

• Works well for medium to large marketing/sales teams but also as an individual tool.

5. Otter AI

Best for Accurate Transcription

Otter Notes is a good example of an all-round meeting transcription tool.

A lot of people like this one if they’re looking for a more basic all-round solution. It also has a sales-based platform built into it. But to be honest, it specializes in transcription technologies and has been in the market for many years before. So the accuracy of the transcription is much better - not necessarily relying on notes to support it to get a more accurate thing, as what Granola AI were doing beforehand.

So all in all, these recommendations are most suited to Granola AI.

Granola AI built something very compelling with their offline abilities, and many people found that helpful, but were restricted by the Mac and iOS-focused applications.

Here are some additional Granola AI alternatives to consider exploring: