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Granola vs Fireflies.ai

A side-by-side look at Granola and Fireflies.ai — pricing, features and where each one wins. Both are reviewed independently on Curata AI.

GranolaFireflies.ai
SummaryAI meeting notes app that runs in the background — no bot joins your call.AI meeting assistant that transcribes, summarizes and analyzes every call, then syncs it to your CRM and tools.
PricingFreemiumFreemium
CategoryProductivityProductivity
PlatformsWebWeb, iOS, Android, Chrome
Key features
  • No-Bot Background Capture
  • AI-Enhanced Notes
  • Ask Questions About Past Meetings
  • Notion/HubSpot/Slack/Zapier Integrations
  • AI Notetaker Bot (Fred)
  • Meeting Transcription (100+ Languages)
  • AskFred AI Assistant
  • Live Assist (Real-Time Coaching)
  • Conversation Intelligence & Analytics
  • 200+ AI Skills
  • Fireflies MCP Server
  • CRM & 15+ App Integrations
Pros
  • No visible bot joins the call — popular with founders and VCs for that reason
  • Polished, well-organized AI notes rather than a raw transcript dump
  • Doesn't allow third-party AI providers to train on your data
  • Claimed 95% transcription accuracy across 100+ languages with speaker recognition
  • Captures meetings almost any way — bot, Chrome extension, mobile/desktop app, dialers or file upload
  • AskFred and Live Assist turn meeting history into a queryable, real-time-coaching knowledge base
  • 200+ role-specific AI Skills go well beyond generic summaries
  • New MCP Server brings meeting data directly into Claude, ChatGPT and other AI tools
  • Enterprise-grade security (SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, HIPAA) and an approved affiliate program (up to 30% recurring for 12 months)
Cons
  • Free plan caps meeting history at 25 notes total
  • Desktop app only (Mac and Windows) — no browser-only option
  • No annual billing available, unlike most competitors
  • Advanced features (AskFred, Sentiment Analysis, several AI Apps) are gated behind AI credits that can run out mid-month
  • "Unlimited transcription" marketing still caps storage — Pro is limited to 8,000 minutes per seat
  • Users report occasional calendar-sync issues and inconsistent accuracy with accents or overlapping speech
  • A bot joining every call can feel intrusive to external meeting participants

Read the full Granola review

Granola takes a different approach to meeting notes: instead of a bot joining your call, it runs quietly in the background on your desktop (Mac and Windows) and captures system audio, then turns it into polished, organized notes at the end of the meeting. You can ask questions about past meetings, surface relevant context mid-conversation, and draft follow-up emails immediately after. It has become a favorite among founders and VCs specifically because there's no visible bot in the call.

Granola review →Granola alternatives →

Read the full Fireflies.ai review

Fireflies.ai is an AI meeting assistant used across 1M+ companies. Its notetaker bot, Fred, joins Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and 10+ other platforms — or captures audio via the Chrome extension, mobile app, desktop app, dialers like Aircall and RingCentral, or a direct file upload — and turns every call into a searchable transcript with AI summaries and action items. AskFred lets you ask natural-language questions across your entire meeting history, and Live Assist provides real-time suggestions and coaching during a call itself. Conversation intelligence (speaker talk-time, sentiment analysis, topic trackers) gives managers visibility into how meetings actually go, and 200+ role-specific AI Skills automate follow-ups for sales, recruiting, marketing, engineering and more. A new Fireflies MCP Server brings meeting insights directly into Claude, ChatGPT and other AI tools. Deep integrations (5+ CRMs, 9+ project-management tools, Slack, ATS platforms) and SOC 2/GDPR/HIPAA compliance round it out for teams that live in meetings.

Fireflies.ai review →Fireflies.ai alternatives →