Notabium vs Granola.
Granola got there first with the no bot desktop approach. We respect the work. Then we extended it, with shareable video recordings, bot mode for delegated meetings, and per template AI routing.
The 60 second answer
- Pick Granola if you only need local notes, want the cleanest in app writing experience, and are happy paying $18 per month for AI summaries.
- Pick Notabium if you want the same local recording, plus a $8 price point, plus video share links, plus bot mode when you cannot attend, plus the option to run summaries locally on your machine with Qwen3.
What we share
- Desktop apps that capture system audio. No bot in the meeting.
- Free tier with real transcription. Both apps let you record unlimited meetings without paying.
- Closed source distribution from our own websites.
- Editorial design sensibility. Both products feel quiet, not busy.
Where we differ
| Granola | Notabium | |
|---|---|---|
| Pro starting price | $18/mo | $8/mo yearly |
| Free meetings/mo | 25 | unlimited |
| Trial requires card | yes | no |
| AI summary on free | partial | none (clean wedge) |
| Video recording + share links | no | yes (Pro) |
| Bot mode for unattended meetings | no | yes (Pro+) |
| Per template model routing | no | Haiku/Sonnet/local |
| Local AI summary (Qwen3) | no | yes |
| BYO API key | some | all (Claude/OpenAI/Groq/etc) |
| Source available | no | based on Meetily (MIT) |
| Note taking UX | best in class | solid, less polished |
Granola's biggest strength
Granola's note taking surface is genuinely the best in the category. The split view where your live notes meld with the AI generated structure is something you do not see in any other tool. If your job is to take notes during the meeting and you want a thinking partner inside the page, Granola is hard to beat.
Notabium's biggest strength
Three workflows in one library. Local notes (the Granola use case). Video recording with a shareable link (the Loom use case). Bot mode for meetings you cannot attend (the Otter Pilot use case). You pick the mode per meeting. All four tiers, including free, see the same library. That is uniquely useful for founders and freelancers who switch contexts often.
Price math
One year of Granola Pro is $216. One year of Notabium Pro yearly is $96. Same category, less than half the price, more features. The reason we can do this: AI inference runs on your machine by default, so we have very little compute cost per user. Cloud features (sharing, hosted summaries, bot mode) are metered, so heavy users pay more via credit packs.
Related: vs Otter · vs Loom · vs Fireflies