A Granola alternative that keeps your recordings and learns voices

Why people look for a Granola alternative

Granola has a loyal following, and for good reason. People who search for an alternative usually love the idea (no bot, notes that write themselves) but have a specific gap:

• They want the audio. Granola says it does not save audio on Mac or Windows. That is a privacy plus for many, but it means you cannot go back and listen to exactly how something was said.
• They want transcription off the cloud. Granola's help center says audio goes to a transcription provider. Some people want speech recognition to happen on their own machine.
• They want to know who said what. People who meet the same colleagues and clients every week want those voices named automatically, meeting after meeting.
• The free plan's 30-day history. As of October 2026, Granola's free Basic plan keeps 30 days of meeting history. Older meetings need the paid plan.
• Linux. Granola does not list a Linux app.

Granola in brief: a fair summary

Granola is an AI notepad for meetings. You jot rough notes during a call while Granola transcribes in the background using your computer's audio, with no bot joining. Afterwards, it enhances your notes with what was said, and can prepare a brief before a meeting and suggest follow-ups after it. It runs on Mac and Windows, with iPhone and Android apps for in-person meetings.

It is genuinely pleasant to use. The "your notes, made better" model keeps you engaged in the meeting, it supports multiple languages, and paid plans connect to tools like Notion, HubSpot and Zapier. If those are what you value, Granola is hard to beat.

Hark vs Granola at a glance

Granola details from granola.ai and its help center, checked October 2026.

How Hark is different

Transcribed on your machine, kept on your machine

Hark records your microphone and your computer's audio as separate tracks and transcribes them with a speech model that runs locally. You see a live transcript during the call, then a more accurate one when it ends. The recording stays on your computer, so you can click any word in the transcript and hear it, speed playback up without chipmunk voices, or skip the silences. More in local AI transcription.

Voices you name once

Hark works out who spoke from their voice. Name each voice once and Hark suggests that person in every future meeting. If it mixes two people up, mark who was speaking on the timeline and update the transcript.

Your own notes, plus Claude's

Like Granola, Hark gives you a notes editor during the meeting. With the subscription or the 2-day preview, Claude writes meeting notes in a style you choose (or your own style file), live notes if you want them, and proofreads the transcript against your names and terms. For AI features, the transcript text (not the audio) is sent to Claude.

One honest limitation: on a Mac, Hark records the microphone only for now. Granola captures computer audio on Mac; Hark does that on Windows and Linux.

When to choose Hark

• You want transcription to happen on your computer, not in the cloud.
• You want to replay the actual audio of past meetings.
• You meet the same people regularly and want them recognised by voice.
• You use Windows or Linux and your meetings are in English.
• You want your whole meeting history free, without a 30-day window.

When to stay with Granola

• You are on a Mac and need the other side of your calls captured through headphones.
• You prefer that no audio is kept at all.
• You want phone apps for in-person meetings, or meetings in languages other than English.
• You want pre-meeting briefs, shared team notes, or integrations with Notion, HubSpot or Zapier.

Other Granola alternatives

• Otter.ai. Cloud transcription with mobile apps, team sharing and a bot-free desktop app. See Granola vs Otter.
• Krisp. Noise cancellation plus bot-free AI meeting notes on Mac and Windows.
• MacWhisper. Local transcription for Mac, strong for audio and video files, with a one-time Pro price.

For a wider view, see our roundup of the best AI note takers and our guide to AI note takers without a bot.

How to switch from Granola to Hark

1. Copy any Granola notes you want to keep into a document or your notes app. (Granola does not keep audio, so there are no recordings to move.)
2. Download Hark free for Windows, Mac or Linux and sign in with your email.
3. Let Hark download its speech models once (about 730 MB).
4. If you have other recordings, such as Voice Memos, Zoom recordings or mp4 files, drag them into Hark or use File > Import.
5. Press record at the start of your next call. Type notes in Hark's notes editor as you would in Granola.
6. After the meeting, name the voices once. Hark remembers them next time.

Recording laws vary by place, and some require everyone's consent. Tell people you are recording and get their agreement.