Updated September 2026
The 7 best Fellow alternatives in 2026
Fellow keeps agendas and AI notes in a shared workspace. The Note Taker can join the call, or the desktop app can record with no bot. The transcript still lives in Fellow. If you are leaving the agendas and the team notes, a notetaker will feel thin. If you are leaving because the recording sits in Fellow's cloud, the local app is the one that changes that, and the other names below are different cloud note takers.
Disclosure: we make Private Notetaker. Fellow's prices, note caps, and the Enterprise HIPAA line are from fellow.ai/pricing, checked 30 September 2026. Botless recording and the 14 October 2026 Zoom change are from Fellow's help centre, same day. Otter, Granola, Fireflies, Fathom, Talat, and MacWhisper were checked on 16 September 2026.
1. Private Notetaker: the private, on-device pick
The full workflow runs locally on your Mac or Windows PC: recording, transcription, and AI notes with decisions and
action items. Nothing is uploaded, it works in airplane mode, and no bot ever appears in your
meetings. $15/mo or $149 once for a lifetime license, with a 7-day free trial, no card
required. If confidentiality is why you are looking, this writes the notes on the computer and skips the workspace. If the workspace is why you bought Fellow, keep Fellow or pick another team tool. We do not run agendas.
2. Otter
Otter pioneered AI meeting notes, and everything you say goes through their cloud. If your meetings involve clients, patients, or deals, that is a lot of trust to hand over for a transcript.
Price: $16.99/mo (or $8.33/mo billed annually) · Free tier: Free tier capped at 300 min/mo · Compare with Private Notetaker
3. Granola
Granola got the bot-free part right. But your meeting audio is still processed by cloud AI models, so the privacy story ends at your network cable. We keep the whole pipeline on your device.
Price: Free Basic; Business $14/user/mo; Enterprise $35/user/mo (checked 2026-09-16) · Free tier: Free plan with limited note history · Compare with Private Notetaker
4. Fireflies
Fireflies is built for teams that want everything synced to the cloud and piped into a CRM. If what you actually want is notes that stay yours, sending every call to another company's servers is the opposite of that.
Price: $18/mo (or $10/mo billed annually) · Free tier: Free tier capped at 800 min storage · Compare with Private Notetaker
5. Fathom
Fathom's free plan is genuinely good, and it is free because your meetings live on their infrastructure. For everyday standups that is fine. For confidential conversations, free is the wrong price.
Price: Free for individuals, teams from $19/user/mo · Free tier: Generous free tier for individuals · Compare with Private Notetaker
6. Talat
Ten hours of free recording with no account before you pay, then a subscription or a lifetime licence. Built around live on-device transcription of meetings, dictation, and recordings, with recordings, transcripts and notes kept in a local database. Summaries are written by the app's built-in AI by default.
Platforms: Mac (macOS 15+, Apple Silicon) and Windows 10+ · Price: $9/mo or $189 once · Site: talat.app
7. MacWhisper
A well-established Mac transcription tool. Records Zoom, Teams, Webex and other calls in the background without a bot, and transcribes locally. AI summaries are optional and need setting up: either a local model through Ollama or LM Studio, or a cloud provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others) with your own API key. Pick the local route if privacy is the point.
Platforms: Mac · Price: Free version; Pro is a one-time purchase (EUR 64) · Site: macwhisper.com · Compare with Private Notetaker
Common questions
What is a Fellow alternative for private meeting notes? +
Private Notetaker, if the workspace is not the thing you needed. Notes are written on your Mac or Windows PC, with no bot and no upload. If you needed agendas and a shared record, Fellow is doing a job the local app does not do. Otter and Fireflies are the cloud alternatives when you still want a team library.
Is there a Fellow alternative without a bot? +
Fellow already has botless desktop recording. The recap is still stored in Fellow. Private Notetaker never joins and does not upload. Granola and Jamie are also bot-free, and both still process the meeting off the machine.
Is Fellow's free plan enough? +
For a trial of the product, yes. The pricing page lists 5 AI notes and 5 AI recordings per user, lifetime, and a maximum of 5 seats. That is not a year of client calls. Team is $7 per user a month billed annually for 10 AI notes a month.
Is there a Fellow alternative that works offline? +
Private Notetaker. Fellow needs its cloud for the transcript, including after a botless recording. MacWhisper transcribes offline on a Mac if a transcript is all you need.
Is there a Fellow alternative without a subscription? +
Fellow's free plan is the no-subscription option, and it stops at 5 AI notes per person. Private Notetaker offers a $149 lifetime license as well as $15/mo. The lifetime license does not include Fellow's agendas or a shared workspace.
Is Private Notetaker a HIPAA-compliant alternative to Fellow? +
No. Private Notetaker does not claim HIPAA certification. Fellow lists HIPAA / BAA on Enterprise. A local app that never holds the audio is not a BAA. If you need the contract, get it from a vendor that signs one.
See the best AI meeting note takers and the best local AI note takers for Mac.