Updated September 2026
The private Meetily alternative
Meetily is the open-source answer, and it is a real one. The Community Edition is free and MIT-licensed, the code is public, and Mac and Windows installers exist. Transcription runs on the machine, with no bot. Summaries go wherever you point them: a local model such as Ollama keeps the text on the device, and an API key sends the transcript to that provider. The homepage also titles the product Meetly AI. Private Notetaker is closed source. It bundles the summary model on the device, with no provider to configure, on Mac and Windows.
macOS (Apple Silicon) & Windows (64-bit) · Free 7-day trial · No card required.
| Private Notetaker | Meetily | |
|---|---|---|
| Where meetings are processed | 100% on your device | Local transcription; summaries use a local model or your own API key |
| Bots in your meetings | Never | No bot; captures system audio on the computer |
| Works offline | Yes | Transcription yes; summaries only with a local model |
| How privacy is enforced | Architecture: audio never leaves your device | You can read the code; privacy of summaries depends on the provider you configure |
| Where your meetings live | Only on your own disk | Community and Pro store meetings on the device; an API key sends transcript text to that provider |
| Price | $15/mo or $149 once, yours forever | Free Community Edition (MIT); Pro $10/user/mo billed annually |
Meetily facts and pricing as published 23 September 2026. Community Edition is free (MIT), with no usage caps.
I built this for myself. I live in back-to-back client calls, and I was never comfortable piping confidential conversations about clients' revenue, ad accounts, and contracts through someone else's cloud just to get a summary. So I made a note taker where everything stays on my machine. I have used it every working day since. Now I am opening it up.
Simple pricing. Either way, it is all yours.
Available for Mac & Windows. Pay once or monthly, whichever suits you.
Monthly
Cancel anytime. The notes you took stay yours.
- ✓Unlimited meetings and recording time
- ✓Local transcription and AI summaries
- ✓Full-history search on your device
- ✓Light and dark mode, Mac + Windows
- ✓No account required to take notes
Lifetime
Pay once, yours forever. Includes updates.
- ✓Unlimited meetings and recording time
- ✓Local transcription and AI summaries
- ✓Full-history search on your device
- ✓Light and dark mode, Mac + Windows
- ✓No account required to take notes
- ✓Never a subscription
Prefer to try first? Download the app and use it free for 7 days, no card needed. Buying charges right away and is backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Meetily questions, answered
Is Meetily private? +
Transcription is. It runs on the device, so audio is not uploaded for that step. Summaries are pluggable. A local model such as Ollama keeps the text on the machine. Your own API key sends the transcript to that provider. Open source does not, by itself, keep data local. The configuration does. Private Notetaker runs both models on the device and has no cloud mode.
Is Meetily free? +
The Community Edition is free and MIT-licensed, with no usage caps, according to Meetily's site. Pro is $10 per user per month billed annually, for speaker identification, advanced exports, and related features. Enterprise is custom. The Community Edition is the one people mean by free. Private Notetaker is not free after the trial: $15/mo or $149 once.
What is the difference between Private Notetaker and Meetily? +
Meetily is open source. If a security team has to read the code, Meetily wins, and Private Notetaker cannot meet that requirement. Private Notetaker is the better fit when you want transcript, summary, and action items without assembling them: both models on the computer, no API key, no Ollama, no cloud mode, on Mac and Windows, with no bot. $15/mo or a $149 lifetime license, with a 7-day trial and no card required. Meetily Community costs no money and costs setup time.
Does Meetily work offline? +
Transcription can, because local Whisper or Parakeet models run on the machine. Summaries work offline only when a local model is running. If summaries use an API key, that step needs the network and sends the transcript to that provider. Private Notetaker transcribes and summarizes offline without a provider setting.
Does Meetily need a local model for summaries? +
For summaries that stay on the device, yes. Meetily uses the provider you saved: an Ollama endpoint and a model name, or another API. Signed Mac and Windows installers exist, and the project's requirements still list Node.js, Python, and FFmpeg. The installers lower the clone-the-repo barrier. They do not remove the need to choose and run a summary model if you refuse cloud keys. Private Notetaker ships with the summary model and has nothing to point at an endpoint.
Does Meetily join meetings with a bot? +
No. It captures system audio on the computer. Nothing named Meetily has to join the call. Private Notetaker also never appears in the participant list. Recording consent is still yours to get. Speaker identification is listed on Pro, not on Community, in the comparison table checked 23 September 2026.
Further reading
- Meetily review (2026): the open-source notetaker, and the setup it still asks for
- Open source, self-hosted, or local-only: three things people mean by private
- Pandecho review (2026): a local Mac and Windows notetaker, priced once or at $10 a month
- MacWhisper alternatives: when you need meeting notes, not a transcript
- AI note takers without a subscription
Your meetings are nobody else's business.
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Mac & Windows.