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Best Granola Alternatives

Written by Camin McCluskey

Co-Founder & CTO

Edited by Steph Leung

Product & Operations Lead

Updated onMar 14, 2025
Granola has emerged as a notable player in the meeting productivity space, offering AI-powered meeting summaries and action item tracking to help teams stay organized. However, several alternatives provide specialized features that might better suit specific use cases. Supernormal stands out for reviewing recorded meetings with comprehensive playback capabilities and superior search functionality, while Bluedot excels in searching through past meetings with its robust organization and keyword search features. For teams needing to analyze trends across multiple meetings, Otter.ai delivers powerful cross-meeting analysis and AI chat functionality that draws insights from various sources. Meanwhile, Fireflies.ai offers exceptional mobile recording capabilities for in-person meetings, something Granola currently lacks. This comparison explores how these alternatives might better serve your specific meeting management needs in 2025.

Best alternatives to Granola

For reviewing recorded meetings:

Supernormal product logo

Supernormal

Stackfix Rating:

6.4 / 10

Supernormal excels over Granola for reviewing recorded meetings with its comprehensive playback capabilities and superior search functionality. While Granola lacks audio/video recording and playback features, Supernormal offers full meeting recordings with adjustable playback speeds (1x to 2x) and the ability to share specific meeting clips. Its search system features contextual keyword highlighting and efficient filters by attendee, email domain, and date, whereas Granola’s search functionality often fails to find meetings. Additionally, Supernormal’s AI assistant accurately retrieves meeting information and maintains threaded conversations, exceeding Granola’s limited AI assistant that can only analyze one meeting at a time.

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For searching through past meetings:

Bluedot product logo

Bluedot

Stackfix Rating:

6.5 / 10

Bluedot’s search capabilities for past meetings are superior to Granola’s. Granola’s search function often fails to find meetings when searching by note, person, or email, while Bluedot offers comprehensive search features. Users can easily locate specific information through keyword searches within individual meetings and across their entire meeting library, with results displaying helpful context like timestamps and clickable links to relevant sections. Additionally, Bluedot allows users to organize meetings into folders and set up automatic categorization based on keywords, making it easier to locate and review past conversations.

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For analyzing trends across multiple meetings:

Otter.ai product logo

Otter.ai

Stackfix Rating:

6.0 / 10

Otter.ai is a powerful choice for analyzing trends across multiple meetings, primarily due to its robust AI chat functionality and cross-meeting analysis capabilities. While Granola’s AI assistant can only analyze single meetings at a time, Otter.ai’s AI chat provides comprehensive, nuanced answers by drawing insights from multiple relevant meetings, even citing specific sources for each point. Additionally, Otter.ai offers dedicated features for cross-meeting theme analysis and advanced search functionality with speaker and date range filters, making it more effective for identifying patterns and tracking discussions over time.

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For recording in-person meetings:

Fireflies.ai product logo

Fireflies.ai

Stackfix Rating:

6.9 / 10

Fireflies.ai is a strong option for recording in-person meetings with its dedicated mobile app, which delivers one-click transcription and comprehensive meeting documentation. Unlike Granola, which lacks mobile recording capabilities, Fireflies.ai enables users to capture audio, generate accurate transcripts, and create AI-enhanced meeting notes directly from their phones. The mobile app maintains the same high-quality transcription accuracy as the desktop version. Additionally, Fireflies.ai automatically syncs mobile recordings with its web platform, allowing teams to easily organize, search, and share meeting content across devices.

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CM

Meet your expert: Camin McCluskey

Stackfix Co-Founder & CTO

Having worked as a software engineer and CTO in enterprise and startup environments, I've been on both sides of the software buying journey. I'm excited to help you find the right software for your business, as well as supporting our partners to communicate what makes their software unique.

Granola logo

Granola

Supernormal logo

Supernormal

Bluedot logo

Bluedot

Otter.ai logo

Otter.ai

Fireflies.ai logo

Fireflies.ai

Our rating
Functionality
6

Functionality

6/10

<p>Granola is a very simple AI notetaker that doesn't offer much beyond transcribing and summarizing meetings. But the fact that it doesn't join your calls is a 'feature' that we - and many users - highly value.</p>
5

Functionality

5/10

<p>Mostly offers core AI notetaking functionality: recording and transcribing meetings, uploading your own audio/video files for transcripts, but lacks a mobile app. It can't record without a meeting bot, lacks analytics, and its custom agents are still in early stages of development.</p>
6

Functionality

6/10

<p>Offers all the key functionality of a good AI notetaker: recording audio and video, generating AI insights, interacting with an AI assistant, creating automated action items + emails, sharing meeting transcripts and notes etc. - all done with a good level of accuracy.</p>
6

Functionality

6/10

<p>Mostly only offers core AI notetaking functionality. Can record, transcribe meetings, has a mobile app, can upload your own audio/ video files for transcript. But can't record without a meeting bot, lacks analytics, lacks more customisability for meeting notes &amp; other advanced AI functionality. AI chat functionality is surprisingly strong and accurate.</p>
8

Functionality

8/10

<p>Offers the standard AI notetaking functionality - including recording on mobile app, global search &amp; AI chat across meetings. Meeting notes and transcripts are generally of high quality. Also has some additional functionality, such as conversation intelligence (analyse talk time distribution). However, the Chrome Extension that allowed users to record without a meeting bot is no longer available.</p>
Ease of Use
9

Ease of Use

9/10

<p>Granola was incredibly easy to set up. We loved the handy pop-up that appears when joining calls. No bots join the call—just press "Take Notes" and it handles the rest.</p>
7

Ease of Use

7/10

<p>Key workflows, like recording meetings and inviting the bot, are intuitive and straightforward, with the Chrome extension providing added convenience. However, the "Invite" buttons in the web app can be confusing at first—one is for inviting the bot to meetings, and the other is for inviting users to the app.</p>
7

Ease of Use

7/10

<p>Getting started on Google Meet with the Chrome extension is quick and straightforward—simply click the blue dot and select "Start Recording" to begin. For other platforms, recordings must be started manually, as the tool doesn’t automatically detect new meetings. The web app itself is very intuitive and easy to use.</p>
7

Ease of Use

7/10

<p>Key workflows such as recording meetings, inviting the bot to meetings is generally intuitive and straightforward. You can see action items assigned to you at a glance. There are some unmarked elements / icons over the web app which will take a bit of getting used to. Some flows, such as organising meeting notes, aren't as user-friendly as they can be.</p>
7

Ease of Use

7/10

<p>Key workflows such as recording meetings, inviting the bot to meetings is generally intuitive and straightforward. Especially on the paid tier, where you can see at a glance all the action items from your meetings. There are some unmarked elements / icons over the web app which will take a bit of getting used to. The UX of beta AI features is also underwhelming e.g When searching across meetings, you're only able to ask AI assistant question one-by-one, instead of asking follow up questions.</p>
Look and feel
9

Look and feel

9/10

<p>Granola's minimalist aesthetic is visually appealing, and it has a lightning fast load time.</p>
5

Look and feel

5/10

<p>The design is clean and modern but simple, with a functional layout—nothing spectacular. Page load times are decent (2-3 seconds). There were occasional error pages, and the AI agents were temporarily down during testing, but since they were in BETA, it's understandable. Trying to open information on their website help pages sometimes annoyingly redirects you to the web app if you're signed in.</p>
7

Look and feel

7/10

<p>The design is clean, modern, intuitive, and without unnecessary features. Meeting views are well-organised: the page is split in half, with the video player and notes on one side, and the transcript, insights, and AI chat on the other.</p>
6

Look and feel

6/10

<p>Modern, clean and visually acceptable. Functional design, nothing spectacular. Page loads are acceptable (2-3 seconds).</p>
5

Look and feel

5/10

<p>Modern and visually acceptable. But the amount of AI features/ Ask Fred that appear upon hover can be quite distracting. Page loads can be slow (3-5 seconds) when clicking into meeting notes, waiting for AI response takes up to 10 seconds, but that's to be expected.</p>
Customisability
5

Customisability

5/10

<p>Meeting notes are fully editable, with nearly 30 templates to choose from—or you can create your own. Granola does a solid job of understanding the meeting content and automatically tailoring the summary with its “Auto” template.</p>
8

Customisability

8/10

<p>For summary notes: You can customise your summary template and arrange sections in any order. You can also create your own summary types, eliminating the need to ask the AI assistant the same questions each time.</p><p><br></p><p>For custom agents: Customise the agent’s name, theme, and the questions it will ask during the interview.</p>
6

Customisability

6/10

<p>Includes a range of predefined meeting note templates, such as sales notes, key takeaways, and screening interviews. Alternatively, you can create custom templates with your own sections. Trackers can be set up to automatically group meetings containing specific keywords.</p>
4

Customisability

4/10

<p>You can freely edit transcripts and most of the meeting notes. Annoyingly, you're unable to edit meeting summary - there's only an option to regenerate it. You're also unable to customise sections of meeting notes or bring your custom templates.</p>
6

Customisability

6/10

<p>You can freely edit meeting notes and transcripts, and organise your meeting notes into channels. However, the only major let down is you're unable to set up custom meeting note templates. Though you are able choose from a large selection of templates.</p>
Ease of Setup
8

Ease of Setup

8/10

<p>Self-serve, no sales calls. Provides nearly 30 editable note templates with guided input boxes for customization. Basic setup takes&nbsp;10-15 minutes. No advanced workflows supported, no Zapier templates or native builder.</p>
8

Ease of Setup

8/10

<p>Self-serve, no sales calls. Provides note templates and guided input boxes for creating custom ones. Basic setup takes&nbsp;10-15 minutes. Advanced workflows takes&nbsp;30-40 minutes&nbsp;due to a rich library of Zapier templates. Comes with some predefined agents for interviewing and setting up new agents takes 10-15 minutes.</p>
7

Ease of Setup

7/10

<p>Self-serve, no sales calls. Few note templates with guided input boxes for creation. Basic setup takes&nbsp;10-15 minutes. Automations like auto-sorting are easy to set up, however, there isn't a rich library of predefined Zapier templates. Requires Chrome extension.</p>
8

Ease of Setup

8/10

<p>Self-serve, no sales calls. No note templates. Basic setup takes&nbsp;10-15 minutes. No advanced workflows supported, no Zapier templates or native builder.</p>
8

Ease of Setup

8/10

<p>Self-serve, no sales calls. Over 70 editable note templates with guided creation. Basic setup takes&nbsp;10-15 minutes. Advanced workflows are seamless with native integrations and a rich library of Zapier templates, taking&nbsp;just 30-40 minutes.</p>
Customer Support
5

Customer Support

5/10

<p>They currently have limited support available. Their help page is built on Notion, and you can contact them via email for inquiries.</p>
6

Customer Support

6/10

<p>An AI-powered chatbot with the option to message support. Typically, a real person replies within a few hours, but it can take up to 48 hours in some cases.</p>
5

Customer Support

5/10

<p>You can send messages via chat, typical response time is within 24 hours.</p>
4

Customer Support

4/10

<p>Otter has an AI chatbot on their site. However, you'll have to submit a ticket to get in touch with support. When testing on the free tier, we found ourselves hanging for several days without a reply.</p>
6

Customer Support

6/10

<p>Help centre was of decent quality and depth, offering step by step instructions. Offers personalised live chat with an AI chatbot. It was relatively quick to be connected with a human agent (within minutes), however, the help we were offered wasn't the most helpful, with irrelevant help centre articles provided.</p>
Integratability
2

Integratability

2/10

<p>Natively integrates with Slack, HubSpot, and Affinity, but its major drawback is the lack of a Zapier integration. While many AI notetakers compensate for limited native integrations with Zapier, Granola doesn't, leaving fewer options for connecting with other tools. In most cases, you're left with emailing, copying notes, or posting them to Slack.</p>
6

Integratability

6/10

<p>Supernormal offers useful integrations with a wide range of 3rd party tools e.g. Slack, Google Docs, Salesforce, Pipedrive. It has integrations with project management tools like ClickUp and Linear, lacks integrations with applicant tracking systems and doesn't have an API for custom integrations.</p>
6

Integratability

6/10

<p>Some major integrations are included, such as Slack, HubSpot, and Notion.</p>
3

Integratability

3/10

<p>Otter.ai only offers a handful of integrations with the most popular 3rd party tools e.g. Slack, Google Docs, Salesforce, Pipedrive. It lacks any integrations with project management tools or applicant tracking system, It also lacks an API for custom integrations.</p>
8

Integratability

8/10

<p>Offers good integrations with most reasonably relevant third party tools e.g. CRM, project management tool, applicant tracking systems which allows you to automatically push meeting notes and action items into those systems. Also offers an API for custom integrations.</p>
Ease of Migration
6

Ease of Migration

6/10

<p>Easily export transcripts and meeting notes with a single click via link, email, or Slack.</p>
8

Ease of Migration

8/10

<p>You can easily download transcripts, meeting summaries, and share recordings.</p>
7

Ease of Migration

7/10

<p>Audio and video recordings can be shared via a link, with the option to start playback from a specific timestamp. Creating and sharing clips is simple: just highlight text in the transcript and select "Clip".</p>
8

Ease of Migration

8/10

<p>You're able to download transcript, meeting summaries and audio in various formats. For transcripts, you can also include timestamp and speaker names.</p>
8

Ease of Migration

8/10

<p>You're able to download transcript, meeting summaries and audio in various formats. For transcripts, you can also include timestamp and speaker names.</p>

Supernormal : Granola alternative for reviewing recorded meetings

Supernormal product logo
Supernormal

Stackfix Rating:

6.4 / 10

Visit website

Starting at

$0

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Updated onMar 14, 2025
Supernormal excels over Granola for reviewing recorded meetings with its comprehensive playback capabilities and superior search functionality. While Granola lacks audio/video recording and playback features, Supernormal offers full meeting recordings with adjustable playback speeds (1x to 2x) and the ability to share specific meeting clips. Its search system features contextual keyword highlighting and efficient filters by attendee, email domain, and date, whereas Granola’s search functionality often fails to find meetings. Additionally, Supernormal’s AI assistant accurately retrieves meeting information and maintains threaded conversations, exceeding Granola’s limited AI assistant that can only analyze one meeting at a time.

Want to know more? See a detailed comparison of Granola vs. Supernormal .

Pros

  • Highly Customizable Summary Templates

  • Versatile AI Assistant Capabilities

  • Strong Export Functionality

Cons

  • Can't Record Without a Meeting Bot

  • Mediocre User Interface

  • Weak Search and Analytics Capabilities

  • Transcripts can't be Edited

Compare all AI notetakersRead the full review

Bluedot: Granola alternative for searching through past meetings

Bluedot product logo
Bluedot

Stackfix Rating:

6.5 / 10

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Starting at

$0

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Updated onMar 14, 2025
Bluedot’s search capabilities for past meetings are superior to Granola’s. Granola’s search function often fails to find meetings when searching by note, person, or email, while Bluedot offers comprehensive search features. Users can easily locate specific information through keyword searches within individual meetings and across their entire meeting library, with results displaying helpful context like timestamps and clickable links to relevant sections. Additionally, Bluedot allows users to organize meetings into folders and set up automatic categorization based on keywords, making it easier to locate and review past conversations.

Want to know more? See a detailed comparison of Granola vs. Bluedot.

Pros

  • Excellent AI Assistant

  • Detailed Engagement Analytics

Cons

  • Extremely Limited Free Tier

  • Limited Platform Integration

  • Basic Customer Support

  • Limited Search Functionality

  • No Cross-Meeting AI Analysis

Compare all AI notetakersRead the full review

Fireflies.ai: Granola alternative for recording in-person meetings

Fireflies.ai product logo
Fireflies.ai

Stackfix Rating:

6.9 / 10

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Starting at

$0

Calculate your price
Updated onMar 14, 2025
Fireflies.ai is a strong option for recording in-person meetings with its dedicated mobile app, which delivers one-click transcription and comprehensive meeting documentation. Unlike Granola, which lacks mobile recording capabilities, Fireflies.ai enables users to capture audio, generate accurate transcripts, and create AI-enhanced meeting notes directly from their phones. The mobile app maintains the same high-quality transcription accuracy as the desktop version. Additionally, Fireflies.ai automatically syncs mobile recordings with its web platform, allowing teams to easily organize, search, and share meeting content across devices.

Want to know more? See a detailed comparison of Granola vs. Fireflies.ai.

Pros

  • Exceptional AI Meeting Notes Generation

  • Highly Accurate Transcription

  • Effective In-Meeting Search

  • Comprehensive Integration Ecosystem

  • Strong Export Functionality

Cons

  • Poor Visual Design

  • Underpowered AI Assistant

  • No Custom Templates

Compare all AI notetakersRead the full review

How we test products

With AI Notetaking tools becoming increasingly essential for businesses, we focus on identifying the best options for small and midsize teams. Our evaluation process reflects real-world usage, prioritizing functionality, ease of use, and overall value. Here’s how we do it:

Functionality

AI Notetaking software should do more than just transcribe—it should capture key insights, summarize discussions, and enhance productivity. We start by identifying key use cases—meeting transcription, summarization, action item extraction, and collaboration—then test how well each platform delivers on these needs. Tools that provide high accuracy and useful summaries without unnecessary complexity score highest.

User Experience & Onboarding

A great AI Notetaking tool should be intuitive and frictionless. We test each platform’s interface by navigating core features without prior training and track onboarding time—from account setup to first meeting capture. Platforms that require extensive setup or manual adjustments lose points.

Accuracy & AI Capabilities

AI-powered transcription and summarization must be reliable. We evaluate speech-to-text accuracy, language understanding, and summarization quality. We also test whether AI-generated action items and key takeaways are actually useful or just generic outputs.

Integrations & Compatibility

AI Notetaking tools should work seamlessly with video conferencing platforms, project management software, and CRMs. We test how well each tool integrates with essential business systems and assess whether native integrations or third-party connectors are required.

Pricing & Value

We compare pricing across competitors, analyzing what each plan includes and whether critical features are locked behind paywalls. Hidden costs—such as per-minute transcription fees, premium AI features, or required enterprise plans—are factored into our assessment. Platforms that offer strong core functionality at a fair price score highest.

Stackfix’s Fit Score

All of these factors contribute to Stackfix’s Fit Score, a proprietary ranking system that measures how well each AI Notetaking tool aligns with a buyer’s needs. It combines two key elements:

  • Requirements Met – How many buyer requirements the software fulfills
  • Stackfix Rating – Our expert assessment of the software’s overall quality, usability, and value

The result? A clear, data-driven recommendation that helps businesses choose the right AI Notetaking software—without hours of trial and error.

FAQs

What is an AI Notetaker?

An AI notetaker is a tool that automatically transcribes, summarizes, and organizes meeting notes, helping individuals and teams capture key insights without manual effort. These platforms use AI-powered speech recognition and natural language processing (NLP) to turn conversations into structured, searchable notes—making it easier to recall action items, decisions, and important discussions. The key features of an AI notetaker usually include:

  • Real-Time Transcription: AI-powered tools that capture and transcribe meetings in real time, ensuring accuracy across different accents, languages, and speaking styles.
  • Summarization & Action Items: AI-generated meeting summaries, key takeaways, and action items to help users quickly digest discussions without reviewing full transcripts.
  • Speaker Identification: Ability to differentiate speakers and attribute statements correctly, making transcripts more readable and actionable.
  • Collaboration & Sharing: Easy sharing of meeting notes, highlights, and recordings with team members via integrations with email, Slack, or project management tools.
  • Search & Organization: AI-powered keyword detection, tagging, and smart search to help users quickly find relevant past discussions and decisions.

What should I consider when buying an AI notetaker?

Choosing the right AI notetaker can transform how you capture, organize, and act on information—so it’s essential to find one that fits your workflow, integrations, and budget. Here are the key factors to consider before making your decision.

  1. Your Use Case. Start by identifying how you’ll use the AI notetaker. Do you need a tool for team meetings, customer calls, brainstorming sessions, or legal/compliance documentation? Different platforms specialize in different areas, so choosing one tailored to your needs ensures better accuracy and relevant features.
  2. Ease of Use. An AI notetaker should simplify workflows, not add complexity. Look for a tool that’s easy to set up, requires minimal training, and integrates smoothly with your existing tools. Platforms that require manual corrections or frequent troubleshooting will slow you down.
  3. Integration with Your Workflow. Your AI notetaker should fit seamlessly into your workflow. If you use Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Slack, or Notion, check whether the tool offers native integrations or requires manual workarounds. A good AI notetaker should automatically sync notes with project management, CRM, or documentation tools.
  4. Summarization & AI Quality. Not all AI-generated summaries are equal. Some tools produce concise, high-quality summaries, while others generate long, unstructured text that still requires manual editing. Test how well the AI captures key points, assigns action items, and differentiates between general discussion and critical decisions.
  5. Scalability & Collaboration. If you’re using an AI notetaker for a growing team, ensure it supports multiple users, shared workspaces, and role-based permissions. The best tools allow for collaborative editing, team comments, and centralized access to past notes.
  6. Pricing & Hidden Costs. AI notetaker pricing varies based on transcription limits, team seats, storage, and premium AI features. Check for hidden costs, such as:
  7. Limits on meeting hours per month
  8. Extra fees for advanced AI-generated summaries
  9. Costs for exporting transcripts or integrating with premium tools
  10. Storage limits and add-ons for long-term transcript access
  11. Customer Support & Reliability. Since AI notetakers handle critical business meetings, fast and reliable support is important. Check if the vendor offers 24/7 chat support, email response times, and self-service knowledge bases. A downtime-prone or buggy AI tool can result in lost notes and frustration.

What are the common mistakes to avoid when choosing an AI notetaker?

Avoiding common pitfalls when selecting an AI notetaker can save you time, frustration, and missed insights. Here are some of the biggest mistakes teams make - and how to avoid them.

  1. Prioritizing price over accuracy. A cheap AI notetaker with poor transcription quality will cost you more time in manual corrections than a premium tool with high accuracy.
  2. Assuming all integrations work flawlessly. Some tools claim to integrate with Zoom, Slack, or CRMs, but may require manual exports or unreliable third-party connectors. Always test integrations.
  3. Overlooking search functionality. If you plan to reference old meeting notes, look for a tool with advanced search, keyword tagging, and filters. Poor search capabilities make finding past discussions difficult.
  4. Ignoring privacy & security. AI notetakers handle sensitive business conversations, so check data encryption, compliance certifications (GDPR, SOC 2), and storage policies.
  5. Choosing a tool that doesn’t scale. A notetaker that works well for a solo user may not support team-wide collaboration, shared notes, or enterprise compliance features.


How much does AI Notetaking Software typically cost?

Most AI notetaker solutions range from $10-75 per user monthly, with entry-level options starting around $10-20 and premium solutions exceeding $75 monthly. Most vendors structure pricing in tiers based on features and meeting volume, so be sure to enter your requirements as accurately as possible in our pricing calculator.

Many providers offer free plans with core functionality for personal use and very small teams but restrict meeting length (typically 15-30 minutes), transcription hours (2-5 hours monthly), or available features. Otter, Fireflies, and Notion AI all provide capable free tiers that can handle basic note-taking needs without cost. For personal users who only need occasional meeting notes, these free tiers are often sufficient.

The free tier trend is particularly strong in this market, with most major players offering a no-cost entry point to attract individual users who may later upgrade or bring the tool into their workplace. While these free versions typically limit advanced features like custom AI analysis, speaker identification, or integration capabilities, they provide enough functionality for personal productivity.

For enterprise plans and above, you can expect to speak to sales for a bespoke price. These custom quotes typically factor in integration needs, security requirements, and user volume discounts. To skip the demo calls, be sure to check out our pricing calculator.

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