Bold: Bot-free AI notetaker by Bold App Studios that records meetings on-device, transcribes with speaker detection, and writes summaries with action items. Parabol: Free, open-source agile meeting tool for retrospectives, sprint poker, and standups with automated meeting summaries and AI topic grouping. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Bold when capturing in-person meetings without sending a meeting bot matters most, and Parabol when facilitating sprint poker estimation sessions matters most. Test each on your own meetings; the right choice tends to become obvious quickly.
Bot-free AI notetaker by Bold App Studios that records meetings on-device, transcribes with speaker detection, and writes summaries with action items.
Free, open-source agile meeting tool for retrospectives, sprint poker, and standups with automated meeting summaries and AI topic grouping.
Bold (Bold: AI Meeting Note Taker) is an AI meeting assistant from Bold App Studios that records conversations directly on the user's device and then automatically transcribes and summarizes them rather than sending a bot into the call. It offers one-tap recording with real-time transcription, can capture audio in the background whether the screen is on or off, and supports uploading existing audio files for transcription. The app performs speaker detection and diarization across multiple participants, and its AI writes concise summaries that surface action items, decisions, and key insights. Notes are searchable and can be filtered by date, speaker, topic, or keyword, and recordings include replay with smart navigation. Bold supports shareable web links and integrations including Google Meet calendar connection, Notion, Slack, email, and PDF export, with customizable templates for organizing notes. The vendor states the app supports several languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Japanese, and offers end-to-end encryption and privacy controls. Bold is available across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro, with a free tier plus premium subscription options, and is actively maintained in 2025/2026. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Parabol is a free, open-source platform built for facilitating agile meetings, with a particular focus on sprint retrospectives alongside estimation (sprint poker) and team check-ins. Its retrospective experience follows a structured reflect, group, vote, discuss, and action workflow compatible with popular formats like Start/Stop/Continue, 4Ls, and Mad/Sad/Glad, plus custom templates. Facilitators get multiplayer drag-and-drop cards, live task editing, timers, dynamic agenda items, discussion threads, emoji reactions, and a large library of retrospective formats and icebreaker questions. At the end of each retro, Parabol automatically generates a meeting summary that rolls up notes and tasks, posts them to a team timeline, and delivers them to attendees via email or Slack so next steps are clear. Its AI capabilities include automatic naming of grouped card clusters and AI topic summaries to speed up synthesis during retros. Parabol integrates with Jira, GitHub, GitLab, Slack, and Mattermost, and because the codebase is publicly available on GitHub, teams can self-host or review how it works. It is used by hundreds of thousands of people across distributed and remote teams. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Bold is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Parabol is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Bold | Parabol |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | One-tap on-device recording with real-time transcription | Structured retrospective workflow (reflect, group, vote, discuss, action) |
| Standout feature | Speaker detection and diarization for multiple participants | Automated meeting summaries delivered via email and Slack |
| Team usage | AI summaries highlighting action items and decisions | AI auto-naming of grouped cards and AI topic summaries |
| Integrations | Background recording with screen on or off, plus audio-file upload | Sprint poker estimation and team standup/check-in templates |
| Languages & capture | Searchable, filterable notes with shareable web links | Large library of retrospective formats and icebreaker questions |
| Best-fit workflow | Integrations with Google Meet, Notion, Slack, email, and PDF export | Integrations with Jira, GitHub, GitLab, Slack, and Mattermost |
Bold
Choose Bold if you need capturing in-person meetings without sending a meeting bot — strengths include bot-free, on-device capture for in-person and virtual meetings.
Parabol
Choose Parabol if you need running sprint retrospectives for remote and distributed agile teams — strengths include free and open-source with the option to self-host.
Bold
Parabol
It depends on your workflow. Bold is strong for capturing in-person meetings without sending a meeting bot, while Parabol is strong for running sprint retrospectives for remote and distributed agile teams. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Bold is a free tier with paid upgrades and Parabol is a free tier with paid upgrades. 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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