BB Recorder: A 100% local, no-bot meeting recorder for Mac and iOS that records, transcribes, and summarizes entirely on-device, built by the BuildBetter team. Granola: Granola is an AI notepad for meetings that captures your computer's audio without joining a bot, then transcribes and generates structured notes with action items. The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist BB Recorder when regulated or privacy-sensitive teams that cannot send audio to the cloud matters most, and Granola when keeping a searchable record of recurring team meetings matters most. Trial each on a few real meetings before you commit — the better fit usually shows fast.
A 100% local, no-bot meeting recorder for Mac and iOS that records, transcribes, and summarizes entirely on-device, built by the BuildBetter team.
Granola is an AI notepad for meetings that captures your computer's audio without joining a bot, then transcribes and generates structured notes with action items.
BB Recorder is a local-first meeting recorder built by the team behind BuildBetter, designed for people who want meeting capture without any data leaving their device. Rather than dropping a bot into a video call, BB Recorder captures the computer's system audio directly, links to the user's calendar, and turns rough conversation audio into clean transcripts and summaries. Its defining characteristic is that recording, transcription, summarization, and even live AI chat about the meeting can all run locally using on-device models, so there is no server holding the audio or transcripts. The company frames this as making a data breach architecturally impossible because there is no cloud store to compromise, and it points to SOC 2 and HIPAA considerations along with an AI transparency policy. BB Recorder is positioned as a genuinely free, unlimited option for Mac, with no trial tiers or required registration when using local models, and a companion iOS app extends capture to the iPhone. It is aimed at privacy-sensitive professionals, regulated teams, and anyone who wants automatic meeting notes without a visible bot or a cloud transcription pipeline. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Granola is a desktop AI notepad for people in frequent meetings. Instead of sending a bot into the call, it captures your computer's audio directly, transcribes the conversation, and combines it with your own typed notes to produce structured summaries, action items, and follow-ups. It syncs with your calendar to detect meetings and works with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, other video tools, and in-person meetings via the iPhone app. A built-in AI chat answers questions across your meeting notes (for example, what you committed to during the week). Granola runs on macOS and Windows. The free Basic plan offers unlimited note-taking, custom templates, shared folders, multi-language support, and AI chat, but limits viewing notes older than 30 days. Paid tiers add unlimited history, advanced AI models, an MCP connector, API access, and integrations with Notion, Slack, HubSpot, Attio, Affinity, and Zapier.
Best suited for
BB Recorder is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Granola is from $0/mo (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | BB Recorder | Granola |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | No-bot capture of system audio directly on the device | AI meeting notes |
| Standout feature | Fully on-device recording, transcription, and summarization | On-device audio capture (no bot) |
| Team usage | Local AI chat to ask questions about a captured meeting | AI chat across meetings |
| Integrations | Calendar linking to associate recordings with scheduled meetings | Custom note templates |
| Languages & capture | Available for macOS and iOS | Calendar sync |
| Best-fit workflow | Built by the BuildBetter team with an AI transparency policy | AI meeting notes |
BB Recorder
Choose BB Recorder if you need regulated or privacy-sensitive teams that cannot send audio to the cloud — strengths include local-only processing keeps meeting audio and transcripts off external servers.
Granola
Choose Granola if you need automatically generating notes and action items from sales or client calls — strengths include captures computer audio without sending a bot into the meeting, so calls stay less disruptive.
BB Recorder
Granola
It depends on your workflow. BB Recorder is strong for regulated or privacy-sensitive teams that cannot send audio to the cloud, while Granola is strong for automatically generating notes and action items from sales or client calls. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
BB Recorder is a free tier with paid upgrades and Granola is from $0/mo. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
Yes. Many teams run more than one meeting assistant when the workflows are complementary.
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