What is better than granola AI?

For a team that needs shared transcripts, CRM sync and admin controls, Fireflies. For a free plan with recordings, Fathom. For confidential conversations that must not exist on any server, a fully local tool such as Private Notetaker. Granola is hard to beat for a single person who wants good notes with no bot and no recording kept.

What's better than fireflies AI?

If the bot in the participant list is the problem, Granola, which captures on your device instead. If the problem is that your meetings are processed and stored on a vendor's servers at all, a local tool. If you simply want cheaper, Fathom's free plan. Fireflies remains one of the strongest choices for team-wide search and integrations.

Is granola AI trustworthy?

Its security documentation is unusually candid: it does not store meeting audio, it names the providers that process the audio (Deepgram, AssemblyAI, OpenAI, Anthropic), it does not let them train on your data, and it discloses that Granola itself trains on anonymised data by default with an opt-out. That is a clear account of what it does; whether that suits your meetings is the real question.

Is Fireflies AI the best?

For teams, it is among the best: SOC 2 Type II, a stated no-training policy, zero-day retention with its speech and language-model vendors, and deep CRM and workflow integrations. The trade-offs are a bot in every call, recordings stored on Fireflies' servers, and HIPAA coverage limited to the Enterprise plan.

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Comparison
Granola
Fireflies

Granola AI vs Fireflies: personal notes or a team system

Fireflies sends Fred into the call, stores the recording, and pipes everything into a CRM. Granola captures on your device, keeps no audio, and writes notes for one person. Both process in the cloud. A sourced comparison, and where each one stops.

Ben Claybrook 16 September 2026 4 min read

Granola is a notes app for one person. Fireflies is a meeting system for a company. People compare them because both promise to make the notes appear, and the comparison mostly reveals that they are solving different problems. Here is what each does with your meetings, from their own pages, and how to pick.

The one-paragraph version

Fireflies sends its bot, Fred, into the call, records it, transcribes it on Fireflies’ servers, and stores the recording and transcript there. The point is what happens next: searchable across the whole team, pushed into the CRM, shared, analysed.

Granola captures audio on your computer with no bot, sends it out to transcription and AI providers, and gives you personal notes. It states it does not store the audio. The transcript and notes live in Granola’s US-hosted cloud, for you.

Both process in the cloud. Fireflies keeps more and shares more; Granola keeps less and shares less.

Side by side

	Fireflies	Granola AI
Bot in participant list	Yes, Fred joins	No, captures device audio
Audio stored	Yes, recordings on Fireflies’ servers	No, states it does not store meeting audio
Transcript stored	Yes	Yes, US-hosted AWS
Third-party processors	Speech and language-model vendors under signed BAAs, zero-day retention	Deepgram, AssemblyAI, OpenAI, Anthropic
Trains on your data	”We don’t train our AI model with your data”	Yes, anonymised, opt-out available
Certification	SOC 2 Type II, GDPR	SOC 2 Type 2
HIPAA BAA	Enterprise only ($39/seat/mo billed annually)	Enterprise only ($35/user/mo)
Team features	Shared workspace, CRM sync, admin controls	Business plan adds team sharing
Free plan	Yes, with storage and credit limits	Basic, with limited meeting history
Paid plans	$18/mo, or $10/mo billed annually	Business $14/user/mo; Enterprise $35/user/mo

Where Fireflies is clearly ahead

It is a system, not an app. Every meeting anyone on the team runs is transcribed into one searchable place, pushed into the CRM, and available to whoever should see it. Granola’s Business plan adds sharing, but it is still built around one person’s notes.

Training policy. Fireflies states flatly that it does not train its model on your data, and that its speech and language-model vendors are under signed BAAs with zero-day retention. Granola trains on anonymised data by default and requires an opt-out. For many buyers that alone decides it.

Enterprise posture. Admin controls, private storage and custom retention exist on the top tier. If you have a compliance team, Fireflies has the paperwork they want.

Where Granola AI is clearly ahead

No bot. For client calls, interviews and anything where a visible recorder changes the conversation, this is the whole reason Granola exists and Fireflies cannot match it.

No audio kept. Granola’s no-audio-stored statement means the recording of your voice does not persist anywhere. The text does, and the text is the content, but the footprint is smaller.

Personal notes that read like yours. Granola is built around a document you type into while it listens, and the AI fills in around your notes. Fireflies is built around the transcript. People who think while writing prefer the former.

Both are cloud tools with the meeting processed on servers you do not control, and both gate HIPAA coverage to Enterprise, so neither is an answer for PHI on a personal plan. The vendor-by-vendor detail is in which AI notetakers are HIPAA compliant, and the safety write-ups are is Fireflies.ai safe? and is Granola AI safe?.

How to choose

A team that needs shared search and CRM sync: Fireflies. Granola is not trying to be this.
One person who wants good notes without a bot: Granola.
The training policy matters and you will not manage an opt-out: Fireflies.
You would rather no recording persisted: Granola.
The conversation must not leave your machine: neither. Private Notetaker keeps capture, transcription and summarising on your own computer, with no bot and no upload. It is English only, has no shared workspace and no CRM sync, and is less accurate on bad audio than either of these. If your problem is team visibility, buy Fireflies; if it is the bot, buy Granola; if it is the server, see the side by side with Fireflies.

Fireflies claims from its security, HIPAA and pricing pages; Granola claims from its pricing page, help centre and security documentation. Fireflies statements verified 5 September 2026 for our Fireflies safety write-up; Granola pricing and HIPAA statements checked 16 September 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What is better than granola AI?: For a team that needs shared transcripts, CRM sync and admin controls, Fireflies. For a free plan with recordings, Fathom. For confidential conversations that must not exist on any server, a fully local tool such as Private Notetaker. Granola is hard to beat for a single person who wants good notes with no bot and no recording kept.
What's better than fireflies AI?: If the bot in the participant list is the problem, Granola, which captures on your device instead. If the problem is that your meetings are processed and stored on a vendor's servers at all, a local tool. If you simply want cheaper, Fathom's free plan. Fireflies remains one of the strongest choices for team-wide search and integrations.
Is granola AI trustworthy?: Its security documentation is unusually candid: it does not store meeting audio, it names the providers that process the audio (Deepgram, AssemblyAI, OpenAI, Anthropic), it does not let them train on your data, and it discloses that Granola itself trains on anonymised data by default with an opt-out. That is a clear account of what it does; whether that suits your meetings is the real question.
Is Fireflies AI the best?: For teams, it is among the best: SOC 2 Type II, a stated no-training policy, zero-day retention with its speech and language-model vendors, and deep CRM and workflow integrations. The trade-offs are a bot in every call, recordings stored on Fireflies' servers, and HIPAA coverage limited to the Enterprise plan.