Comparison
Granola proved you don't need a meeting bot to get great notes — echo99 agrees. The difference is what happens to your audio afterwards: Granola sends it to cloud transcription providers, echo99 never lets it leave your Mac.
Granola is an AI notepad for meetings: it captures your Mac’s audio without joining the call (the same botless approach echo99 uses), sends the audio to cloud transcription providers (Deepgram, AssemblyAI) in real time, and uses cloud AI (OpenAI, Anthropic) to blend your typed notes into polished, template-driven summaries. It is a genuinely well-made product — if AI note quality is your first priority and cloud processing is acceptable, Granola is the bar.
| echo99 | Granola | |
|---|---|---|
| How it records | Captures your mic and your Mac's audio output locally — no bot | Same botless approach: captures meeting audio on-device — no bot |
| Transcription | On-device; audio never leaves your Mac; works offline | Cloud transcription in real time — audio sent to Deepgram / AssemblyAI while the meeting runs |
| AI notes | On-device notes from the transcript (in development) | Its core strength: polished LLM notes, templates, typed-note blending — processed by OpenAI / Anthropic in the cloud |
| Raw audio | Keeps mic.wav + system.wav as separate tracks you own | Audio is not retained after transcription — only the transcript and your notes are stored |
| Speaker labels | Me + Them-1, Them-2, … with timestamps | Speaker identification not yet available on desktop; no per-speaker timestamps |
| Account | None | Account required |
| Price | Free | Free Basic plan with limited meeting history; Business from $14/user/month |
| Platform | macOS 14.4+ | macOS, Windows, and iOS |
| Sharing & integrations | Plain local files — share them however you already share files | Built-in sharing, templates, and integrations with Notion, Slack, HubSpot, and more |
Comparison last verified July 2026 — check both products for current details.
You want the best-polished AI meeting notes with zero effort, you work across macOS, Windows, or iOS, and cloud processing of your meeting audio is acceptable under your confidentiality obligations. Granola’s note quality and workflow polish are ahead.
Your calls must not be processed by anyone’s cloud; you want the actual recordings — clean, separate WAV tracks — not just notes about them; you want speaker-labeled transcripts that work offline; or you’d outgrow a limited-history free tier without wanting another subscription — echo99 is free, full stop.
Compare echo99 with other tools: Otter alternative, Fathom alternative, tl;dv alternative
Free download. No account. Recording and transcription stay on your Mac.
Free · macOS 14.4+ · Notarized by Apple