{
    "title": "Granola Alternatives 2027: 11 Paid, Free & Open-Source",
    "url": "https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/granola-ai/",
    "summary": "The best Granola alternatives in 2027 are Otter.ai (best overall, $8.33/user/mo billed yearly), Fathom (best free plan: Unlimited recordings, free forever) and Meetily (best open source, MIT). Granola itself starts at $14/user/mo. Zekai checked these prices on vendor pages on 13 Nov 2026; 8 more are compared below, including 5 with a free plan and 2 open source.",
    "tool": {
        "name": "Granola",
        "starting_price": "$14/user/mo",
        "free_plan": "30 days of note history, Slack integration only, Auto chat model",
        "price_checked": "2026-11-13",
        "pricing_url": "https://www.granola.ai/pricing"
    },
    "task": "AI meeting notes",
    "prices_checked": "2026-11-13",
    "date_modified": "2026-11-13",
    "alternatives": [
        {
            "name": "Otter.ai",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$8.33/user/mo billed yearly",
            "free_plan_limit": "300 transcription minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation",
            "best_for": "Live transcripts for individuals and teams",
            "difference": "Otter Pro lists 1,200 transcription minutes a month and 90-minute meetings, and its assistant joins Zoom, Teams and Google Meet; Granola lists no daily transcription limit and captures device audio instead.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-13",
            "pricing_url": "https://otter.ai/pricing",
            "website": "https://otter.ai/",
            "zekai_score": 8.6,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/otter-ai/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Fireflies.ai",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$10/user/mo billed yearly",
            "free_plan_limit": "Unlimited transcription, 400 minutes storage per team, 20 AI credits",
            "best_for": "Meeting bot across many calling apps",
            "difference": "Fireflies Pro includes 8,000 minutes of storage per seat and video recording, and its Free plan lists API access and a Chrome extension, which Granola holds back from Basic.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-13",
            "pricing_url": "https://fireflies.ai/pricing",
            "website": "https://fireflies.ai/",
            "zekai_score": 9.3,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/fireflies/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Fathom",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$16/user/mo billed yearly",
            "free_plan_limit": "Unlimited recordings and transcriptions, instant AI summaries",
            "best_for": "Free unlimited call recording and summaries",
            "difference": "Fathom's free plan lists unlimited recordings and transcriptions, with a bot-free capture mode in beta for Mac; Granola's free Basic plan limits note history to the last 30 days.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-13",
            "pricing_url": "https://www.fathom.ai/pricing",
            "website": "https://fathom.ai/",
            "zekai_score": 8.8,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/fathom/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Read AI",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$15/user/mo billed yearly",
            "free_plan_limit": "5 meeting transcripts a month, 1-hour meetings",
            "best_for": "Meeting reports with coaching and search",
            "difference": "Read AI's Free plan allows 5 meeting transcripts a month and 1-hour meetings, while its Pro plan adds a 4-hour limit, unlimited transcripts and Notion, Salesforce, HubSpot and Jira integrations.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-13",
            "pricing_url": "https://www.read.ai/pricing",
            "website": "https://www.read.ai/",
            "zekai_score": 8.2,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/read-ai/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Krisp",
            "type": "Paid",
            "starting_price": "$8/user/mo billed yearly",
            "free_plan_limit": "No free plan",
            "best_for": "Meeting notes plus noise cancellation",
            "difference": "Krisp Core lists unlimited noise cancellation, an AI note-taker, 10 GB storage and one hour a day of accent conversion, none of which appear in Granola's plan table.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-13",
            "pricing_url": "https://krisp.ai/pricing",
            "website": "https://krisp.ai/",
            "zekai_score": 8.6,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/krisp/"
        },
        {
            "name": "MeetGeek",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$9.99/user/mo billed yearly",
            "free_plan_limit": "3 hours of transcription a month, 3 months transcript storage",
            "best_for": "Meeting analytics with bot or bot-free capture",
            "difference": "MeetGeek Pro lists 20 hours of transcription a month and one year of transcript storage, with extra hours at $0.50, and offers both bot and bot-free recording plus Zapier, Make and n8n.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-13",
            "pricing_url": "https://meetgeek.ai/pricing",
            "website": "https://meetgeek.ai/",
            "zekai_score": 7.5,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/meetgeek/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Tactiq",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$8/user/mo billed yearly",
            "free_plan_limit": "10 transcripts a month, 5 AI credits a month",
            "best_for": "Browser transcripts for Meet, Zoom, Teams",
            "difference": "Tactiq works as a Chrome extension for Google Meet, Zoom and Teams; Pro gives unlimited transcripts with 10 AI credits a month, against Granola's desktop, iOS, Android and Apple Watch apps.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-13",
            "pricing_url": "https://tactiq.io/pricing",
            "website": "https://tactiq.io/",
            "zekai_score": 7.9,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/tactiq/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Jamie",
            "type": "Free plan + paid",
            "starting_price": "$24/mo",
            "free_plan_limit": "10 AI notes a month, 30-minute meetings",
            "best_for": "Notes for in-person and online meetings",
            "difference": "Jamie lists in-person meeting support, notes in 99+ languages and a 5-hour meeting limit on Pro; its Free plan caps AI notes at 10 a month and meetings at 30 minutes.",
            "price_checked": "2026-11-13",
            "pricing_url": "https://www.meetjamie.ai/pricing",
            "website": "https://www.meetjamie.ai/",
            "zekai_score": 7.8,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/jamie/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Meetily",
            "type": "Open source",
            "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)",
            "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)",
            "licence": "MIT",
            "best_for": "Local Whisper transcription with Ollama summaries",
            "difference": "Meetily is MIT-licensed and transcribes locally with Whisper or Parakeet, using Ollama or a cloud LLM for summaries; Granola is closed-source and routes AI through third-party model providers.",
            "repository": "https://github.com/Zackriya-Solutions/meetily",
            "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/meetily/",
            "last_release": "2026-09-12",
            "zekai_score": 8.4,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/meetily/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Muesli",
            "type": "Open source",
            "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)",
            "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)",
            "licence": "MIT",
            "best_for": "Bot-free local notes on Apple Silicon Macs",
            "difference": "Muesli runs only on Apple Silicon Macs (macOS 14.2 or later) and downloads on-device speech models of about 153 MB to 3.8 GB; Granola also ships Windows, iOS and Android apps.",
            "repository": "https://github.com/Muesli-HQ/muesli",
            "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/muesli/",
            "last_release": "2026-11-08",
            "zekai_score": 6.8,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/muesli/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Vexa",
            "type": "Open source",
            "starting_price": "Free (self-hosted)",
            "free_plan_limit": "No limit (self-hosted)",
            "licence": "Apache-2.0",
            "best_for": "Self-hosted meeting bots with transcript API",
            "difference": "Vexa is Apache-2.0 and bot-based: a bot joins Google Meet, Teams or Zoom and streams transcripts through an API you host, whereas Granola captures device audio with no bot.",
            "repository": "https://github.com/Vexa-ai/vexa",
            "zekai_open_source_page": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/vexa/",
            "last_release": "2026-10-09",
            "zekai_score": 7.8,
            "zekai_review": "https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/vexa/"
        }
    ],
    "faq": [
        {
            "q": "What is the best alternative to Granola in 2027?",
            "a": "Otter.ai is the best overall Granola alternative on this page ($8.33/user/mo billed yearly). For no cost, Fathom has a free plan (Unlimited recordings and transcriptions, instant AI summaries). To self-host, Meetily is open source (MIT)."
        },
        {
            "q": "Is there a free version of Granola?",
            "a": "Yes. Granola has a free plan: 30 days of note history, Slack integration only, Auto chat model. Paid plans start at $14/user/mo, checked on 13 Nov 2026."
        },
        {
            "q": "Is there a 100% free alternative to Granola?",
            "a": "Yes. Meetily, Muesli, Vexa are open source and free to self-host. Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Fathom, Read AI, MeetGeek, Tactiq, Jamie have a free plan with limits, shown in the table."
        },
        {
            "q": "What is cheaper than Granola?",
            "a": "Tactiq starts at $8/user/mo billed yearly, against $14/user/mo for Granola, as listed on each vendor's pricing page on 13 Nov 2026."
        },
        {
            "q": "How much do Granola alternatives cost for a team of 5?",
            "a": "If each of 5 people buys the entry paid plan, at the prices Zekai checked on 13 Nov 2026, the monthly cost is Krisp $40/mo, Tactiq $40/mo, Otter.ai $41.65/mo, against Granola $70/mo for Granola. Team and business plans can cost more per seat. The Zekai Cost Finder on this page recalculates for any team size."
        },
        {
            "q": "Which is better, Otter.ai or Granola?",
            "a": "Otter Pro lists 1,200 transcription minutes a month and 90-minute meetings, and its assistant joins Zoom, Teams and Google Meet; Granola lists no daily transcription limit and captures device audio instead. Choose Otter.ai if you want live captions inside Zoom or Meet and a lower yearly seat price than $14 monthly. Stay with Granola if you want device-audio capture with no bot joining client calls and no per-conversation time cap."
        },
        {
            "q": "Why are people leaving Granola?",
            "a": "The documented reasons are: Granola's free Basic plan shows only a rolling 30-day window of notes; older notes are stored but stay hidden until you upgrade, and Basic excludes Notion, Zapier and HubSpot integrations (20 Mar 2026); Business is billed monthly only at $14 per user; the Granola help centre says annual billing is available only on Enterprise contracts, which start at $35 per user (13 Nov 2026). Each is sourced in the section above."
        },
        {
            "q": "What is the best Granola alternative?",
            "a": "It depends on the need: Fathom for a free unlimited-recording plan, Otter.ai for live transcripts, and Meetily or Muesli for free local open-source notes."
        }
    ],
    "publisher": "Zekai (zekaiwork.com) — independently reviewed; prices read on vendor pages on the dates shown.",
    "licence": "Free to quote with a link to https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/granola-ai/. Bulk copying or republishing the dataset is not permitted."
}