HumlaGranola vs Otter.ai
Granola is a no-bot AI notepad that runs in the cloud; Otter sends a bot to your calls and leans into sales and RevOps workflows.
- Humla is free, no account
- Open source, MIT
- Apple Silicon, macOS 13 or later
Granola vs Otter.ai vs Humla
How the two compare on what matters, with Humla, the free, local, open source option, in the third column.
| Granola | Otter.ai | Humla | |
|---|---|---|---|
| No bot joins the call | Optional (botless desktop) | ||
| Runs fully on your device | — | — | |
| Open source (auditable) | — | — | |
| Bring your own AI key / model | — | — | |
| Speaker labels (who said what) | Weak in 3+ | ||
| AI summaries & action items | |||
| App integrations (Slack, CRM…) | — | ||
| Mobile app | — | ||
| Price | $14–35/user/mo | Free / $17–30/user/mo | Free |
Reflects each product's standard plans as of 2026. Check their sites for the latest.
Which should you choose?
- Pick Granola for a clean, bot-free notepad and a polished Mac app.
- Pick Otter.ai for sales/RevOps automation, an AI sales agent, and a large integration catalog.
Or keep it on your Mac
Both keep your meetings in their cloud. If you'd rather nothing left your Mac at all — no bot, no upload, no per-seat fee — Humla is the free, open-source, on-device option. Full breakdowns: Humla vs Granola and Humla vs Otter.ai.
- No bot joins the call. Humla records your Mac directly.
- On-device transcription and summaries, so nothing has to leave your Mac.
- Free and open source, with optional team sync at $5/user/month.
- Speaks your language. Around 99 languages via Whisper — on-device or with your own key — plus a dedicated Norwegian model and per-language routing.
One meeting, from agenda to recap
Write the agenda, record the call, press Summarize. Your note stays on the left while the transcript and the recap fill in on the right.
Six pages, maybe a new CMS?
Keep the brand palette
Who signs off the budget?
Hanna approves budget, wants qu
Speakers are identified when you stop.
Related reading
- What is Meeting bot?A meeting bot is an automated participant that joins a video call to record and transcribe it, appearing in the attendee list like another guest.
- What is On-device transcription?On-device transcription converts speech to text entirely on your own computer, with no audio sent to a cloud service.
- What is Speaker diarization?Speaker diarization is the process of splitting an audio recording into segments by who is speaking, so a transcript can show “who said what.”
- What is AI notetaker vs AI notepad?An AI notetaker records and transcribes a meeting for you; an AI notepad is one you write in yourself while the AI augments your notes with the transcript.
Keep your meetings on your Mac.
Free and open source. Apple Silicon, macOS 13 or later.